tracks for Pz II Ausf. F/G

No modifications is needed to add these tracks panzer293. Go together very well and certainly give a sense of weight to the tracks.
As far as needing to purchase the drive sprocket, I believe, though not 100% sure, that it corrects the sprocket that comes with the Tamiya kit. Now I could be right out to lunch on this, but maybe one the the GermanFreaks can jump in and help on this part.

Hey, 293, how are you doing??

I am just finishing up the Tamiya kit after about a year and a half. It's the model that inspired me to get back into active modeling. I got jumped up by an article in Finescale modeler about this kit. When I got into it, I found out the Eduard photo etch kit mentioned in the article was no longer in production. Bummer, but they do have a newer set for it. It was more advanced, easier in many ways, but they left out the rings for the idler wheels. One of the parts that impressed me the most about the original set. :-(
The tracks set suggested in the article is the Model Kasten SK25. The article said that the tracks wouldn't fit around the drive sprockets correctly. He wound up trimming off the teeth under the track and then using plastic card to put them back in from the outside once the tracks were on. I opted to use the Fruil set. They also will not fit the teeth spacing on the kit sprockets. I wound up buying their metal drive sprocket set. The biggest problem I had with them was getting the plastic wheel mounts to stay in them. I glued them in three times with thick CA before they finally held. My next attempt was going to be with epoxy! But they look good in the end, and between them and the metal tracks, wow! is that tank heavy (for a little, bitty thing!!) I would recomend getting the Fruil sprocket set if you are going with either the Fruil or the Model Kasten set.
The Furil set it's self went together very well. The big problem with them is that there was a lot of metal "flash" on the links. I wound up drilling out the holes for the wires on both ends of every link. But it really wasn't that bad. I also made a big boo boo in that the I missed when pushing one of the wires through one set of the links and it wasn't inside the holes at the back of the links. That wouldn't have been too bad, but I didn't notice it until I'd glued up about 20 more links. I wound up soaking that portion of the track run in CA debonder and the pin came out without any trouble.
My method for these tracks was to drill out about 10 links, then hold two of them together, take a length of the wire provided and push it into the mated links, trim off the wire about an eigth of an inch out from the end of the link, then attach another link until I had the 10 links together. Then I'd take a brass wire, dip it in thick CA (thin CA runs too far into the links and binds them up!!), then touch the brass wire with the CA to the end of the wire holding the links together, getting a little more CA for each link. I'd do up these sets of 10 link runs and let them set up for a half hour (or longer!) while working on another run. Then I'd go back and trim off the excess wire as close to the end of each link as possible. Eventually, I'd pin the runs together. If you try to do a bunch of them at once, the run gets very heavy! Amazing how much those little links weigh together.
I've never tried the Model Kasten sets, so can't comment on them, but they sure look nice!

This is a very long answer to your question, but hope it helps. I had a lot of fun turning my $8.50 kit into a $170 model (including reference books)! Someday, maybe I'll get brave (and smart) and get some pictures of it posted on the forum somewhere.

Hey Sherman... You got to stop watching these Panzer threads. You're going to wind up with a bad reputation!! LOL To answer what you said, the Fruil parts look exactly the same as the kit parts (at least from the outside) except for the spacing of the teeth.

Back in the olden days I was just like everyone else here ... a German Armour Builder. So I can still comment a little bit on the older kits by Tamiya and Italeri.
That was of course before I found out about building the best ..... The Sherman .... LOL

The December 2001 issue of FineScale Modeler, page 36, has an article on detailing a Panzer II by Fraser Gray. He says he used Modelkasten SK-25 tracks. He said "the kit drive sprocket wouldn't engage the links correctly, so I had to remove some teeth and cement 12 links into position around the radius of each sprocket. I cut replacement teeth from styrene sheet and positioned them into the appropriate holes in each track link."

I back-ordered this issue because I plan on doing a Tamiya Panzer F/G. I bought the Fruil tracks plus the drive sprocket. Haven't tried them as of yet.

Hope this reference helps!

A bit off the subject, but still dealing with tracks... Would replacing the stock tracks on a 1/16 Tiger Full Option with the metal ones offered by Kenny Kong slow the R/C kit down noticeably? And are the metal ones worth it?

Thanks,

Roy

What's this about metal trax for the 1/16 Tiger? I'd be interested in those only if they had the accurate hole in the shoe horns, which the otherwise accurate Tamiya trax lack.

Quick note about Friul trax, wipw: All the sets I've assembled have had left and right- handed links, with the detailed "cap" portion of the link to be displayed outwardly, and the wire-hole side inwardly. Thus, you should not drill out each end of the link. Perhaps you mistook that detailed end for flash (which is not hard to do!), or perhaps those trax do not have this feature.
In addition to looking better, having that one end "capped" makes assembly much easier.

J-Hulk: What's this about metal trax for the 1/16 Tiger? I'd be interested in those only if they had the accurate hole in the shoe horns, which the otherwise accurate Tamiya trax lack.

I don't know if they do or not. But check them out on ebay and see. Just punch in "Tamiya" and you'll get a whole slew of their models and metal tracks for both the Tiger I and King Tiger. They run about $99 to $139.

Roy

Sir Hulk;

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. Yes, my tracks were sided, and yes they had the "cap" molded into the one end. When I said "each end" I meant the "2 lug" and "3 lug" ends of the links. Not drilling all the way through to the other side. I was very careful to set the length of the drill bit in my pin vice to only go about half way through the "cap" on the 3 lug end. I found them pretty easy to work with. I wound up putting one too many links in one side, though, and it sags a little too much. Guess I haven't quite got this counting thing down yet!

53ryder: Refering to the article you mentioned (which is the same one I was talking about and is very good), I made the idler wheel rings that are "missing" from the new Eduard PE set from .001 Evergreen sheet styrene. It worked pretty well, but they are way thin and "bendy". Doing it again, I would probably laminate a couple of pieces of the plastic together before cutting them out, or use a piece of .005 styrene.

Thanks alot guys for the input. I think I'll use the Friulmodel white metal tracks and see how it comes out. And use the sprocket since it's for the early model Pz II. I can alway put the sprocket in the junck box for later use If I don't need to use it since it's only about 7 bucks for the set. Im going to use the eduard detail set since I've used them before.
Hay sherman don't let them be to hard on you o.k......
ONCE A SHERMAM ALWAYS A SHERMAN..LOL..

THANKS FOR THE INPUT GUYS
PANZER293