Track/Bogie wheel alteration thought/idea ?

Probably breaks out as down to individual preference.

Some kits make no provision for moving running gear (especially in resin kits).

And, there's a reasonably good argument with length-n-link to assemble those as entire units, whether permanently fixed to the vehicle or just tacked in place for the track assembly.

And plenty of people willing to just use the poly caps included.

Which might be handy for track buried under side skirts.

Your Mileage May Vary.

Hello!

Newer models (last 20 years, huh, huh :-) usually give you rotating wheels or even working suspensions in some better kits. Kits from smaller manufacturers or older kits (70s - 90s - but not the ones meant to be motorized!) many times assumed one-piece plastic road wheel to be glued on a plastic peg at the end of the road wheel arm acting as an axle - how do you "mobilize" something like that?

On older tanks where wheels are on axles hung by both sides - like Sherman VVSS or Churchill the wheels can pretty naturally be made to rotate, just don't take too much glue...

Rotating wheels and moving suspensions can help solve some problems - the modeller just has to make sure they don't create new ones!

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Many tank models from the 1950s, 60s, 70, and 80s were designed with rolling road wheels, turning sprokets, etc. Tamiya and Academy continued this throughout the 1990s to the present.

Dragon started with fixed suspension pieces along with some Italeri armor kits in the 1990s. Lots of eastern European kits also had fixed suspensions too.

Even going back to the venerable Monogram M48A2 first issued in 1956, it has "rolling" suspension. Tamiya (and Academy clones) had poly caps for their kits since most were designed to be motorized way back when; the infamous "carpet crawlers".

Renwal's kits of the 60s had "working" suspensions with springs to make the road wheel arms articulate. One of their kits, I think the M47 Patton, the crewmen popped up as the tank was rolled across the carpet.

Fixed suspenion (road wheels that don't roll) are a relatively new feature once individual tracks and link & length tracks became more commonplace.

I'm a big fan of poly caps, makes things so much easier. I've also gone to great-to-moderate lenghts to ensure that bogie wheels can rotate on lots of kits that don't necessarily provide for it. An example: Takom M60 roadwheels have a cavity for poly caps, but no poly caps are in the kit. Slices of clear rubber tubing work, as does a particular cap from Asuka, which are available online. HobbyBoss M26 kits are the same way. Another example: Tamiya and Acedemy 'E8 Shermans: with careful glue application, bogie wheels rotate for easy painting of the tires.....  makes me happy.