I made many experiments utilizing photo-etch, machining, white metal and resin casting. I talked to dentists, jewelers, tool and die makers, lost wax casters and metal casters. I even contacted Model Kasten in the 1990's and they did bid the job.
All of the methods that were developed were either way too expensive or moderately expensive, but a real nightmare for the modeler to assemble.
It wasn't until 2005 that I met the guys from Print-A-Part (at the IPMS nationals) that I was introduced to the 3d printing technique. My good friend Mike Armstrong (a freakin' genius by the way), understood the technology that Print-A-Part utilized and said "I can do the 3d design work for the LVT tracks, and they will be fully assembled and working right out of the machine!"
Mike had never done ANY 3d design work before and though he had access to the Solid Works software he had never use it before.
But Mike had a long career as a fabricator in the aerospace industry and was very experienced at how things work and how to engineer the various parts and assemblies of things.
Mike and I has already visited several real LVTs and thoroughly measured and photographed the tracks in great detail, so a week later he sent me the 3d file for the tracks and we had it printed by Print-A-Part.
By god he was right, after being 3d printed and having the supporting wax cleaned away from the printed tracks (which Print-A-Part does as part of their process) I received a four inch strip of beautiful fully functioning LVT tracks.
Unfortunately, it takes eight strips to make enough tracks for a full LVT kit and they are not cheap to produce. These "XactraX" LVT Tracks sold exclusively from hardcorpsmodels.com are $89.00 a set! Yes not cheap indeed, but even at that price by the time I pay for the printing, Mikes percentage, shipping to me and packaging, I clear about $6.00 per set. So it is clearly a labor of love and not a big money making venture, oddly enough they have sold quite well.
When I heard that Friulmodel was going to be offering the same FMC WWII style LVT Tracks I was surprised and eager to see a set of their tracks. I had used Friulmodel tracks on a T55 a few years ago and really was impressed with them. I must admit that I am not a patient builder and having to drill out many of the T55 links to insert the wire pins was a pain, but in the end the tracks looked great.
So I found an online dealer (tankrat.com) who had the Friulmodel LVT Tracks in stock and I ordered a set and eagerly awaited their arrival. A week or so later they arrived and I immediately began examining and working with them.
All and all Friulmodel have done a masterful job at recreating the difficult design of the real tracks. They provide you with the two different links that make up the assembly and a small jig to help in the assembly process. The detail of each link is a little bit clunky, especially the chain drive parts. New sets of drive and idler sprockets are also included as well as a small printed sheet that tells you how to alter the return rollers and their mounts in order for the tracks to fit. I don't understand the return roller modifications they call for, as we based our hardcorpsmodels.com off of several actual vehicles and found no such modifications necessary?
The Friulmodel drive sprockets and Idler sprockets are not very well mastered at all. Much detail is omitted or too small and the sprocket rings themselves are way too thin with way undersized sprocket teeth looking more like a Canadian Ram sprocket than any FMC LVT sprocket.
Now we come to the assembly of the tracks themselves, bear in mind I have already stated that I am not a real patient builder and I won't spend more time building the tracks for a model than it takes to build the rest of the model. These tracks are a real pain in the AS* to assemble. Each link assembly requires that you insert four tiny track pins, some of the pin holes are cast solid so you must carefully drill them out first. It took me two hours to assemble a 25 link section and it takes approx. 150 links per side which works out to 12 hours per track side!!
Now granted you can find these tracks for approx. $45.00 on the web or from a dealer at your favorite show and if you are willing to spend the 24 hours to build them and can live with the sprockets issues mentioned then these are right up your alley.
