Dundee Dude's track trick SBS, part 2

In this second installment, we will deal with a vehicle having twin wheels and return rollers in its drive train on which neither fenders nor overhanging superstructures exist as yet. The same procedure can be used with any vehicle having return rollers and no fenders, either twin or single wheels. The astute observer will no doubt notice that the subject model is the same early Stug IIIG I have entered in one of the group builds; a progress report will appear in that thread shortly.

Okay, your wheels/sprockets/idlers/return rollers (henceforth "wheels") are assembled and your tracks are ready to go (in this instance Magik Track). As in the first installment you've mounted your wheels on the vehicle (with the aid of "shims" if needed) and you've assembled your whole track run with slow acting solvent after counting the required number of links.


Now simply sit the wheels onto the middle of your assembled track run and glue them in place with a volatile, fast acting solvent.


Carefully pick up one end and wrap it around the sprocket, then repeat the procedure at the idler end. This step is much simpler than in part 1 due to the absence of lateral obstructions on the lower hull pan.


Next join both ends of the track run and glue them together.


Make sure the track run is tight between the sprocket and first road wheel and again between the last road wheel and idler, then glue the run to both with fast acting solvent.



With your fingers, carefully, induce the amount of sag planned for when you counted your links out. This done glue the track run to the return rollers.

It may not look it, but this step is crucial. If it is shirked, shrinkage caused by outgassing of the solvent/styrene mixture will cause the top run to straighten during contraction and thus obliterate much of the sag.

Finally, correct the sag with your fingers (if needed) and let the assembly set for 12 hours (or overnight) at which point you can freely remove the track runs for paint work.


You will note that I used an earlier picture to illustrate this last step as barely an hour had elapsed between completing the track run above and posting this.

Thanks to those wonderful Magik Track, building both track runs on this Stug took only 35 minutes.

Nice one, again

thank you for sharing your method of track building with us! i have always wondered how those running gear were always assembled as one piece in the mag articles thank you for letting out the secret i found your article very useful for my tracks of the future- Dave

Thanks Ben,

I've never seen this before, and I've been around a hell of a long time!

Bob