Hi all. I was going to use the kit rubber band tracks on this one, except they snapped in half (old stock ?) Anyway, bought the track links set from Tamiya. This is my first go at separate track links, up till now I have always used the kit tracks. I’m looking at the gap between the front fender and the front sprocket wheel, and it looks a tad small. Should I not have glued the two halves of the hull together before putting on the top and bottom runs of the tracks ? I don’t want to end up with a top run of track that wont fit through the gap. I understand that you have to be quite gentle with these until they dry in position. Any suggestions appreciated
Yes, it is usually easier to install indy link tracks before the upper and lower hulls are joined.
You might find this tuturial helpful by our very own Doog
Tamiya has more than one King Tiger kit. The one I built doesn’t glue the sprocket onto its axle. It uses a little plastic insert that enables the sprocket to turn. If your kit is like that, then you should be able to pull the sprocket off and wrap the track around it before the glue on the links dries completely. You can then push the sprocket back onto the axle with the tracks wrapped around it. It sounds like you may also have glued the fenders on, so that will make it a little harder, but it’s still doable. You’ll notice that the fenders come down so far on the sides that you can’t really see the top run of the tracks, so you don’t need to try to make the top run perfect. I read where someone said he didn’t even bother putting on the top run of the tracks because it wasn’t viewable, so just focus on the links that show and worry about the rest later.
As an alternative, if you used Tamiya glue, you can dissolve it with thinner and separate the fenders and the hull and start over. Just drench the seams with the thinner, and the glue will loosen after a while and you can pull the parts apart.
I hope this helps. You’ll like the look with the individual links a whole lot better than the band it came with.