A question about Friul assembly

I normally cut my pins to length before final assembly to ensure that the wire is running straight and true. It also gives me a chance to dress the ends of the wire before final assembly so that I don't have to take a file things and risk twisting or distorting the track runs.

Thanks. Aren't the cut ends on the inside? They would show at the ends of the tank.

You are right on both counts, G - the cut does go to the inside and you'll only see the "spike" on only a portion of the run. It may not be necessary to dress that end, but I'm a product of my environment. Too many years of having my work scrutinized by quality control inspectors on the production line or persnickety little old ladies at the jewelry counter, you know? It's just easier for me to go the extra step rather than taking a risk which will have me taking a step backwards to make repairs.

I always insert the wire and then snip, I just find it give me more wire to get hold of rather than trying to insert a smaller piece.

Thanks, it sounds like both are worth a try.

Second question. The box came with two bags of castings, ok. The instructions said to mind that they were left and right. i understand that- it has to do with which end of the pin is blind. But after drilling out the first bag, when I got started on the second- they seem to be the same part. Which I think means tht the pin ends will show on one side.

Am I right, is this normal? I'm keeping them separated.

It's normal. Only mirror-image tracks are left and right, like Tiger tracks. Everything else from Friul that I've used (quite a bit actually) where the original 1/1 part will work on both sides of the tank is that way from Friul as well, so on one side of the tank, you will have the wire visible. This is usually no big deal, since the wire, after being squared, looks just like most full scale track pins.

I insert, pull out about a half-mil, then cut as close as possible and re-insert. I then use a tiny bit of cryo glue to secure the pin. T-55 tracks go pretty fast in my case due to their relative size as compared to my fingers. I did a set for a Cromwell a while back that was pretty tedious, even though they were flash-free and didn't need drilling. I normally use steel or brass wire too, it's stiff enough to go through the links, with a little wiggling, when the softer Friul wire will not in cases where most folks drill the link holes. I've found that SpadeAce wire is the perfect compromise between stiff enough to insert without drilling (in most cases, the Merk4 set was horrible) and soft enough to square the end of the wire with a manicure file.

I insert and snip as I go along.

Actually " G " ;

The tracks I did were left and right . It is the dreaded " Dicker - Max -self propelled gun .What a neat piece of armor . to bad like others they only built two . And that said thank Heavens , Like others they only built two ! Now when I do tracks from Friul I use a different type of wire .That way I can gently tap the end into a flat face . So that way I still have the track pin showing , but it looks like it has been hammered in !

Thanks for the help everyone.

First six took me half an hour. next ten about twenty minutes. One pesky link fought me for a while.

Next ten took me ten minutes. Now I'm at twenty links every fifteen. Should be done this morning.

Oh and I held my breath and test fit a section on the sprockets of the Tiran (Tamiya T-55)

THEY FIT! Thank you Lord for small favors.

Finishing preferences?

Swanny has a nice tutorial up about using Blacken-It as a finish.


http://www.swannysmodels.com/Blackenit.html