I picked up a few 1/72 Dragon armor kit sand was about to get started on one this week. As far as DS Tracks go, I hear they are better than the rubber tracks of old. Just wanted to know if any of you guys had any tricks or tips with these before i get started. Will Tamiya thin cement work on them? What is the best way to get "track sag?"

One of the tracks was taped very close to another bag and got pretty bent in the package. Maybe a blow drier to straighten it out?

Thanks for the help.

edit: crap.... i ment to put this in the Techniques forum.

The DS tracks are in my opinion better than the old rubber band tracks. They actually do hold paint pretty well. They can be glued with Tamiya extra thin-that's what I use on them and it works fine. As far as the warp issue, I have never had to deal with it since all of mine have been in pretty good shape other that a few distorted guide horns here and there that were hidden under skirts.

Hope this helps a little.

Ya! glad to know cement will work....I didn't want to have a glob of glue experiment with these things. Thanks for the help. I can't wait to get into these sweet dragon kits.

I would not even attempt to glue them with an overlap as instructions suggests. Fit them instead, cut the excess off (well, the most of it, leave there about a millimeter which will be melted by the cement to weld the joint) and glue them “end-to-end”. Then clean the joint with a sharp blade. Tamiya extra thin cement works fine.

BTW, did anyone ever try any of those photo-etched tracks (like OKD Grigorov produces)? How are those put together? How do they ultimately look (especially comparing to DS ones)?

There was some discussion in the Braille Scale forum about DS tracks. I posted a picture there of what had to be done to induce track sag. You can find the posts HERE. I ended up having to use Super Glue in the process.

Hope this helps!

tread_geek

Those PE tracks are very interesting. More like the length and link tracks of some of the Esci kits, but if you looks closely, some of the PE tracks require several folds to get the 3D depth and detail. I think several sets had the guid horns and tracks cut as one continuous sheets. The guide horns would be folded. then each half of the track folded to double over the cleat giving it depth. The folds would require patience and a good straight edge that's for sure. Not to mention gluing the doubled up sections without loosing the crisp detail.

The biggest problem I see with some of the DS tracks is the fit to the toothed sprocket. Some seem a little thick too and lack some detail along the edges. I really didn't mind length and link tracks, though they were a bit tedious. But as long as DS tracks allow them to continue to release new kits, I'll figure a way to cope with it.