TracksTo continue with the tracks
The old Esci plastic band tracks are notorious. Detail of the outside of the tracks is not bad. But on the inside there is no detail and instead of guiding teeth the tracks have a continuous raised ridge in the middle. To make things worse they are made of a quite stiff quality of plastic. Arkoudaki suggested already to change the tracks for aftermarket stuff earlier in this thread. But although I have some suitable link & length tracls lying around I am hardheaded and wanting to try to make the most out of the Esci tracks first.
First I painted the tracks. This time no rust, mud and dust, but factory fresh: dark grey with an iron coloured drybrush on the thread pattern.
I connected the track ends by old fashioned melting the connector pins, supported by a drop of CA glue.
I stuck ends of 0,7mm iron wire through the lower hull to force the tracks into the desired track sag. I started this exercise with much thinner 0,4mm iron wire, but this was just bent by the inflexible tracks. The iron wire was also painted grey to make it invisible after the tracks have been placed.
Tracks in place.
Track sag is a bit overdone, but it is useful to get a snug fit of the tracks around the wheels, as the Esci tracks are a tad too long.
It looks quite simple now, but it took me several hours to get the tracks like this: bent iron wire and its replacement, wheels broken of and glued back, connection between the track ends broke and repaired again, reposition of the tracks several times to get the connection point in the best position, etc,
For an Esci track I think the final result is not too bad. But I'm afraid some nasty things will show up in the final pictures. Well, that's my own choice of course, being stubborn to use these old tracks.