Tamiya Panzer Kampfwagen II Ausf. F/G tracks

[lesthegringo]

Gentlemen, after successfully getting my 15 year old son into modelling, he has taken to it well albeit choosing AFV's rather than his old man's preference, aircraft - a perversity that I will overlook! Eventually I will get him to see sense..... He does a nice job, certainly better than my efforts when I was a nipper, although I suspect that the quality of the kits in the stone ages was somewhat poorer. No thumb marks in glue on prominent surfaces, he actually bothers putting all those little fiddly bits on and using my tools he cleans up the sprue nibs and flash before assembly. Very good, wish I could get the same level of attention for his schoolwork.

 

However he recently picked up the titular kit, and to his (and of course eventually my) dismay, the instructions are entirely in Japanese. While most is intelligible through diagrams the assembly of the tracks is a little confusing. Other Tamiya kits use styrene cement to join the ends of the tracks, however this one seems to use a kind of tool to 'rivet' the ends together. I assume that the intent is a hot metal pin punch to melt the protruding pins to form a mushroom head, but would like to check and ask if there is any better alternative.

 

Cheers guys

 

Les

[Crayons]

The "tool" in the instruction diagram is nothing more than a flat head nail hammered into a piece of wood that you then heat and use to flatten the pins to join the tracks. Some Tamiya instructions suggest the use of a blade screwdriver heated in the same manner.

[lesthegringo]

Hi tech indeed!

 

Thanks for that

 

Les

[Ceithearn]

Congratulations building/creating with your teen son Les.

 

My son and I built a few kits around the same age and although at the moment he isn't building, too much going on with the last year of HS, believe he has the bug and in the long run will return to the hobby or art form.

 

Those kits we built together were some really fond and wonderful memories. No pressure, no "parenting", a little guidance/advice when asked, two guys hanging out creating, great times.

 

Enjoy!

 

Robert

[lesthegringo]

Thanks Robert. He certainly seems to enjoy it, and a recent trip to the Puckapanyal Tank museum just north of Melbourne has given him some more encouragement. They have five Matildas there of different types, so I have got him the latest Tamiya one to do. Not sure if he'll copy the ones from the museum, but at least he has some reference material

 

Les

[Bigglesof266]

Les those sound like the old mould Tamiya tracks which aren't glueable with polystyrene 'cement'. The special tool is a heated flat bladed screwdriver. Using it is a one shot approach.

 

You might try gluing them with Weldbond white glue or Pacer 560 canopy cement. I think the latter is likely the former in value added packaging. Regardless, the later works on polycarbonate plastic so might just work on those vinyl tracks too. Similarly Weldbond glues most anything together with a high strength bond. It's slow curing but dries clear, and any excess is water cleanup whilst wet. Use a clamp or tape to hold the ends together until cured. It is touch dry in about half an hour, but takes about eight hours to reach bond strength.

[lesthegringo]

Thanks, sounds like I can use it for aircraft canopies too

 

Cheers

 

Les