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Which glue for rubber tracks?


Rick Brown

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Chaps.

Whats the best glue to stick rubber tracks to the top of the road wheels to produce the sag?

I've just about finished the Tamiya 1/35th Panther and the tracks are weathered with tamiya paint and the road wheels have been varnished with Galleria.

I need some form of glue that wont damage the finish, but produces a good, long term join.

Rick.

 

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I’d use some brass rod drilled through into the hull to press the track to the top of the road wheels, you can paint and weather it up so that it blends in, no one would notice :D

 

You could also tie them down with some fine thread, but gluing them might be problematic unless it’s one of the new type of vinyl that you can use regular modelling cement, it would say on the instructions if that’s the case and that should work. 

 

HTH

 

Dan 

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IMHO the answer is "none", unless this kit has one of the specifically glueable types which should respond to ordinary plastic solvent adhesives.  If so, the instructions will say to glue the track ends together.  If it's the type that must be heat-sealed together, then for all practical purposes there is no permanent adhesive for it. 

 

Other than the few glueable types, every other flexible material that kit tracks are made from - which is very rarely rubber - is impervious to most solvents and presents a very low-grip surface.  Your paint is very likely to pull off in short order - leaving you trying to stick the paint back to the track or cleaning off the wheel and trying again.  A plastic-plastic join might last a little longer, but over time the tension in the track will overcome the adhesive, and you may get softening of the hard plastic from the contact.  I presume the varnish is to prevent this?  But if you use glue, a kink is inevitable as the track will adopt a straight line between the sprocket top and the glue point - until it pings off! - whereas it should adopt a smooth curve down from the sprocket.

 

The old trick for these tracks was to use a loop of appropriately-coloured or "invisible" thread between or behind the wheels, depending on the suspension and track type, holding the top run either around the wheel centre or to the bottom run of the track.  I have also heard of people inserting headless pins into the hull sides to hold the top run down, painted appropriately or disguised with mud to hide them.  PECO blackened brass model railway track pins spring to mind, but may be a little short. 

 

Unfortunately both Panther hull types had quite a wide gap between the track and the sponson bottom, although less on the G.  If you have the schurzen fitted then the sag will be completely hidden and you can use thread or pins to ensure that when seen from the back the track comes flat to the idler and not on a slope.  If not, then I would say use thread from the inside teeth holes in the track behind the road wheels and around the axles.  The track should certainly touch the top of the 2nd outside road wheel, possibly the 2nd inside one if slack.  But to avoid the kink problem you will probably need to use thread on the first 2 wheel stations too to get that smooth curve without a kink at the first tie-down point.

 

There are advantages to individual link or link and length hard plastic tracks, accepting that these are not provided or available for every tank type.  Some kits, such as the Trumpeter KV-1s, even come with the top run sag already moulded in.  But there are the disadvantages of extra cost, potential loss of sanity and expansion of the sweary vocabulary!

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Thanks chaps.

Just as I suspected, no glue will do the job.

A pin idea is certainly possible. I have plenty of rod around to do that.

I'll have a ponder over a single malt. That usually comes up with a solution.

Rick.

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Two-part epoxy will do it for you.  You do have to be careful with it, of course, and weighting the tracks while it sets is a good idea.

 

However you'll find that any gluing will give you only an approximation of the true sit of the tracks.  They hang in a curve; gluing a portion to a wheel tends to produce straight lines.  The more points you can glue, the better it looks, but it's still a series of straights joined together.  The same will happen if you use brass rods as advised above1 - although you can at least give some idea of the curvature in areas where the tracks aren't yet in contact with the wheels.

 

This is especially a problem with, say, the Panther, whose tracks have to hang neatly back to the third, sometimes the fourth, road wheel.  And it's worse with a Scorpion, whose tracks barely touch the wheels on top.  I'd give serious consideration to some nice heavy metal tracks, like the Friul jobs, or DS tracks if they're available for your model, or even single-link polystyrene ones.

 

1brass rods!  In my day you were advised to raid your mum's sewing box.

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Cheers Pigsty.

I'll have another look tomorrow, I think I have a way involving brass rods and a soldering iron (!).

I certainly don't want to add to the cost of these old Tamiya kits, even if after-market tracks are still availble.

I'll keep you all posted, the tracks are about the last bit of the build now.

Rick.

 

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Most tracks are a series of straight links, albeit small in 1/70-odd scale.  Exceptions are continuous band tracks, as on American half-tracks.

Sweary vocabulary: if doing a KV, why not take up swearing in Russian? Well worth it, I hear!

And whatever you do, don't use CA; it is said to make the tracks brittle.

 

I used to use the pin method, with the pins lying along track link boundaries.  I did try a suggested length of sprue along the top of a T34 track, but it looked terrible.

If I were modelling armour now, I think I'd go with beheaded pins - which includes thin, stiff wire lengths, of course.

And don't let the track look too loose; in 1/1 this would result in shedding.

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Whether it be the old type of vinyl track or the more recent glueable type, I've successfully used super glue. Just a small dab on top of the road wheel, and then use something like cocktail sticks or pieces of sprue, wedged in between the track guard and the wheel to hold the track down until the glue sets. Never had a problem.

 

John. 

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As a rule I'd have recommended CA, but I work in 1/72.  :confused:

 

Best of British fella, hope you find a satisfactory solution, it's difficult to fix band style Panther tracks so that they sag nicely, even in my preferred scale. 

 

 

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FRED!!!   use a needle and thread to loop around a road wheel center and through the upper run of the track in a couple of spots. ..............or  :-

 

 

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Found just the thing in my Archery kit!

It's a strong, 2mm wide, double sided tape.

Pretty expensive just for modelling, but it'll last years!

 

y4mkWmwnsrl27a5sypRVKlJ0ACToSNMLLuDIBlx8

 

Can be found in any archery shop, such as Wales Archery.

BTW, UHO didn't work, as expected.....

 

Rick.

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On ‎07‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 12:02 PM, rayprit said:

FRED!!!   use a needle and thread to loop around a road wheel center and through the upper run of the track in a couple of spots.

Hmm... This does sound good, especially with 'invisible' thread.

 

I once had industrial double sided tape (as used for sticking placards on consoles) recommended to me for cladding buildings etc, but don't know anyone in the aerospace industry who could get me some.  I think I'll look into this fletching tape.

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Well I've never lost any feathers due to tape failure!

Its pretty damn strong stuff.

It seems to become stronger the longer it's left in place.

I recently re fletched a couple of arrows and had to hit the tape with a fair bit of IPO to get it off.

Let's hope it stays on these darn rubber tracks!

Rick.

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