Some more progress on the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank with one side of the tracks nearly done. I say nearly as whilst the kit makers envisage you constructing everything to completion and then painting it, most modellers of military armour will build sub assemblies and paint these before bringing the kit together as one. This is especially true of tracks and wheels. Tamiya and many other manufacturers supply a poly cap that goes in the wheel assembly and allows you to pop the wheel on and off the chassis. This is great for building as you can ensure the wheels line up whilst building the kit and then take the wheels off for painting and allowing the hull behind to also be painted. MiniArt however do not follow that method so a bit of improvisation is required. The wheels are attached with a wing and a prayer as well as some BluTac and this at least allows the tracks to be built around them and once complete removed along with the wheels for painting. That is the theory!
I used my usual method of constructing track links be attaching them to a strip of masking tape as I glued each link. This holds the links together whilst the glue sets but allows some flexibility so that the tracks can be posed over the various wheels with the correct sag. I then inserted a large set of tweezers into the gap between the top of the track and the hull fender which in effect forced the track links to take the correct sag over the wheels that the real tank had.
Once the glur started to harden I took the tweezers out and I have now left this first set of tracks to dry over night. Hopefully they have set correctly once I remove the masking tape. Then again it could be a contribution to the swear jar tomorrow then!
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