Hey Folks,

Finishing up this loooong build of the old Mirage 7TP and have hit yet another wall. This is my second time ever working with sep link track and I'm having fit issues with the sprocket and the track. Tracks are from RPM and though the track links are pretty decent I can't get the snug fit on either sprocket. I'd like to know if anyone has a technique to make the teeth fit more snug into the track.
So far, I've tried a bit of sanding the teeth to be more narrow and opening up the holes where the teeth should fit on the track (I did this on the side not shown in the pic) but didn't get much better fit.

thanks!

Chris

Only thing left to do is snip off every tooth that rests inside each link of track. Check and double check before cutting begins. Then simply find a suitable sheet of styrene to make some fake teeth to glue in the empty drive holes.

This is what I'll be doing with my current project as well - a Hobby Boss T-26 with Fruil tracks.

Thanks Paul. This was my thinking too as a last resort. Bummer the newer T-26 suffers from the same situation even with Fruil tracks.

I found the standard band type tracks that come with the kit have the same fit issues. As Paul suggested, the easiest fix is to remove the offending teeth and replace the tooth tips in the tracks.

It's happened so much to me on various kits that I now check the fit before the sprockets ever get mounted.

Chris;

Looks to me that your sprocket teeth have some different pitch or spacing than do the holes in the assembled tracks.

Two routes are readily available. First one I would try is to start with testing whether your thinned-down teeth will properly fit into any link alone - you can test this by trying the sprocket on the flat part of your assembled run. IF the teeth fit, then carefully cut off all the teeth which actually lie within the sprocket - track arch - insert these teeth thru the track links, and cement that track with teeth in to the sprocket. This gets the "right" tooth appearance and corrects their spacing to meet the links, and allows the track to settle down onto the sprocket wheel as desired.

The other route I would try would be to actually seriously thin down and reduce / reshape the teeth in the part of the sprocket where they fit into the track - NOT thinning on the rest - the teeth viwers can see. IF you start by fitting the track onto the first tooth of the arch, you'll be able to look in and see where the next tooth clashes or does not fit - cut some off that side of the tooth and fit that into the track, etc. This will make the teeth under the track links more peg-like and much thinner, but will keep the track positioned while allowing the track to settle onto the sprocket and also have teeth showing in the holes at the link-faces.

Either one or some combo of above (thin and then cut off teeth) should get you what you want. MUCH easier, I think, then trying to make replacement teeth from styrene sheet - but that's another option.

PS: I've had to do the cut-and-insert with some eastern bloc kits, and a Tristar Pz 1 kit needed a little tooth-thinning, but it has always worked one way or the other. Cutting teeth off and relocating them also works when you swap track sets - I fit some Friuls to an old Heller R-35 kit - the tracks did NOT line up with those teeth. I cut them off, re-applied them with slower cement, set the Friuls on (forcing the "floating" teeth into new spacing), let the sprockets dry completely, and removed the Friuls to do the sprocket wheel painting, etc. It worked out pretty OK.

Bob

Thanks Bob, I'm setting this aside for a little breather before I come back to this hopefully last hurdle in completing this "difficult child". I did get the thinned teeth on the other sprocket to fit better but not snug enuff.
I feel ok with trying the cutting off the teeth and filling the hole with a proxy tooth, but I know I'm gonna have to dig deep into the well of patience to make it look decent for both sprockets.
I'll send a final pic of my efforts in a week or so to see what ya guys think.
Thanks again guys!

Chris, if you're careful on the cutting, you can use the removed teeth to fill the sprocket holes. Use a drop of glue in the track hole and slip the old tooth in to the proper height. All you see is the end of the tooth so it doesn't matter if it's actually too short to reach the sprocket. It's actually a pretty simple operation.