I am building a Stug III Ausf. F/8 by dragon. I assembled the tracks in one long row, painted them and then tried to to assemble them on the tank ( can you tell I’m new to this?). As you can guess it didn’t work well at all! I got some good advice on this forum and tried to fix the mistake. However, because the tracks are painted the glue does not adhere that well. I know that there are after market tracks made by Model Kasten & Fruil but I am not sure which ones to get. They don’t list any for this particular tank. Can I use tracks from another type of German tank? Any help would be very much appreciated.
Fruil tracks are expensive metail tracks that assemble by inserting a piece of wire through each piece of track. They do look nice though. Model Kasten are a little less expensive and assemble using regular glue.
You’ve got to determine which style of track your StuG is using. StuGs are based on the Panzer III, so you have to look for those types of tracks. There are several variations of track depending on when the vehicle was in use.
Hi–Fear not! All is not lost!! First, you can probably still fix the tracks with superglue if they haven’t set up real funny; it might even help to break them in half at some other point to aid in their assembly. If that’s not an option then any of the tracks from DML’s StuG kits B through possibly even an early G will suffice-even the boxy SturmInfanterieGeschutz SIG 33 has correct tracks, and even , I believe, the early Hummel and early Nashorn. Just make sure the tracks look liike three flat dashes going across the tread, like – – --; Now, technically you could even use a set with the “zig-zag” patterns on them; those are the ice cleats which appeared on the late style. However, most StuG’s left the factory in the old flat profile style . Now, StuG 3’s had both an early 36mm track and a predominantly-seen 40 cm track-the DML(Dragon??) Stug A comes with the early narrower track. But here’s the thing-sprockets made for the 36mm track could be adapted for the 40 cm track by inserting a spacer, so you’ll even see old StuG’s with 40 cm tracks. DML"s kits of Pz III/IV variants generally came with a ubiquitous “3-dash” 40 cm PZ III-style track or the later zig-zagged ice cleat variety,so you shouldn’t have a problem procuring them from a spare parts box somewhere. For accuracy, I’d stick to a “3-dash” pattern myself. Anyhoo, about your track assembly method-try this, and you’ll never have this problem again…First, never assemble a full length of tread! Assemble TWO lengths; one of about 80-85% long which will go over the top eventually, and a simple flat run to link the ends on the bottom. Now here’s the secret—only glue on the INNER HALF of the return rollers(the little wheels under the fenders) This allows you to assemble that long length, at which point you wait for the glue to set up just enough so that the length is pliable but won’t fall apart;(if they do, wait a little longer) then you can curl them around the sprocket and idler at either end(DON’T GLUE THESE ON YET AT THIS POINT EITHER!! and then, when you’ve slipped those on with the track length on them, you can run the length over the return rollers and set sag by placing little balls of paper towels between the tracks and the hull. the ends of the tracks should be long enough that they can be pinned under the first and laast road wheels until the glue hardens and sets the tracks. By fiddling with the sag and turning the UNGLUED sprocket or idler–just like on a real tank–you can make certain that the remaining link-length on the bottom will fit perfectly into the ends of the longer one.ANd heres the beauty–you can glue that little sucker right in there right now, and when the whole thing is dried and set, simply slide the track with the sprocket and idler off and gently coax the sprocket/idler out of their positons and-voila!-the tracks are ready to paint and when all finished and weathered, can be mated again with thw sprocket/idler and slid into place! ONLY AT THIS POINT would you now glue the OUTER return rollers on and serve with parsley, 'taters and a light wine! Good Luck!— The Doog P.S. Stay away from those “Frooly” tracks if you don’t want to spend as much for the darn things as TWO kits–plus they’re…shall we say “labor-intensive”?! You’d be far better off buying another StuG kit and steal the tracks, then you’ve got a whole box of spares when you might need 'em–like now?!
Soak the tracks in CSC and remove all the paint, most of the glue will come with the paint too, then start all over. This time assemble the tracks first. Then paint!..“RC”
You can try to rescue the links as outlined above, or alternatively if you do want to try MK links, the correct set for the StuG F/8 would be either SK-18 (hollow guide horns) or SK-23 (solid guide horns).