Artful69 Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Ok ... I'm reorganising the model room a little so that I can begin a new project that's been swimming around in the back of my head for a while. I have a LOT of models of tracked vehicles ... Now - a LOT of them are Dragon kits with Magic Track supplied ... But I have a lot of Tamiya and Dragon kits that are supplied with poly or DS only ... and I very passionately dislike tracks like rubber bands. The conundrum is that ... although I'm happy to set aside most of my kits with rubber band track ... there are some that are quite good (Dragon Zimmerit - with the stuff moulded in!!) that I'd rather not have exiting the stash ... I know that a LOT of people love Friul metal tracks as an option ... but the things are darned expensive and I might as well grab a whole new kit rather than spend that kind of doush for realistic track sag ... (insert Grace Randolph soooooo here) I was wondering if there is a low cost (or lower than Friul) for individual tracks that is reliable and with clean detail ... I'm looking at a variety of WWII German stuff ... Rog 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlrwestSiR Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Check out Bronco Rog. They make numerous plastic track sets that don't break the bank. Some can be a pain to assemble (any of the Sherman tracks) but they have good sets and are working. Rye Field have also released the tracks from their kits in separate sets. They often include jigs that help speed up the assembly. Carl 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomber_County Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 I agree with you Rog, AM tracks are coming out as much as a kit, that said, IMHO when Dragon prices are now £70.00, I think I’ll look else where......impressed with RFM albeit fondling the sprues only..... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GusMac Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Rog, I'm sure I someone posting recently about a Chinese company making similar tracks to Friul which appeared to be cheaper and a better quality of metal, so cleaner castings. Unfortunately I can't remember where - only places it could be are here or SPA Modeler forum as the OTS would excommunicate anyone who posted armour! I'll have a trawl and see if I can find it again. Postage from China to Aus may not be extortionate unless the Chinese postal service are boycotting Aus at the moment?! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlrwestSiR Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Gus, there's a couple Chinese brands that I can think of but haven't tried yet. R Model Sanxin Spade Ace Best place to find them seems to eBay. Jeroen is using the Sanxin ones in a WiP at the moment but other than that I haven't seen any others in use. Carl 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artful69 Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 23 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said: Check out Bronco Rog. They make numerous plastic track sets that don't break the bank. Some can be a pain to assemble (any of the Sherman tracks) but they have good sets and are working. Rye Field have also released the tracks from their kits in separate sets. They often include jigs that help speed up the assembly. Carl Nice one ... I'll check these out when I have a bit of time ... 15 hours ago, Bomber_County said: I agree with you Rog, AM tracks are coming out as much as a kit, that said, IMHO when Dragon prices are now £70.00, I think I’ll look else where......impressed with RFM albeit fondling the sprues only..... I've been tossing up the idea of replacing the kits as I know there's at least one other manufacturer doing moulded on Zimmerit with separate track links ... A few of the Dragon kits in the stash are the "Burger-with-the-lot" types with PE, metal barrels etc etc ... so I'll try with those ones 13 hours ago, GusMac said: Rog, I'm sure I someone posting recently about a Chinese company making similar tracks to Friul which appeared to be cheaper and a better quality of metal, so cleaner castings. Unfortunately I can't remember where - only places it could be are here or SPA Modeler forum as the OTS would excommunicate anyone who posted armour! I'll have a trawl and see if I can find it again. Postage from China to Aus may not be extortionate unless the Chinese postal service are boycotting Aus at the moment?! I must admit that theres something about metal track that put me off a little ... but, I'll look into it ... I try to keep an open mind. 11 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said: Gus, there's a couple Chinese brands that I can think of but haven't tried yet. R Model Sanxin Spade Ace Best place to find them seems to eBay. Jeroen is using the Sanxin ones in a WiP at the moment but other than that I haven't seen any others in use. Carl Even more choices to research! ... excellent contributions everyone ... I'm surprised looking through the boxes at which kits were purchased without Magic Track and at the ones which include both (Dragon) ... or those which have other options such as link and length (Academy, Bronco) ... Also I'll need to work out which track set is applicable to which vehicle!! Just about every single vehicle had different tracks fitted at different stages of the war ... and Halftrack vehicles will need them too - although with those maybe someone produces a kit with individual links ... I was surprised to find that my 251 command vehicle from AFV has rubber bands I guess there's no one-stop-shop out there. Rog 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 There is another brand out there, which covers another important aspect in metal tracks to me, time and effort saving. I have some sets from Easy Metal Tracks for my Panzer IV derivates and they assemble easy, without glue, just bending some tiny latches on the inside of each track link. They are in the price range of Friul and others and are maybe hard to source. For me there is no real substitute for metal tracks, as they sag perfect, and I like to blacken them chemically, to get a perfect base layer. The cement free assembly helps, because there are no CA residues to hinder the blackening. Easy Metal Links (DE) (scalemates.com) Cheers Rob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradG Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 I went looking for cheaper alternatives too, found a bloke on Ebay who is in the Ukraine or Russia selling track link sets for about 10 bucks plus the same post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artful69 Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 10 minutes ago, BradG said: I went looking for cheaper alternatives too, found a bloke on Ebay who is in the Ukraine or Russia selling track link sets for about 10 bucks plus the same post. Ooooo .... You've purchased from him?? ... Reliable?? ... Have you got a link?? Rog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GusMac Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 21 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said: Gus, there's a couple Chinese brands that I can think of but haven't tried yet. R Model Sanxin Spade Ace Best place to find them seems to eBay. Jeroen is using the Sanxin ones in a WiP at the moment but other than that I haven't seen any others in use. Carl You've a better memory than me Carl! It was the Sanxin ones I was thinking about. I remember now Googling them when Jeroen mentioned them - look nice but a fairly limited range. Ta. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artful69 Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 Ok ... time for another pop quiz on tracks ... specifically German / WWII / Which tracks for which vehicle ... Sooooooo (Grace Randolph) ... I was hunting through available sets on the local online store ... There are sets for early, mid and late for Pz.III / IV ... early and late for Panther / Tiger etc ... It's confusing to say the least!! 🤯 ... can someone enlighten me as to which tracks apply to which Ausf of which vehicle?? My main concern is not super historical accuracy (you'd have to be looking REALLY hard at a 35th scale model to notice a particular pattern on a track when so much else is going on around it) ... I want to get tracks that fit the particular kit I'm getting ... Has anyone thought to make a list that particular tracks should be suited to? Cheers Rog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now