Howdy and season’s greetings. After being a die-hard Tamiya fan, I am working on my first couple of Dragon tank kits and I am amazed as to the quality of the kit. It is positively outstanding in fit and finish and I can see a lot more Dragon kits in my future. To that end, can anyone provide some advice on assembling the individual plastic tracks? Should I do them in pieces and paint the pieces or should I paint the pieces first before assembly? I can see problems with this, so I am all ears here. Thanks for any assistance.
Having built a handful of armor kits I’m hardly an expert, but I’ll get this thread started.
With individual links I seem to be assembling them in sections, like the ‘straight-run’ sections seperately. That would be the top and bottom of the track. Then I do the ‘curved end-pieces’ as seperate sections Then carefully attempt to assembly these sections together to produce the final completed track. I paint mine after their assembled. Hope I haven’t totally confused you. I will let others add to what I’ve already said.
I am in the same boat. Have always done Tamiya, now I got 2-Dragon kits under the tree. Can someone please tell me what the advantage is to individual traacks? Please? Are the curved ends difficult to assemble? Please tell me the advamtage over a rubber pre-assembled very nice looking track, Please?
The advantage is you can accurately show track sag (where appropriate) better with the indies. Paint them, make a jig (I use a ruler that has a 3 mm flat edge to it attached to a board). As you glue them together with model glue (testors orange tube for me) put one side against the ruler to make sure it’s straight. I do one side all at once, first making a long length that will be the top and I make sure there is more than enough reach around the sprockets to the bottom. The key to getting them to bend is to glue them, wait 5-10 minutes and then bend them before the glue is cured… Then I do the bottom. If I confused you, email me with any questions. They aren’t too hard. They jsut require a little patience
The main advantage to the indy links is realism. The rubber band tracks require some finesse to give the realistic appearance, (i.e. “sag”). Some modelers tie them down with thread etc. I have never liked rubber band tracks and I think Dragon has made a giant leap by introducing individual links. Some new armor modelers are intimidated by them, but as Jason has pointed out, they are not that difficult to master, once you have the technique down. Why a fine compant like Tamiya would stick with the rubber band track is a mystery to me. They have lost ground to Dragon in this respect and Tamiya does not offer the variety that Dragon does in thier kit choices.
The advantages of indy links vs. rubber band are mainly for vehicles that need to have “sag” in the tracks such as German or Soviet vehicles. For most American vehicles, this isn’t necessary. That’s the nutshell version. [:D]
As far as method, I too first paint the indy links on the sprues prior to assembly. This is because I paint with a basecoat and then apply successive washes and that’s much easier to do on the sprue as opposed to sections on or off the vehicle.
For assembly of the links, I have two small metal rulers that I use as a sort of track jig. I will assemble sections of 5 links and once I have 3 sections of 5, the first two go together while the third one has a chance to set up a bit. Then I add each successive section to the run I’m building in this way so that the links have less tendency to separate when you go to fit them on the vehicle. I use to do only two sections but lately I’ve taken to doing three, one for the upper run around the idler, one for the upper run around the sprocket, and the lower run joining it all together.
There’s no one magical way to build indy links, everyone has their own subtle differences in approaching this. Try out different things and see what works for you. I found my method through trial and error mostly and can make it work fairly quickly but the same may or may not be true for you.
First, I’ll take all the links off the sprues and clean them up. After they are cleaned, I’ll do all my planning. I need to answer questions like: How many links per side? How many links to get around the drive sproket and idler wheels?
I’ve found that Tamiya Extra Thin Cement works extremely well with Dragon’s links. Just a touch with the applicator and glue will flow throughtout the connection through capillary action.
I’ll work on one side at a time and assemble the links in short runs of about 7 to 10 link sections. I also assemble any special lengths such as the number to get around the idler and drive sproket. I normally form these two sections about 10 minutes after the last of the glue has been applied to the section. The Tamiya cement remains quite workable during this time. Once the idler and drive sproket sections are formed, I’ll fill in the upper and lower runs with the appropriate number of links.
At this point, I’ll do one of two things. I’ll either attach all the sections together and then paint the tracks in-place or I’ll paint up the four major sections and then attach them. Of the two, I actually prefer the “attach then paint” option.
Indy tracks, if you get the right type(like halftrack style german ones) really do work and lay down on the wheels just like the real deal. I perfer these, as they are more real, and make you appreciate the detail better, also, the aren’t to short/long like tamiyas’ usually are…(king tiger, M1, many others…) I paint mine on the sprue, no washes for me, as I don’t really know how yet…I go for usually a black or rust overall, then heavy black/heavy rust dry(more wet) brushing, then really dry brush silver, till you get the right look…