Does anyone have any experience using, or even seen up close the Sovereign 2000 Panzer I tracks?
I've started building a couple of "olde" Italeri / Zvezda Panzer I kits (a PzBef Ib and a Pzjgr Ib), both off evilBay, and was looking for an improvement on the included vinyl tracks (which were missing in one of the kits anyway). I don't really want to fork out for Friuls as they'll cost more than the kits and the "very necessary" Eduard PE I've got for them.

Saw the Sovereign link and length tracks at uk-models and at less than $20 was wondering whether to give them a try. I only ever hear people discussing the pros and cons of Friuls, AFV Club or Modelkasten and an internet search of their tracks only turns up a couple of sellers and no reviews.

Cheers,
Lucien

Seems like a lot of money to upgrade a couple of 25-30 yr old kits. I recently bought the Dragon Pz 1A that comes with Magic Tracks for $14, and while I was surfing eBay for an inexpensive Pz 1 kit, I ran across a Tristar Pz 1A that comes with MK tracks for $10 AU in QLD.
http://cgi.ebay.com/TRISTAR-1-35-PANZER-AUSF-A-/270692276406

I think you've kind of painted yourself into a corner. A bargain kit that requires you to spend more money on aftermarket parts than you'd spend on a state of the art kit, is no bargain. The Dragon kits don't require any aftermarket bits to look respectable, and the Afrika Korps Panzer I Ausf. B goes for around $30 USD online, less than many dealers charge for tracks alone. It has individual link tracks and photoetch parts in the box.
Italeri's kit requires new machine guns, photoetch details for the exhausts, new idler wheels (Italeri depicts a nonexistent rubber tire on theirs, as did the first boxing of Dragon's kit--they fixed it later). Italeri's vinyl track is actually not bad for the medium, but move the idler wheel arm in about a millimeter, or the tension on the track will cause it to snap a week or so after you install it.
While there are some amazing snap-together resin track sets out there, Sovereign's appears to be old-school, glued, link and length, which means to get the necessary droop on the top runs, you'll need to heat the assembled sections with a hair dryer and bend them to shape while they are still warm. It's not a technique I would approach with any confidence. Personally, I'd just stick with the vinyl.

Thanks for the replies gents.
Gerald, re your warning about the link and lengths. Are you saying I'll need to heat the metal tracks?
I've also got the CH Panzerjager 7.5cm, so I may just put some Friuls on that and shift its magic tracks to the Alan Bison 1 and move the Alan tracks down the food chain.

It really wasn't such a a bad deal when I purchased them, for $65 I got,
Italeri Kommando Panzer 1B
Italeri Panzerjager 1B
DML Panzer 1A
Warriors Early German Tank Crew
Panzer Tracts - Panzer 1

I'm not that long back into the hobby, so don't mind using it as an training exercise in PE folding and painting/weathering.

PS. I can't wait to go to Bovington and crawl underneath their Pz1 and see if it too has Italeri / Zvezda stamped on its belly

BomberG...;

Hi!

About that Pz 1 track issue... In part I would jump right on with what's been said already about the "why update that Italeri when you can..." - I did that kit about 35 years ago (still up on the shelf, and actually just re-painted some of the details, etc.!). I liked the kit. The tracks still look, well, vinyl.

Skip those link and length things. Link tracks just plain look better.

You have a lot of good choices for styrene link tracks- all tiny and all tedious, but tracks look RIGHT. I am a Pz 1 fan - have 2 on the shelf, 4 on my bench, and several in the pile (Dragon, Tristar, MasterBox). ALL come with links- newer DML w/ Magic-tracks, older w/ cut-off-the sprue links, Tristar w/ cut-off-sprue "modelkasten" style links, MB kits w/ cut-off-sprue links.

I've built Dragon old and new, Tristar, and MB tracks, and all came out looking good. And, aside from lots of tiny links to deal with, they all do go together pretty easily, with care and patience. (And, PS, there seem to be many horror stories out there from folks having trouble busting links while clipping them out... Just take your time and be gentle- I've busted maybe 10 links out of the 1200 or so (200+ per kit) I've clipped. My old fat fingers and tired eyes can handle them, so can your's!)

So- if you want to add tracks to your Italeri kits - which you do already have - scarf up ANY older or newer DML, Tristar, or MasterBox Pz 1 kits (if you get any one of these for under 20 US or whatever your price point for that link-and-length set (ugh!) is, you get both great tracks AND lots of other good stuff that could play roles elsewhere for the same money!). MasterBox also sells a Pz 1 link set (typically we can get it here in the USA off eBay shipped from the Ukraine for around 15 all-up. Sometimes cheaper.) - it's an good-looking track.

I "pass" on the metal Fruils or resin- it's a "why bother? What's the real gain?" to me- I glue my plastic link sets to set them into the sags and look I want, so a "workable" set does not do much- once on the tank and in position it's fixed.

And a word about Pz 1 "sag". As seen in most period in-action photos, there usually was not much sag allowed- that's the recipe for tossing a track. Lots of folks apparently like a lot of sag on their builds- in part maybe because "we can", with link sets. While it does look cool, I'd counsel "restraint" - just my opine, of course!

I have attached a pic of my MasterBox Pz. KleinePanzerBefehlsWagen 1A initial build to show the kit link tracks. This was my first ever link track job.

Cheers, and "Good Choosing" (and building!)!

Bob

That's basically what I did. While digging around my stash, I found the old Italeri Pz 1 kit that I had bought and started (badly) around 1988 or 89. I thought I'd check ebay to find a builder's kit that I could swipe parts off of to restore, but noticed that the price of current kits was about the same as the old Italeri one.

I checked my local hobby shop and found the Dragon Pz 1A early for $14. I couldn't even get a set of tracks for that price. I also ran across that Tristar kit, but after shipping from AU to US, it wouldn't be that big a bargin. In the end, I ended up with a better kit for less money.

If they are white metal, no heating is required, but you'll need to gently bend them without snapping the glue joints. I haven't seen non-workable, white metal links in many years, so it hadn't occurred to me that that might be the medium (twenty years ago, I had a very old set of non-workable, white metal M24 tracks from a British maker that nearly drove me to drink).
If they are resin cast, they will need to be heated. The Sovereign website doesn't appear to specify what they are made of, unfortunately.