Nice sturdy little box with the instruction right on the label.
The box contains a whole stack of plastic trees and a pack of 0.5mm brass rod that you have to cut to 16.5mm pin length. The parts before and after gluing the pads halves and guide horns together.
Assembly is pretty labor intensive and what you see below has 14 parts, 10 glued and then all pinned together. The end caps are a snug fit on the rod so glue is not needed to hold in place.
They look and work just like the real thing and the fit is perfect on this AFV Club M-40 sprocket.
Today I timed myself and it took four and one half hours to assemble 18 links with two bathroom breaks. Time included parts removal from the sprues, gluing parts together, cleaning up the parts, cutting the rods to length and then assembly. I'm not considered to be a slow builder by most so it IS time consuming, be prepared.
At this time Faizen also offers sets of German Panther and Russian T-34 tracks.
So, how much do these things cost and who distributes them in the USA? I've got a bevy of M50, M51, M60 HMGS, and American Firefly projects that will need T80 track sets. AFV Club are not only difficult to build, but quite fragile. Not really keen on Dragon's DS Vinyl, either.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
Seems a pretty reasonable price. I'll accept a more tedious assembly process for a sturdier end product, and the fact that this set uses brass pins will make them stronger than AFV Club's tracks. If the pins are a little long, a good flush-cut nipper, a dab of superglue, and a few passes with a fine file should take care of that.
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"
I'm guessing that there is probably no reason at all why you couldn't use 0.5mm styrene rod in place of the brass. Would probably make it an easier process to construct as you can easily trim the rod to length. May have to invest in a set for my M51....
I'm guessing that there is probably no reason at all why you couldn't use 0.5mm styrene rod in place of the brass. Would probably make it an easier process to construct as you can easily trim the rod to length. May have to invest in a set for my M51....
Gary
Maybe, Gary.... the .5mm works out to .0195", so .020 rod is the closest. Might be a tight fit, depending on the size of the holes in the track shoes and end connectors, and not as stout as brass. But probably worth a try. I'll be interested to read an evaluation by someone who goes the Evergreen rod route.
Greg
"You could probably use some armor. A Sherman can give you a very nice...edge!"