Hey Guys, I have a Famo kit that's going to be built after the K5's. I looked at the Fruil track set for it and was wondering what the difference is between the early and late type track. When I build it I'm going to add the spade. Thanks for any input you might have.

Hi. good question here. I have a Tamiya Famo stuffed under the bed that I bought here this past spring that has been collecting mostly house dust and cat hair, and an occasional detail kit that I've picked up for it, including the spade unit. I never considered the tracks as I thought I would take a stab at the link units Tamiya supplied just to see how they do. (Don't expect too much from them, as I'm a real Fruilmodel fanatic myself.)

Anyway, I looked on the R and J site, where I get most all my after market items from, and sure enough, there it was--early and late-types. Never realized this before. Thanks for bringing this up.

Been doing some looking here and there in my books and have yet to find anything that tells the difference between these two, but I will take a shot in the dark here, and it WILL be a shot in the dark, at best.

After looking over the directions from the kit I see that the tracks in the kit have rubber shoes that go on the links, so I would guess that this represents the 'early' style of track. What with rubber being just one of the many items that was in short supply in Germany in the later war years, I would have to guess that the 'late' type were all steel with no rubber shoes.

I would be kind of interested if anybody else can verify this or maybe I really off the mark (won't be the first time, nor, by far, the last).

The man and woman who run R and J are very knowledgeable folks on the after-market items they sell (one of the main reasons I try to buy most all my stuff from them), and they should be able to tell you the difference if nobody here can here (which I find very unlikely).

Their site is http://www.rjproducts.com.

Best of luck on the K5s and Famo.

Take care,sgirty

Hi Guys-

The difference between the early and late Famo tracks lies in the track face. Both early and late versions had the rubber blocks.

The early version does not have the "groove" in the face of the track cleat like the late version of the track does. I'm guessing that the "groove" was added to increase the traction the vehicle got when going over slushy or muddy terrain. The troughs in the face of the cleat kinda let the mud/snow/etc. squish out the sides - kinda like the treads on you car tires do when driving on wet pavement.

Early:


Late:


HTH
Jeff

Hi Thanks jrnelson. I can mark this day up at defintely learning something, both on a model and the real vehicle. Then according to this, the kit's tracks are the early type, as there's no 'groove' in them. These kit tracks are very well molded with lots of detail, which we've come to expect from Tamiya. Any idea on when this change came about? Just curious.

Also see that according to the pictures on the boxes you show that the early model has 2 indentations on each side, where the late style has three. At least all this would give more 'digging' power I'd think, and maybe save some metal in their manufacture too.

Thanks and take care, sgirty

wow great post,i need more to know about these tracks,
cause i heard that the super glue is not enough to hold them.
iwas reading tony green lands book he said that the Fruil Famo Tracks look great,
but he uses soider to hold them together and how are model kasten tacks thanks

Hi Tazz. Never had any problem with the Fruilmodel tracks coming apart, unless there was one link that I missed in appling the CA to the wire's end. Then to have the track fall apart, usually when putting it on. Or one link where I didn't get the wire 'pin' all the way down into the hole. I use the medium thick CA so I can control the flow of it better, right where the pin's exposed end is located.

Of course I've never used the Famo style of halftrack links yet, so these may be different. But I would be surprised if there was a problem.

Only problem I've run into on these tracks was getting a couple sets here a few years ago when the company was making the kind that you had to use a jig of sorts to bend the ends down over one another to get them together. Talk about a MAJOR pain in the A--. Luckily I don't believe these are around any more since they switched to the pin system.

Personally, never have tried the Model Kasten tracks so I can't comment on them. But I hear they are good.

But, like I've said other places, if you try just one set of the Fruilmodel tracks you are going to be hooked on them, first round.

Take care, sgirty

iam going to order a set of Fruilmodel tracks this week,
i been doing a lot of reading on them and they sound like the best.
i would never buy model kasten cause they are plastic and dont have the sag lol

Thanks guys for the info. Looks like the late style for me. They'll be the first set of Fruills I have done. Should be interesting.