I’ve got several Dragon kits that I’m gonna start and noticed they all have indie tracks. Are they worth doing or should I splurge and get AM tracks???
Some of them are very nice. A few have some sink marks that need cleaned up, but that isn’t too hard (just a little tedious). I use them and save my money for new kits!
For a minute there, I thought this was a thread about hunting the elusive fire drake! [(-D]
Dragon’s indie links can be ok to do, but IMO they are generally a pain, and sometimes poorly represent the tracks themselves. When the links are small, or have lots of fiddly pieces, it goes beyoond being a pain and becomes a real downer, particularly because they don’t give you a length of RB tracks as a back-up.
I liked their Maus tracks though. [:p]
I guess I should give them a try and see if I like them. I thought maybe if there was a glaring defect in them I would’nt bother, but hey ya only live once!!! Thanks guys!!!
Which DML kits do you have? The German kits, at least the ones with decent sized tracks, come out pretty well for me. I haven’t tried anything as small as the Pz I or Kettenkrad tracks yet, though. The ones for the Fireflys, Shermans, etc. are just not worth bothering with, imo.
Good luck with them.
I would give them a try, as you said, and see how it goes. I haven’t heard too many complaints about their tracks.
I have a PzI done EXCEPT for the tracks, but that is because those tiny pieces scare me
I just finished a Dragon Hornisse about a month ago. I used the kit ‘indy links’ and they worked out ok. Now ask me about these vinyl one-piece tracks that came with this Tamiya Wespe kit I’m working on? Yikes! They were warped beyond recognition, or fubar. So I opted for Friuls.
Glenn
stug61 the indies are really easy and they look great on the tank. If you do them right! Dragon has some of the best indies out there so I’d go with them.
But, while were on Dragon tracks, does anyone know how many track links per side are needed on the king tigers? I have two to finish up.[:D]
The kits I have are the FireflyVc, 2 Hetzers,StugIVand the Pz.I for the group build. Sounds like a mixed bag of results. I was only asking cause the first set of indies I tried were the Academy M.18 and they SUCKED!!! Had to go with the vinyls cause I was’nt on line yet and my piece of crap LHS would’nt order AM tracks. Probably why they went out of bussiness recently.
I recently did the Dragon 250/11 and although the track pieces were small, they weren’t unmanagable, even for my fat fingers.
I go with Am tracks whenever possible, but there is certainly nothing wrong with the indies, they just take longer and require the skill to finish them with the right look (sag, tension,etc.) I’m currently working the DML Panther ll which has the indy links and there isn’t any AM offered, so I’m building the kit tracks. They can be tedious but, they are fun.
Steve
ive just finished putting together a dragon t-34/85, this was my fifth build and first crack at indie’s and it may just be lack of experience and skill but they were a nightmare i hated them getting them off and cleaning them up was ok but having to file each little egde where they connected (16 edges per link [:(!]) was too much hassle and no fun if they had a rubber set alternative in the box i would have slapped them on in a heartbeat.
Their older tracks seem to be a bit messier to clean up. I was impressed with the quality of their Panther A as far as they have improved in the newer kits.
Those Firefly tracks are a real pain. Three pieces per link. Almost all of the track pads had parting lines and ejector pins marks that needed cleaning up. I made some, then decided to order AM tracks.
Frui model do the tracks for the Panther 2 there numbers ALT-21, there the Tiger 2 transport tracks too
The Firefly tracks are a total waste (imo). I worked on mine on and off for close to two months. I used a straight edge to build against and tried my best to be careful. They came out crooked and warped. The consecutive links were at angles to each other. They looked awful. Some of it may have been my building (lack of) expertise, but I’ve read many others that had similar results. One of the problems seems to be the way DML tooled the end connectors. They have two holes in them for the two adjacent links. But they tooled the holes to slightly different sizes. Worse, they are not level with each other. I managed to correct for some of this by gluing one side of the links and letting them set totally hard, then cementing the other sides end connectors on. But even that left a mess. This problem is also present on the duckbill edge connectors. I’ve looked at the “professional” built models in the mags and they seem to have the same problems, though not as bad as mine were.
I bought a set of Fruils for it and had the tracks done within two or three days.
I have not had any problems with the tracks for any of my DML German tanks. They’ve been great. Here are a couple of shots of the DML tracks on my Pz IVJ.
Thanks for all your input. I was looking over the Firefly tracks and they do look nasty!! I have no LHS and it seems to take forever to get anything shipped. The last two orders I’ve got on line have taken almost 3 weeks to get. I guess I’ll start working on my Stug and order the Firefly tracks.Maybe by the time I’m through with the Stug the tracks will be here. I hate not getting instant gratification!!!
Andy, if you want them F A S T…may I suggest, again, that you give R&J Enterprises a try. I ordered late Friday afternoon and had my stuff on Tuesday, 3 day weekend and all. If they are in stock, you’ll get them quickly.
Thank Bill!! I don’t know if it’s my location or what but EVERYTHING takes forever around here. We can’t even get DSL around here.Ten miles down the road they do but not here. Even our cell phones are funky, some kind of black hole or something!!!