Question on the Pz III Ausf N tracks. Did the later ones have hollow or filled guide horns? Did they possibly use both? From what I've found, the early Pz III tanks has the hollow horns. Stugs could have either as they were produced throughout the war. I have a set of Fruil tracks cleaned up and ready to use. They have the filled horn. I have the Tamiya Pz III Ausf N kit. It has rubber band tracks and they have the filled horns. A lot of the photos I find online are hard to see the tracks. Some I can clearly see the spare links and they are usually hollow horns. Some photos seem to show a mix of both types of links on the track. Maybe just some of the hollow links packed full of mud.

Well... ALL the scenarios could apply to your III-N!

1) N was produced into mid-1942.

2) Pz.III / IV track link styles evolved over time - early 1940 - 41 links were hollow-horned, solid-horned tracks started appearing in 1942, IIRC.

3) German tank assembly plants often practiced "last in - first out" when using stocked parts. Tanks might get newest parts or old-stock parts, depending on what was on hand right then.

4) Field shops often replaced track runs, so a damaged or worn "newer style" run might actually get replaced with an older-style run, if such was on hand. Ditto for tanks sent back to Nibelungenwerke for overhaul and rebuilding. Runs could get replaced. Tanks could easily end up with a newer run and an older run.

5) Crew often replaced damaged links in the field using on-tank spares and spares "borrowed" from other tanks. This led to runs having mixed link types.

6) The longer a tank survived, the more chance it had of gaining mixed links.

7) Tanks on the east front sometimes swapped standard 40cm track runs for "winterketten" (in winter of 1942-'43) or later for "ostketten". When swapping back to the 40cm standard track runs, whatever run was on hand got used.

In summary: You have legit options for older, newer, and mixed-type runs. It depends on your "story" for your N build as to what you decide to use. Almost any 40cm link type could appear on an N if it survived later into the war.

Hope this helps!

Bob

Thanks for all the information in your reply! Exactly what I was looking for.

The Tamiya kit is a brilliant kit, I like it very much, and have basicaly completed mine - just needs paint which im too nervous to start. Hopefully you post some of yours?

If you are building the tank marked as '116' in the tamiya kit, then I can confirm I have seen a photo of tank 116 (disabled) which clearly shows hollow horn tracks. But as others say all options would be suitable, if you are building 116 then hollow horns would be the way to go