Do most modelers opt for replacement tracks for their kits? I have a Hobbyboss kit that has awful straight tracks. It seems a shame to spend so much time getting it right only, at the end, to be thwarted by lousy tracks.
If the kit has the rubber band tracks, then yes, i will replace them. My preffered option is metal tracks.
Depends on the kit
I like the Dragon kits that came with Magic Tracks.
I used to like the Dragon DS tracks,they looked good initially but now they are starting to Crack and fall off.
My Meng T90 has nice plastic workable tracks that assembled easy and look great
The Tamiya Mark IV had great click able plastic tracks.
Occasionally I will spring for metal tracks and their extra cost.
Im kind of with Bish and Tojo, if they are the classic rubber bands, more than likely they are getting replaced. Some of the Dragon Styrene tracks look pretty good and I think would work well on their Shermans but I would never use them on anything that had a fair amount of sag like the PzIV. I have fell in love with individual link tracks and will definitely use them if included with the kit. I use to be a big fan of ModelKasten tracks but they just eat up too much time and are too delicate. Friuls are nice but damn they are expensive over here!
I have tried a set of Spade Ace metal tracks for a Tiger ,got them on ebay from China for $38 total,they were nice,and I have heard good things about Masterclub,so it’s nice that Fruil has some competitors.
I had seen some really nice ones it seems from some German company but I don’t know if they are available here yet. They were metal like friuls but instead of a pin, they had tabs that were bent around the next link. for some reason, Der Sockelshop is coming to mind.
What exactly are DS tracks?
Dragon Styrene,they are a Dragon invention,better then the old "rubber band"tracks,they can be glued with CA glue,they paint and weather well initially,they look decent especially for live tracks,or German armor where you might have skirts covering the top run,but I’ve found some of my older builds they are getting brittle and cracking.
I got a set of Sword tracks for my Challenger I last year. I found them nicer than Fruils. Only issue i had was the wire was to thick, so i ended up useing left over Fruil wire.
They are sort of an amalgam of styrene and vinyl, so they are bendable but also can be glued and painted, which is the old hassle with vinyl tracks. They are one piece.
I don’t much care for them as they are difficult to be made to sag convincingly.
It does depend on the subject. For an afv where large parts of the track are not visible, because of side skirts, or live tracked vehicles where they stay tight, they can work.
For vehicles with visible sag, in particular something like a T 54 where there’s a long run of hanging track, better to use individual link.
I’ve had very good results with plastic individual links, Dragon Magic Track, AFV Club track.
I followed the doog method. Lay them out after assembly, brush on solvent on the inside face, wait 45 minutes, place and position on AFV and build in sag in the right places.
For the Tiran 5, I used Friul tracks. They cost a bit, however I found that mine had no clean up, no redrilling of holes, and their weight alone made the sag look right to me.
I take it that individual link tracks are the way to go. Metal tracks especially. Do they make such for small scales like 1/72 or should I use those kits for spare parts? It seems to make a good armor model you need alot of money for those aftermarket tracks.
The current trend of newer gluable single length kit tracks fromTamiya and AFV Club are best replaced. With age those tracks tend to break once they are on your kit. It has happened on several of my builds over the past 8 years or so.
Metal tracks, in most cases, give the most realistic look. Especially for WWII German and WWII/Cold War Soviet stuff with their often seen sag. But as said they are pricey. I would not recommend them for most US track types due to the live tracks used from WWII designs thru today. In 1/35, both AFV Club and Trumpeter/Hobbyboss have growing lines of replacement styrene tracks that go for about half the cost of metal indy link tracks. And you can still find some older Dragon and Academy track sets for a few types that are more affordable. And of course there is still the extensive, but also pricey line of Model Kasten tracks in styrene. As well as several newer lines of tracks in resin out there.
What’s the kit and scale, JP?
AFV Club tracks are nice- I’ve done two “Shermansteins” using them.
.
JP- this all reminds me of a mispent youth speed building Tamiya tank models.
There were no options. The rubber band tracks were part of a kit that was intended to be motorized.
When it became apparent, thanks to folks like Shep, that they looked bad on stationary models, methods to sag them included putting pins into the side of the lower hull to force them down between the return rollers, or tying them down with black thread.
I just did my first set of fruilmodel (metal) replacement tracks for a Dragon 251 Halftrack. They were infuriating, and fall apart when you try to articulate them. THe little blocks (supposed to be rubber in real life I beleive) fall off when you try and bend the tracks around a road wheel. I only mention this, as I think a similar set in 1:72 scale would be a complete nightmare and unmitigated disaster. I beleive these tracks would work great on a larger subject, like a tank. A few pics for reference:
Good Luck!
Rudy
Yeah,real bad choice for your first set of Fruils without a doubt.
Bigger tracks like Tiger,Panther,ISU,are real simple to deal with.
My worse Fruils were the Porsche Jagdiger which required 5 pieces for 2 links.
And Panzer II Magic Tracks,just so tiny.
.
What? HORRORS!! Really? Can you elaborate? I’m shocked to hear it—what did you finish them with? Does the paint that you used on them figure into that equation?
By the way, I’m so disgusted with Dragon for making this giant step backward and not offering the old Magic Tracks that I seriously will opt for a competitor’s model if I know it’s coming out. They are losing my business with those stupid DS one-piece tracks. [:@]
I agree with you, Karl. It’s as if it’s a deliberate move to go cheap. My newest DML kit came with those things, and they just aren’t nice.