My Friuli panther treads curved quite a bit when I constructed them. I was not accustomed to this from Friuli, as my Tiger II treads had been problem-free. I posted about this here and on Missing Lynx (and to anyone who would listen [:p]) and was assured by numerous people that they would be fine when they went on the tank. So I spent a lot of time painting and weathering them.
I tried to put them on the tank last night, and they won’t go. I mean, I get them around the wheels with a lot of tuging and scraping (which took paint off the tank and the treads), but they do the exact opposite of sagging, which is supposed to be the whole point of Friuli treads. They actually stand up over the road wheels, bellying up toward the sponsons rather than sagging down toward the wheels – due to the contortion of the track lengths, and the bending they need to do in order to come together.
I was disappointed after having spent hours constructing them and then more hours painting and weathering them. I set the tank aside to see if gravity would eventually pull them down overnight. As of this morning, it had not.
This resulted in a huge waste of time and money for me. I wrote to Friuli when the curve first happened, and they ignored my e-mail.
Luckily I had ordered a set of the WWII Productions Panther treads for my Late G, but I may wind up using them for my group build Panther project instead, making it even more chronically late. I won’t be using Friuli again.
[V][V][V]
i feel really bad for you…i just posted in the panther GB that me and modelkasten ain’t ever going to get acquainted…and now i guess another name’s been added to the list!!
i’m sorry but i really don’t buy into all this indie link stuff, because the manufacturers are laughing off their chairs every time one of us buys a set: wouldn’t you be if you made money out of selling a product that:
usually has more flash than mr gordon himself
although detailed is basically mal-formed, unless you like drilling all those connector pin holes
has a significant chance they won’t go together right even if you overcome the first 2 points
[:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!]
i saw some resin links from australia somewhere getting rave reviews a few days back…now all they need to do is match the commercial acumen of MK and Fruil etc and get a web site (please somebody help them to help themselves here!!!)
as i also posted in the panther Gb i’ll let you know about some resin links i’m getting from accurate armour; they can be no worse than MK, Fruil…
anyway, i’m off to set up “NMAYHEW RIP-OFF INDIE METAL LINKS Inc”, so my next post will be from my own private island in the caribbean somewhere…
Larry: I feel ba for your results … that is just plain ridicoulous for a set of $30plus set of tracks …keep in mind however that there is 2 sets of panther tracks ( early and late ) and if you are building a tamiya early kit ( by early I mean the ancient tooling) they may not fit regardless , I have had great results with fruil tracks ( except for the early tamiya i built ) they do tend to curve when built ( mine always did!) try them on the opposite side of the tank ( do a switcheroo ) it may work ! Modelkasten track leave a lot to be desired , I agree! They will drive you nuts with the fragility of them … they just plain break after painting ( the pins can’t take the pressure of the bend after painting ) I would think a compromise between fruil and modelkasten would be the ticket … resin tracks , I think would be the way to go , resin is way tougher than styrene !
Well they say their tracks are for the D, and then for the A and G (and presumably for rebuilt D’s as well). I have the Dragon Early A kit, and the sprockets are fine. This is not an issue with guide horns – the horns fit around the wheels fine. It’s the lengths themselves. The are curved.
A great idea! I will try it tonight. It will result in the treads being on the wrong side, but I don’t want to give up on these tracks. They look great (he said modestly) and I want them on the bloomin’ tank! [}:)]
Larry,
can you swap sides AND turn them around?
i should work if they are stil articulating at the pins.
then they would still go the right way.
my modeling buddy (who would not touch an armor kit w/ a 10 ft Exacto knife
made an interesting point to me:
if they can make cheap metal watchbands w/ a pin & link system,
someone should be able to make durable, flexible CHEAP indy tank links.
shouldn’t they?
or is it a case of not enough sales to justify that type of tooling?
because they would sell by the boatload if the set was priced right and they WORKED!!
Oh my, how I feel all the pain! I’m right there with you guys, I assure you! Man, what a pain.
Larry, sorry to hear your Friul woes continue. That’s a bummer, for sure. The only Friuls I’ve done are for my PzII (ween in my sig below). I didn’t have that kind of trouble with them. I’m still not sure what you mean when you say they curve, though. Are you talking about along the length or “up and down” in relation to the track surface? Makes me very leary about getting a set for my DML’s or my Tam. G, or even for my Tigers, as far as that goes. These WWII Productions sets really sound like the way to go. I need to look back through the threads and find out how they ordered them.
Hmmm…sorry to hear about the indy link woes, Larry.
I’ve never had any problems with the Friul sets I’ve used, so I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what went wrong with your set.
In my experience, if you clean 'em, drill 'em, and pin 'em properly, they move and sag like champs.
Bill, what I mean is, if you lay the length on a table, the tracks do not go in a straight line. They curve off the the side, gradually, like a curved portion of railroad track. It freaked me out when I was building them. I’m going to try specter’s fix and pray that it works! If it does, I’ll be sure to update you all.
Thing is, many people I wrote to told me that they had had the same curving going on when they did the Panther treads. Same apparently goes for the PzIII/IV. The treads went together fine, but they gradually curved as they did so.
Hmmm…I’ve never used those particular sets, but the M24, Matilda, Tiger II late version, T-55, T-72, and Crusader links all worked fine, with no curvature whatsoever.
guys,
do you think that if enough of us wrote (emailed) WWII Productions they could get some 14year old kid to set up a website for them so that we can all order their stuff ONLINE??!![:)]
what do you think? gotta be worth a try…[;)]
regards,
nick
Specter, I tried switching the sides and it actually looks a lot better on the “wrong” side of the tracks. [(-D] Unfortunately, they still don’t hang the way you would want them to – the torsion is keeping them taut. But it is a huge improvement. I will let the kit sit for a few days and see if they settle. Thanks again for the suggestion.
Hey Larry , check this out , I am building a set of modelkastens for this jagdtiger I am working on now , … well went for the test fit this afternoon ,… they suggested in the instructions to put 98 links per side , on the test fit it appears to be about 10 too many to me ( unless the tank has more sag than 2 russian units combined ) so its time to take 10 of them off ! [B)] And this is after fixing break after break on these damn things! The only way to fix them is to glue them solid . there is no redrilling pin holes as they never seem to line up! Its stock for me from now on , or fruilmodel. [B)]
I’ve only tried aftermarket indie links ONCE, and never again. It took forever to assemble them, and they didn’t go on right. Personally, I’ve avoided the whole fiasco ever since. If I get anything aftermarket, it’s as simple as a PE set, and that’s it.
Wildwilliam, I’m with your friend on that one “my modeling buddy (who would not touch an armor kit w/ a 10 ft Exacto knife
made an interesting point to me:
if they can make cheap metal watchbands w/ a pin & link system,
someone should be able to make durable, flexible CHEAP indy tank links.”
The amount of materials and manufacturing costs are FAR below what they charge for the damn things.