I have purchased my first Friulmodel tracks (early Tiger I). The instructions are, er, "translated" (said with utmost kindness) from the Hungarian. Trying to figure out what they REALLY mean:

"You can find a detailed assembly instruction guid attached to the tracks." Oh? Is that right? Which tracks? The ones for another tank?

"You have to drill the bore in the link by a 0,5 mm drill. Note: you needn't drill the bore to its end open. Bore has to lead beyond the next connected link, but does not open on the other side of the link." Say what?

"Cut pieces [of wire?] some mm longer than link bores from the attached wire [actually, included, not attached], these will be the track pin."

"Drop a few CA adhesive in closed pbre to fix end. When the adhesive fized remove excess part of pin."

Oh, yeah? Well, that's easy for you to say.

Can someone please explain how this works and how I keep from accidentally gluing the links together so they don't work?

Bill

hi there,
nice to see people still murder the english language, ah well, i have made a couple sets of the fruilmodel tracks, use a small drill bit and drill out all holes from the side that the track pin goes in from, the holes are usually there but just need to be cleaned up, cut wire to fit in to holes with just a tiny bit left over to simulate a real track pin, i did not use the wire but went out and picked up some wire from my local model shop (pm hobby craft , calgary). it is much easier to work with, once you have figured out the correct length, then cut enough to made all the track pins with a couple left over for spares, and on veh spare tracks, once you have inserted track pin in and made sure the track pivots freely, then just bab a little bit of super glue at the end of the pin just enough to seal it in place and move on to next one, i made 2 complete elefant runs with out issue doing it this way, but be warned it takes rather a long time depending on which tank you are building

They are really so simple to use and with impressive results.Some of the links require cleaning but not all,just use a thumb drill or even a pin.Only one side of the track holes is open ,cut the wire to a size slightly wider then the track,insert thru open end careful not to break thru the closed end.on a tiger it is possible to have the open end where you inserted the wire to be hidden on the inside of the tracks.after wires are in and track is assembled,you may snip the wires to size,then youcan add glue to the track where the wire sticks out to help keep them in place,this is not always necessary as the wire stays in pretty good.After tracks are painted and weathered off the tank,you may add them and close that final link.I know this may have sounded complicated but it is so simple,and they look great.Some guys say they use pins,but for me the wire is good.

hope this helped

hi
i have used fruil's 3 times now. all i do is clean up any flash, using the side of my knife, then just hold 2 links together and insert the end of the wire, when it touches the other side lift it back out a little and cutt off with side-cutters. when long-enough just paint, mount and get muddy!
i have never glues the pins, if the model is static on a base i dont see the point.

hope this helps

neil

Thanks, Gents. I think it all makes sense. Sometimes things are easier than they seem, and a cigar is just a good smoke.

I couldnt count how many sets Ive assembled. Its much easier to cut the provided wire into lengths about a foot long. place two lengths together and insert the wire, then cut it off flush with the track..and then add another link. just keep adding lnks like that .. I usually make smaller sets, about 10-15 links each...then join those together when theyre done. Its much easier I think , than cutting a small piece of wire and trying to insert that. I use a pair of medical forcepts to help push the wire in. Once you have a complete set, I roll them up, and use a small applicator to apply a drop of CA glue into the pin hole.

I assemble mine the same way Tim does, foot long lengths of wire are much easier to handle/insert than ones pre-sized to the width of the track. Just snip the wire once you have inserted it at the correct length.
One thing I should mention is avoid using the runny super glue. Capillary action will pull the glue along the pin and sometimes glue the two lings together. Use the gel stuff so it stays on the open end of the pin. Once it dries, the pin will stay in place as sometimes I find they may slide out while painting/handling or placing them on the tank.

Bill, I basicly do it the way Tim does, but here is a link to a post I made a while back on ML. The post has three more links included which are to an excellent Friul step by step.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/95064/message/1108419463/here+you+go+Dave...

Best,
Mike

Thanks, that looks interesting. Is it me, but I can't make the three links embedded in that message work.

Ok, that's just weird, here are the three links, hopefully they will work here.

Mike

http://www.network54.com/Forum/95064/message/1094808492/Friulmodel+track+assembly++%26gt%3B+step+by+step
http://www.network54.com/Forum/95064/message/1095215462/Friulmodel-Blacken-it+solution+%26gt%3B+step+by+step
http://www.network54.com/Forum/95064/message/1096001114/Friulmodel+%26gt%3B+final+weathering

edit:in the process of doing this I also "fixed" the original post, even though I'm still not sure what happened??

