I am almost done building the old Tamiya King Tiger kit and when I test fitted the rubber/vinyl tracks I discovered they are at least 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch too short. Is it possible to stretch these tracks if I soften them up a bit in some hot water? Or are aftermarket track links my only option?
I really don’t want to put any money into this old kit as I have a the latest King Tiger already and have AM parts (grille screens, individual track link set, Eduard barrel etc.)
If it were me, I would look at the idler wheels, maybe you can take them off and shorten your track tension by refitting them. A quarter of an inch is quite a lot. You may be able to elongate the holes in the idler wheels and CA them a little more forward, same thing for the sprockets. An eigth of an inch for both would give you the quarter inch you’re looking for.
Steve
You should be able to stretch the tracks without heating them…they are called rubber-band tracks for a reason after all. Since you are building a KT, any over-stretching that you do would just contribute to their characteristic sag.
The problem you’ve encountered is one of the main reasons why I try to avoid vinyl tracks wherever possible. If you don’t want to spend the $$$ on AM stuff for this kit, try the stretching to see if you can’t get that little bit more that you need to make it go. If that doesn’t work, then you may have to resort to some surgery as crockett suggests.
I’ve run into the same problem. On the old KT, I did not connect tracks together, and stapled the track together leaving a little bit of space, to make them longer. I’ve also used thread to do the same. I then hid this under the fender skirts on the top of the road wheels. I’ve done this on a couple of older kits with “too tight” tracks, and full fender skirts to hid them with. Food for thought.[C=:-)]
Best bet is to move the idler forward, it is what they did on the real thing. Alternately, order a new set of tracks for Tamiya’s late model Konigstiger through someone like Rainbow ten (http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english) as they will ship you just the tracks if you can give them the sprue number.
If I remember correctly, the old tracks may have been detailed only on one side not both, so replacing with new ones would be good. Otherwise, post and ask if someone in your country has a spare set from the newer kit that they could send you. Often guys that buy AM tracks still keep the old vinyl ones.
Use the kit tracks from the new KT.
I already tried the vinyl tracks from the new KT kit. Apparently, due to some serious size inaccuracies with the old kit, the new kit is slightly smaller. Therefore the tracks from the new kit are even smaller… sigh.
How about doing a KT with damaged tracks or something like that??
Another option might be to super-glue the tracks onto the Kit, gap at the bottom and do a fording dio, where the tracks are hidden in mud/muddy water.
In the worst case take all the tracks that you got, cut and piece them together using stables crosswise(standard repair method recommended by Tamiya). Hide the “repaired” track on the underside with some dirt/grass/etc.
Be creative. [;)]
I stretched mine without having to heat them.
And if indeed you decide to stretch it, just be careful not to overstretched it.
See if you can move the kit idler forward, as allready suggested. If that doesn’t work, instead of attatching the ends of the tracks together, tie them together with rope, giving yourself that extra space that is needed.
I wonder if Tamiya’s new rubber bands would fit. I have an extra set. Also Tamiya makes some indies for the KT
As others have suggested, I’d move the idler first. I had to stretch some vinyl on my 1/72 dragon Panther because the hull was die cast. I soaked them in hot water for a while first and had some success, but they tried to thin out in the middle and started to rip.
I’d just glue them to the tops of the roadwheels and hide it all with the fenders. See Brian’s (J-Hulk) E-100. He mentioned in one post that he didn’t even finish the tracks on that bad boy. Just hid it all with the fenders.