Ok, here's an age-old (well actaully only about 15 years old) question that's probably been covered on this site. It just popped into my head from some postings on the new M-26. Frankly I like the "rubber band" type tracks on vehicles and while they DO take some extra effort to lay right, I think they are much eaiser to paint and a lot less frustrating than getting link-by-link lined up (ahhh, my trusty balsawood jig inprinted with Tiger I tread marks). However, I do think the treads in the Famo were really nice and easy to work with..

What do you all think? Any mertis to still sticking with the "rubber band" style tracks, or trash 'em all and go to individual links?

Nate
Wisc. USA

Hi

I think it depends a lot on what you are modelling.

First, let's assume equal quality (so no old Tamiya rubber bands etc.). In that case, I think it depends on what you are building, Shermans and other Allied tanks with 'live' tracks are easy to do with rubber bands. The new ones can be glued where needed to get the upper run straight. For a Pz III or something else with dry pin tracks, I find the indy links look better. It's easier to put a subtle sag in the tracks, and the detail is almost always better in my experience. On most rubber band tracks I've seen, the links look too 'attached' to each other.

I just put a run of indy links on my DML PzIII last night. It takes a while, but they look way better than rubber bands! And the way I build the tracks, it's easy to pull the complete run off the running gear, and paint it separate from the rest of the vehicle.

Cheers
Andy

Nate, the answer depends on the type of track, "live" or "dead".

For those of you not in the know, "live" track is the type that uses a series of rubber bushings along the track pins to make the track curl when off the tank. Modern US tracks (M1, M60) are like this. "Dead" tracks are the type with a pronounced sag in them like M113 or Russian tracks.

Live track looks better with vinyl tracks since they are normally maintained with a very tight tension. Dead tracks are handled better with single links so the sag can be formed in a more permanent manner.

That being said, live tracks can look great with a high quality individual link set as well as dead track being tied down properly using vinyl tracks can look great as well.

Back in the day when early Tamiya was state of the art, their vinyl tracks would have that permanent bend in it from being stored with the rubber band holding it in half or worse yet, they would be twisted or kinked. I never could get those bends out. Plus these old tracks had very little if any detail on them.

At least when individual tracks came on the scene, they had detail on both sides. However, many of them had a multitude of injector marks on each side and sink marks galore.

Both vinyl and single links now come in superior quality, so the choice is yours.

With the Sherman/Stuart/Lee-Grant type of tanks your better off with the rubber band type of tracks IMO anyway Back in late 1995 when the DML Sherman firefly came out I did those individual links I t seems like they took forever to build The only indy links I'll use fot the above mentioned tanks is from AFV Club or RHPS
They are the workable type and don't need glue However ,I will build a top run of say 25 links and a bottom run of 20,then run some liquid glue along the connection points Thats just to make sure they don't vibrate apart when I'm driving my tractor trailer down the road
Chad #:-)

I don't have a lot of experience with either type but did notice something interesting to me with my Trupeter M1A2 kit. It comes with both and the vinyl tracks actually have better detail. I have always heard the opposite so I was shocked. I checked a bunch of the single link parts to make sure it wasn't just a few bad parts. You really can see more and better detail on the vinyl.

Sometimes I feel indy links along with other extras are used just for the sake of having as much add-ons as possible, no matter if they are better or not. Some of the most recent kits are unbelievabley good and Ive read reviews where kits come with a choice of vinyl and singles yet the builder has went ahead and still bought an aftermarket set.
Its interesting to read reviews now in magazines like military modelling where the author actually states that most of the suitable PE set is redundant as the parts are actually better in the kit.
I know there will always be a case where aftermarket tracks and PE are needed for a certain variation, but as time goes on it looks likely that the supplied track with the kit will be as good as what can be bought extra. I count myself as a novice compared to most in this game but I will choose the kit track as much as possible and try to camouflage defects within reason. This to me is modelling.
I know before this is posted, some will not agree with this but it is only my opinion!

As others have stated above, I like the link-to-link tracks much better when I am modeling a vehicle with "dead" tracks (which is almost always as I like early was Soviet armor). I find it much easier and better looking to do a track with sag as link-to-link. I don't have much experience with the nice new rubber-band tracks as most of the models that I have built came with the old crappy vinyl, only one side detailed, hunks of useless garbage. I look forward to diving in to my first newer kit with good gluaeble rubber tracks to see how they look.

BTW, what is the track like with the newer Tamiya Shermans? Is it the new nice rubber band track or the old crap?

HI Adam

The Tamiya shermans either come with rubber chevron track with duckbills. Nicely detailed, but not glueable, and dates from the 35122 kit of the M4A3 OR they have the metal chevron tracks from the M4 Early, which are glueable. Also nicely detailed and of course easier to set up because they can be glued.

Andy