So, a treadhead walks into a bar with crooked DS tracks....

[DennisTennant]

...yep. I'm building a Dragon 1:72 Stug and the DS tracks that came with it aren't exactly straight. Both runs are twisted and I need to straighten them out. Anyone have experience doing this? I'm thinking of using hot water to finesse them into position and then dipping in cold water to "lock" them into position. Before I try this with my only set of tracks, has anyone done this successfully?

 

Or is there a better way of doing it?

 

Any help appreciated,

 

Dennis

[ghodges]

Take the following with a grain of salt, as it's from an airplane builder.

 

I'm not familiar with "DS" tracks (resin? metal? plastic?) however, I did build a resin M-16 halftrack last year that came with one piece STRAIGHT resin tracks. I had to make a jig and then heat and bend them to shape. I made the jig and then used a hair dryer on high heat to do the job. It worked on the resin, so perhaps a hair gun would work on your DS tracks, IF you had a jig to straighten them out as you went? Hope this helps!

 

GIL

[Ron Bell]

Denny,

Hair dryer. Tape the tracks to a ruler or some flat surface with a little bit of tension pulling on them. You may have to put one end of a staple in them if tape won't hold. Now, I mean tension, not stretching. You don't want them longer, just tight so the bends are held where they should be. Then set your hair dryer on "high" and heat them up. Get them heated through and through. It shouldn't take long and you shouldn't be able to damage the plastic with hot air. Then let them completely cool. Again, won't take long. Remove and they should be pretty straight if not arrow-like. If still bent, try again with a little more tension.

Ron

 

PS: That DS stuff is great. It really does glue with normal styrene glue and it holds well.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Ron Bell

[Mark Aldrich]

Dennis,

Not sure if you have tried this yet but DS 1/35 track has always been notoriously long. If you can connect them, you might try setting them on the trank and seeing what they look like.

[RGronovius]

Someone on another forum talked about having kinked DS Sherman tracks that had end connectors pushed down and rendered unusable. He contacted Dragon and they sent him a replacement set.

 

But when he went back to the kit, the tracks he had left out had reverted back to their original shape and were just fine. Folks talk about pinning them to a piece of cardboard and they straighten out after a bit.

[DennisTennant]

Since this is a 1:72 tank, the tread are wee. I'll try Ron's tip first and go from there. I may even photograph the process and share, depending upon how it goes. Thanks!

[Mark Deliduka]

I missed that this was a 1/72 scale tank. I had a Dragon 1/72 scale tank that had twisted DS tracks. I laid them flat and they eventually flattened out for the most part. Any remaining kink was removed when I glued the tracks to the road wheels. I also made sure the twisted part was beneath one of the road wheels, allowing the weight of the model (such as it is) help to keep it flat.

 

Let us know how this worked out for you. I want to see more.

[DennisTennant]

Okay, not wanting to wait for the possibility of a replacement set from Dragon, I soldiered on with my plan to fix them instead. Figuring I have 20 or so 1:72 kits I won't be building for several years, finding a way to fix the problem myself seemed the best course for me. Here's how I fixed them. YES! I found a way to do it!

 

So, here's my step-by-step:

 

First, go down to the local hardware store and purchase a length of aluminum bar bent into a 90 degree angle, a package of brass bolts, nuts and washers. Use a hacksaw to cut 6 inches of bar (two pieces needed), filed the ends to smooth them a bit and remove any snags, then clamp both pieces together and drill the two holes for the bolts to go through. I think you'll be able to figure out what I did by looking at this photo:

 

 

 

I then carefully placed the single guide horn for the track into the slot between the two aluminum bars and gently tightened down the two nuts to hold it into place. Turning the holder face down onto a flat surface helped make sure the track run was flush against the surface of the holder.

 

 

Taking my trusty hair dryer and, with the setting on high, I began to play the heated air across the tracks. I slowly increased the heat until it was uncomfortable to hold the metal holder in my hands. When I reached that point, I set it aside. No plunging into cold water, etc. I just turned off the heat and let it cool down on its own.

 

 

After the holder had cooled to room temperature, I untightened the holder and removed the tracks.

 

I think it worked nicely. The "before" tracks are at left, the result after being heated in the holder is at right.

 

 

They definitely are straighter. Spending $5 on this has provided me with a device to straighten all my single-guide horn tracks in the future. I have an idea for fixing tracks with two guide horns in the works. Stay tuned.

 

Hope this helps others in search of a way to fix their DS tracks. Thanks to Ron, Gil and everyone else for the suggestions!

 

d

[RGronovius]

Who is Ron?

[DennisTennant]

Ron Bell

[Mark Ford]

Dennis,

 

Now you need to go out and buy about 20 feet of the angle aluminum and make up 10-20 sets of the jig to sell to other treadheads!!!!

You could get rich ....or not!

 

Mark