RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi guys! New to model building and I'm working on a Tamiya 1/35 Pz II Ausf F/G. I'm having fun and getting familiar with my tools. Anyhow I came across the part where I have to put the two ends of the rubber tracks together and the instructions say I have to put a nail head to a candle and flatten the pin head. Is there any other method to do this that doesn't involve flame or possible burns? Can I get away with just using cement? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks guys!

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In most cases flexible CA glue will be enough (i.e. Loctite 4850).

I will not take the blame if she finds out but you could always use the electric iron to heat the nail head.

I used to use a kitchen knife & gas ring for heat. Blame Dad. Mum used to leave us to it as long as we cleaned the knife.

Thanks for the replies guys! I'll use the CA glue for now but I think I'll practice doing the nail thing on rubber bands so I can mess up and not necessarily break my tracks. Thank you all!

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Stapling them together, and hiding the join at the top works.

Meter rat wrote:Stapling them together, and hiding the join at the top works.

I have also done this, along with heating up a small screwdriver over a match, instead of making up a tool.
You don't need to overly heat up whatever tool you use, the melting temp is quite low.

I was 12/13 when I did this, and never had any problems.

So I attempted this with a flat head screwdriver and was successful with one of the tracks. The other one snapped off and I couldn't put the flat pinheads through the holes anymore so I just cut them off and used gorilla glue which didn't work really well at all. I ended up just using the gorilla glue to attach the tracks to the front sprocket for a little more surface area and it seems to be holding for now. Learning a lot and I'm glad I'm encountering this stuff on my first model.

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You could always get around the problem and buy a pair of Metal Tracks from http://www.friulmodel.hu for about £30
Not a lot in 1/16 but 1/35 is very well covered including the PZ11
Just a thought.

I have done all of the above, but "back then" (w-a-a-y back) I insisted that the tracks had to move, so I avoided the staple or glue-to-the-suspension method. Now that I have ripened and even started rotting a bit, I take a mature attitude: I WILL NOT EVEN BUILD a static kit if the tracks cannot be made to move.

Try a product called E6000. Follow the directions, giving it time, and you should get good results. Also run a search for "E6000" using the search box up top right. There has been some helpful discussion of Shoo Goo and E6000.