Friuli fears realized. Major problem results.
My Friuli panther treads curved quite a bit when I constructed them. I was not accustomed to this from Friuli, as my Tiger II treads had been problem-free. I posted about this here and on Missing Lynx (and to anyone who would listen
![Tongue [:P]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_tongue.gif)
) and was assured by numerous people that they would be fine when they went on the tank. So I spent a lot of time painting and weathering them.
I tried to put them on the tank last night, and they won't go. I mean, I get them around the wheels with a lot of tuging and scraping (which took paint off the tank and the treads), but they do the exact opposite of sagging, which is supposed to be the whole point of Friuli treads. They actually stand up over the road wheels, bellying up toward the sponsons rather than sagging down toward the wheels -- due to the contortion of the track lengths, and the bending they need to do in order to come together.
I was disappointed after having spent hours constructing them and then more hours painting and weathering them. I set the tank aside to see if gravity would eventually pull them down overnight. As of this morning, it had not.
This resulted in a huge waste of time and money for me. I wrote to Friuli when the curve first happened, and they ignored my e-mail.
Luckily I had ordered a set of the WWII Productions Panther treads for my Late G, but I may wind up using them for my group build Panther project instead, making it even more chronically late. I won't be using Friuli again.