Wanna take a stab at AM track. Having not done any before, what are the pros and cons of these 2 and which would be better for a 1st timer?
modelkasten is plastic and has very good detail but brittle
frui model tracks are metal and are very strong when made
i like the fruils
don’t you have to drill holes in each of the fruil parts?
you dont drill the holes, you just need to clean some of the holes out with a drill
if you can get WW2 production tracks, you only need to clip them together
These tracks just look great , and seem to be the easiest to assemble out of all these . I am going to try a set of them myself soon .
Fruil would be my second choice here as they are almost indestructable after assembly and look great , have a natural sag to them us german and soviet armor guys love .
Modelkasten have their fans as well , ( me not being one of them ) , they are fiddly to assemble , many small pieces on some kits , but they look great when finished , if you prefer to work in plastic , go this route .
MK looks more "in scale " than most fruil assemblies .
Beware of solvent based paints and washes on MK .( it melts the tiny track pins and they fall apart after) Also keep the paint buildup on the finished tracks to a minimum as the be forced apart as a result on MK .
Out of the 3, I would recommend trying the WWII Production tracks if you can find them for your vehicle, as they are getting rave reviews on the detail of them , ( most have casting numbers on them for gods sakes!) [8D]
Geoff, what tank are you building? Sometimes the expensive ones are not the best ones. It all depends on which tank and what tracks you need.
I’m with you on this one. I haven’t tried AM tracks yet because I find the indies included with Dragon kits to be outstanding for the most part. By the time the weathering process is done and a little snow or mud has been added, there’s no advantage (for me anyway) to spending extra on MK or Friuls.
I now find myself refusing to buy any kit that has rubber band tracks, I guess I have been spoiled by DML.[;)]
Im for Modelkasten all the way. I like working with plastic, but I don’t like working with metal. Modelkasten do have lots of small parts, they are brittle, they don’t take handling to well, but they look the best if you ask me.
Also they are usually less expensive than Friulmodelisimo.
Never tried the metal Friulmodelisimo tracks but im going to. I like the Modelkasten tracks, plus they throw in some extra detail stuff with there sets. But its a work out putting all those small parts together.Becareful what you put on them, are they will become brittle. Use acrylic paints and weathering powders and becareful with handleing to much. But I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
I like Fruils, when I can find them and afford them. I like the extra weight they add to the model.
Model Kastens have finer detail to them, and I didn’t mind building them. But they kept falling apart on me when I was painting/weathering them (for my Panther). They’ve even come apart sitting on the shelf with minimal handling. In other words, they are very delicate! I’ve got another set for a Tiger, if I have similar problems with them, they will be the last MK’s I get.
I would love to try WWII Productions from everything I’ve read, but they are VERY expensive and even harder to find (they are made in Australia!).
it is for a sturmtiger that i ordered…
I like the Friul tracks. They give the kit a realistic sag and are easier to use if you want to create battle damage. I use .020 brass wire to pin the tracks together and to clean out any extra flash. I want to try the WW2 Productions track but haven’t been able to find a U.S. shop that carries their tracks. I have tried MK tracks but found them to be very fiddly.
Geoff,
You did a pretty close job on the spelling. ModelKasten is spelled with a K not a C, and Friul’s are that and not Fruil. You know the old saying…I before U except after…er…Yule…Mule…Fool??? btw, their “real name” is ‘Friulmodel’ or ‘Fruilmodelismo’, but who wants to type (or say) that all the time!! lol
As long as everyone knows what you mean, it’s great. Most of these foreign name throw me for a loop!
I am lucky because amazingly me LHS carries WWII productions…
The latest fad in Tiger kits (AFV Club) is this torsion bar suspension that is movable. If one were to add after-market tracks to this kind of kit, then wouldn’t one want to use tracks that have some measure of flexibilty? I’m thinking if I put Modelkasten’s on, that are glued together, they will have little or no flexibility. Whereas if I were to use Friul tracks they have loads of flexibilty! Get my thinking here? If I wanted to show someone how this AFV Club suspension worked, with ModelKasten’s on it, wouldn’t I run the risk of breaking the tracks since they are glued back-to-back-to-back with little or no ability to bend without possibly breaking? An AFV Club Tiger with Friuls on it would have no problem since the track links are pinned together, not glued! Am I making sense? Am I over-thinking this scenario? Maybe I shouldn’t think so much! Of course the vinyl one-piece tracks that come with the kit will work ok since they are very flexible!
Glenn
Model Kastens will break if you look at them too hard when you walk in the room!
This article might help to explain some of the differences between MK and Friul tracks. The article compares the various 251 indy link tracks from AFV Club, Friul, DML and MK. It’s a little off topic, but does show the pros and cons of Friul and MK tracks. HTH
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/misc/251track.htm
If you are buying tracks for the Sturmtiger, beware of Modelkasten. I bought the set K-4
for the Tiger I. (it says for both early and late model Tigers). There are 200 links per set,
100 early and 100 late. So you need to buy two sets. And at $27.00 a set, …well, you can see one problem! Also this set of tracks is NOT workable, they are just like many
other indies out there. (no different than the ones you get with the Tamiya Sturmtiger)
They also do not have hollowed out guide horns. To say I’m disappointed with Modelkasten would be an understatement ! But I’m sure these are not the tracks that
everyone raves about. [B)]
I’ve used Fruils and MK’s and prefer (strongly) the Fuils. As someone above stated, they “break if you look at them hard when you walk into the room.” Although the MK’s do look really nice, I agree they are just too brittle and cause me to curse in front of my children on occasion.
Nope !! the ones I use for late tiger I’s are SK-1 from Modelkasten. They are workable and have the correct guide horns … infact they are even more correct than Friulmodelisimo.
All of the “SK” series tracks from Modelkasten are workable.