Hi guys, its been a long time. I finally retired and back to modelling. I left off on the Hobby Boss kit 82411 AAVR-7A1 which is the recovery version of the USMC AAV-7. The tracks are very detailed, but I kept breaking the little pins when trying to snap the links together. I brainstormed a bit and found an awesome solution. I have one of those “Heated Lunch Boxes” from Amazon. I put a cup of water in the box dinner tray, plugged it in and let the water warm up. I put the links in, not very long, maybe like you would a decal in water…fished a link out with tweezers and to my utter amazement I was able to snap like 20 links in about 5 minutes!!! For best success, ensure you take the time to clean all of the sprue off the link, hold the “dry” female end, and snap the “wet” male ends into place. The working time is pretty long as I did drop some links, even took the time to clean some flash or sprue off of a few and the link still fit nicely without having to give them another dip. I did work only one link at a time, leaving the others in the “hot tub” until I was ready for another one. No broken pins, its truly a miracle. I’ve modeled since the early 1970s and this is one of my best ideas yet.
3 Likes
Whatever works,congratulations,hope to see some pics.
That’s a great hack!
I could have used it when assembling tracks for a n AFV Club Centurion. The pins just could not take the slight bend and would snap off.