I’m going to take my chances with the Tamiya tracks even if they’re not the greatest. I’ve agreed with myself to try Friumodel some day, but for $50 I’d like to see them on something with pronounced sag - something lacking on the Cromwell. Hobby Boss and an Ukrainian company called SKP make plastic individual link sets for the Cromwell (not sure SKP are available anywhere) but both were roundly trashed on some very good sites as being a nightmare build. Zaloga described a Hobby Boss set as “unbuildable.” In the SKP set for the Cromwell, you have to drill out every hole (they provide the drill) and connect things with resin pegs. And then you pray for an adequate fit. Yikes. More modern Tamiya kits (I think Cromwell is late 90s) have link and length tracks that have gotten good marks. Personally I like DML DS tracks a lot.
My models don’t go to shows. The only people who see them are the good folk here and a couple of other sites. I actually like my models, but for my purposes if they pass the five foot away test, they’ve passed. That probably explains why, except for ships, I build OOB and spend much more thought on painting and weathering than on detail. I know some fine AFV builders assume that they’ll spend 75% of the model’s cost of after market stuff and create the splendid models that you see from photos taken at AMPS get-togethers. They set the standard for the hobby but I’ll never make it into that club.
EB, I hate to say this, but Mr Zaloga is wrong here. I ended up using the Hobbyboss tracks on my Centaur. They are not overly difficult as far as indy link tracks go. My poor Cromwell sits in the display case with broken tracks… Oh well, she already won her prize. Those resin pin tracks from Poland sound like a nightmare.
68, I forgot all about the Able Dog’s debut. That would look good in late WWII colors, not too different from Korea, just minus the red bars on the insignia.
Eric: I built the same Cromwell kit a couple of years back and didn’t have any problems with the kit tracks. Maybe you got a bad set Stikpusher? I painted them, put them on the model and then cemented the saggy parts to the tops of the road wheels and everything went fine. Maybe I should dig the model out and check them, but last I looked they were still in one piece.
Gamera, if the tracks had snapped on eiher my Cromwell or Centaur, I would say yes, probably a bad set. But since it happened to both of those builds, just taking a bit longer on the Cromwell, I put it down to the tracks themselves. The kits themselves are nearly identical parts wise. I have also had it happen with AFV Club gluable soft tracks. Maybe it is just the local climate? Moderate to low humidity and sea salt air most of the year. Give me the older heat joined tracks any day. Tamiya of course. Italeri’s and Academy’s are just too dang stiff.
I dunno, I’ve only built the one kit. Maybe a different paint we used??? I hit mine with two coats of rubber bumper paint in a spray can from the local auto parts store and then I think Model Master Acrylic.
I have no idea about the weather, currently the model is in a box in the basement which bounces back from cool and humid in the summer to warn and dry with the wood stove heating in the winter. I’d think the span of weather around here would make them more likely to break instead of less.
I’ve never had a problem with AFV Club rubber band tracks either. I did have a tire on an Italeri halftrack split after a year or so but so far it’s the extent of rubber type plastic going bad (so far).
Bish: can you substitute the Horch with a Tamiya M4 (Mid-production) Sherman(1/35)? The Horch was involved in a lil fender-bender and the insurance adjuster has deemed it a total loss.
Yesterday I primed my Schnellboot with Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer. Today I airbrushed on the base colors of Schiffsbodenfarbe on the lower hull and Schnellboot Weiss on the upper hull using Testors Acryl Marine Colors. I took photos but did not have time to get them on here before work today.
Bish: Would you mind changing my entry from Kepner’s kinda what-if Jug to one flown by Gabreski? I think that camo pattern looks really nice combined with invasion stripes:
The model is going to be the exact same one as before (Tamiya 1/48), but with a different paint scheme.
