I've been working on the Trumpeter Strv103C for the greatest ever tanks campaign, not having a lot of joy with painting the vinyl tracks. The paint just comes right off any sort of contact or handling. I'm thinking of painting again, and spraying matt varnish to fix it. OR

buying a set of Leopard 2 indy tracks at the LHS and installing it on the Strv103C. Plastic should be easier to paint. does this make any sense to you guys out there?

That's exactly what I'm doing for my Strv 103C. I'm planning on using the AFV Club Leopard 2 indy track set. I already have them on hand, they are much better than the kit tracks. I am even considering leaving the jerry can side skirts off to show off the track better.
Does anybody know if this was ever done? Or did the 103C's "always" have the skirts on?

Guys,
the tracks look very similar, but they are not the same. Reason for this: Both are manufactured by Diehl.
Check the pattern of the inner sides, they are different.

Thomas

DOH! Thanks Thomas! I wish someone would make tracks for both versions of the 103.

If you get a chance, have a look at or purchase the following book:

http://www.sphf.se/103bokE.htm

The book states that the jerry can skirts would only be fitted to the vehicle during actual operations (ie. not training). The skirts, wading kit, bar armour and sometimes even the dozer blade would be generally removed from vehicles engaged in training (the bar armour was only ever installed on museum vehicles because it was tippy-top secret when the S-tank was in use). It is also interesing to note that the skirts and wading rails would be finished in dark green paint as they would have spent most of their life not mounted to the vehicle and hence would not have received the splinter cam scheme.

So the short answer to your question is yes, it would be correct to depict the vehicle sans skirts and sans wading rails.

Cheers - Dan

Yes, the Leo 2 tracks are a bit different from the Strv 103 tracks but not that much that it will be noticable in 1/35 scale, especially not if you apply some mud on them.
The swedish army even removed the pads from the 103 tracks to use on the Leos when the 103 was scrapped.
As for the bar fence, wading equipment and jerry cans it's correct that these items was not used during training.

See my web page for more info on the 103.
www.the-swede.com

/Thord