Long story short - this restarting a hobby thing is tuff.
Broke out a 20+ yr old kit out - track were really tight so used a hair drier
to limber them a little and cooked one[:(((]
Will ausf d tracks fit this kit??
Any other options with out breaking the bank of an old re begginer???
Thanks
Unfortunately, the Ausf D used a different style of tracks then the Ausf A-G, so even if they would fit, appearance wise, they would not be the same. Google; “Friulmodel ATL-33” then “ATL-08” to see the differences between the two types. Since the kit tracks bare only a vague resemblance to the real thing, appearance may be a moot point. Whether or not some other tracks would would fit, I don’t know. The dimensions of the teeth on the drive sprockets of this kit are rather suspect to begin with and may not be compatible. I doubt that very many, if any, modelers have ever upgraded the tracks for this kit.
For all the ravages of this old kit, I’m not sure it’s worth spending too much trying to fix this problem. Perhaps a kind soul has some cannibalized ones in the spare parts box they would be willing to donate.
My Tamiya Panther-Fu is weak, but if you could post a pic of the box art, or at least the kit# (I have MM 35065), I have spare rubber band kit tracks. I got a started legacy Tamiya Panther as a parts source, so if the tracks are the right ones, they are yours, barring limitations of the postal service due the current situation.
Not only do the Ausf G tracks fit, but they look amazing on the old Panther Ausf A. I highly recommend them for that old kit.
…but your stuff ALWAYS looks nice!
I had a look at the tracks I have, and yeah, there’s no detail on their insides. Still, unless someone offers a newer set of tracks, my offer stands.
Okay, that’s a REALLY nice thing to say. I’m honored, thank you.
Thanks much for the offer but have 2 more of these kits on the shelf and robbed
a set for the first - I am doing these in order with a list of should’ves on each as I go.
Figure by #3 I’ll be ready to try track building.
Hopefully I show some progress from one kit to the next
Thank you very much for the offer though.
I built this kit several years ago and posted the whole build on a different forum: http://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8653
My initial plan was to build it OOB and just have fun with it. Before long though I was diving deep into research and becoming more and more annoyed with the deficiencies of the old Tamiya kit.
If you follow the link and read the whole thread you’ll see what I did, but it involved much scratchbuilding and a fair amount of resin casting, tracking down old issues of FSM, coming up with my own materials and techniques for producing zimmerit, individual link tracks…the works. My aim was to do as much on my own and spend as little extra money for aftermarket parts and such as was possible. By the time it was done only about 50% of the original kit was used and during the build it crossed my mind to start the hull over and scratchbuild all the major components .
In the end i estimate that i have around 100 hours or more into this model, it put a strain on my marriage to a certain degree, and drove me half insane. And I also covet this Panther above all my other efforts and appreciate the experience and enjoyment I got out of building it. So just build it how you want and ENJOY IT.
Thanks for the link - I’m not going this deep with this one but by the time I get to #3
who knows - I have a set of RFM G tracks on the way.
Time to decal and weather this one and have opened an anceint ERTL smoke
cannon kit - this looks like a real nightmare - the staples in the so called instructions
were even rusted
Thank you every one for your help
In the future, if you test fit older one piece vinyl tracks before assembly, you can determine if they will be too tight or too loose.
If the tracks look like they will be too tight, you can relocate either the sprocket or idler wheel mount inward to create more slack. This is how tracks are tightened on an actual tank.
Conversely, if the tracks look like they will be too loose, move the mounts outwards to tighten them up a bit.
On an old tank like a former motorized “carpet crawler” like the Tamiya kits, it’s pretty easy to widen the axle hole and move it to create more slack.
Thanks for the tip - I have a stack on the shelf to build so I’m sure I’ll run into this again and will use this tip for sure - Thanks