I built my first set of these this past week. The first side took me forever to build, like 6 hours. The second set took my less than 2 hours to get done. They look great and I am very happy with them. My set is for a Panzer I and are very small, I guess those for a Tiger would be a little easier since they are alrger.

Bit of a dumb question... but which edge of the tracks is meant to face inwards? Is it the edge where you can see the pins or the other side? I suspect it is the flush side, i.e. without the pin ends, but just making sure before screwing up.

Cheers,
Ian

I believe you are correct, Ian.

And those Blacken It-treated links look so good, I'm switching from Modelkasten to Friulmodel tracks for my Sd.Kfz. despite the extra cost.

Bill

Since the tracks are not left and right handed, you will have one side with the pin hidden and the other exposed.

My Ferdinand/Elefant tracks are that way. There was a very brief period where the Tigers had right and left hand tracks.

Okay a bit off on a tanget from the topic but still hitting the target.

I came back to armor models thanks to Dragon/DML provide individual link tracks in their kits as I never really liked rubber bands. I liked the indy links because they looked better than rubber bands and I'm able to do more like damaged tracks. As their experience and technology increased so did the quality of their tracks and with slide-molding the tracks are just that much better. Now they are going back to rubber bands.

However I have noticed that the majority of people who build armor the first thing that is purchased from the aftermarket universe is TRACKS! Metal or plastic doesn't matter a bit but tracks are the first thing that is replaced.

Now I know that Dragon can run it's business as it sees fit and I do like what they have been producing but now that they are going back to rubber bands I'm less likely to buy their kits. And now Tamiya seems to be taking the hint that some have given and doing both rubberbands and links (plus lengths). I would like to see more companies do both in their kits and allow the modeler to choose which type to use.

Like most modelers I look for value and since I also build a good many kits out of box the kits with individual links are usually purchased more often. But if there is a kit that I want and I want good looking tracks and must buy aftermarket I'm less likely to buy that kit nowadays. Nothing against aftermarkt companies as I do own several track kits but mostly because they provided products for a variant that was not made by the kit maker (Tiger transport tracks).

Just a thought and would like to know what others think.

Joe,

Let me be first, since I started the thread.

In general, I want the highest level of realism I can get. The metal tracks have the weight of the real thing (as opposed to plastic), which is important in this scale (1/35th). I also like the way I can sand or file them to create wear, rather than having to:

dry brush
use the "hairspray" technique
something I don't yet know about

I agree that using rubber bands is undesirable, but I haven't buily any Dragon kits with Magic Tracks yet. The Modelkasten tracks on the Sd.Kfz. 7 are really excellent, but I'm ordering the Friulmodel ones for one of the two kits I'm building because it's a "fair weather" diorama. The other is mid-winter, so the tracks will be gobbed up with snow and/or mud.

If I were Dragon, I might be looking at all the after-market track sales and saying to myself "why bother with slide-molded tracks the end-user is only going to throw away?"

Bill

Myself, I prefer using the Friuls, simply for the realism, and sometimes, depending on the kit, theyre just easier to assemble. I like the Magic Tracks, and I'll use them just as well, but if theyre just indi links that I need to cut from sprue and clean...well, Id rather spend my time building than I would cleaning 180 or so links, which is why I feel the extra $30-$40 is worth it. As for choosing kits based off the tracks, no..I buy a kit for the kit ... choosen by #1, if its the tank I want to build, #2 hows the quality of the kit? I never base a purchase of the kit tracks.

Thanks for the feedback guys as I am wanting to know what other people think about this.

Like I said, I do build out of the box quite often and I too go for the highest level of detail based on what's in the kit. If I do go the "extra mile" and add extra parts I too would probably go for Friul or Modelkasten or whichever parts too. Yes I do look at the value that I get out of the box and make decisions on what to buy or not buy based on what's in the box and I feel that others do as well. I just think that with today's CAD/CAM/CNC abilities that are available to kit makers that this would be a way to add value to their products.

Then again, I did buy several ModelKasten T-55 and T-72 sets based on reviews of accuracy for several T-55 products and I'm damn glad the product is there.