I have a Heller R35 kit I bought second hand, but it came without tracks. I don't want to go for the expense of Friul replacements. Does anyone know if the Hobby Boss H38/39 tracks will fit? Would they be appropriate for this tank?

You're not missing much, Heller's R-35 tracks are spectacularly bad. I'll have a look this evening at the wheels of the H-39 and R-35 to see if the tracks will mesh, though the designs of the real tracks are bound to be slightly different.

David

Even if they don't fit, you could make this into an interesting dio story.

"Why don't they fit Pierre?" Have a couple of guys standing around scratching their heads, like guys always do....

The Heller kits all need the tracks replaced, the kit tracks are horrible. Friul make track sets for the Somua and Hotchkiss, but only Modelkasten make a set for the Renault.

David..I'll wait to hear what you find out. I've got my fingers crossed.

Steven...that's not a bad idea (it made me laugh).

Thanks guys for your timely replies.

Don't worry about it. I've worked maintenance at a low budget place before...there was always a lot of this going around! Good luck working with some AM tracks; I hope to see pics some day too!

Didn't have my HB tracks handy last night, so I tried the wheels of the R-35 on some rubberband H-39 tracks (both Tamiya and Trumpeter). The road wheels fit okay between the teeth on the track links, but the spacing of the R-35 sprocket teeth is totally different and it looks like they won't mesh.

You could of course just cut off the offending sprocket teeth

H-39 tracks



R-35 tracks



The latter look to have a shorter pitch, no surprise about the lack of standardisation...

David

David,

Thanks for trying the fit. From the photos, I see what you mean about the shorter pitch. Still, the HB tracks might be the way to go for the cost. I could see relocating a few sprocket teeth. Standardize...why would the French ever want to do that!

Chris

I would have to say that most of Heller's tracks are pretty bad. I would replace the ones on my AMX-13 and 30 in a heartbeat if I could find link to links for them. The kits are good except there.