Academy M-36

[Larry Bates]

This is one of my next builds that I've been working on a little. I'm just putting it up for something for my first entry to my new vBench!
This past weekend I spent a couple of hours putting together the tracks for it. They're MK tracks,for the Sherman. These track blocks have double pins. In all I've probably spent 4 hrs. so far and got about 3 to 4 inches of track together. Each block has 8 pieces, I'll try and post some pics up tomorrow.

[Larry Bates]

another photo..... I added the end to the cannon as there are really no after market barrels for it yet. The end is a thread protector, as most did not use the flash suppressor. I chucked a piece of plastic tube the appropriate size in my drill and using an exacto blade and/or a file , "turned" the piece.

[Larry Bates]

Well, as promised here is a brief sinopsis of assembling MK's Sherman track links.

[Larry Bates]

These are the sprues that carry the main track block pieces.

[Larry Bates]

This pic is of various pieces to use depending on what kit/version of Sherman you are using. These will go on my M-36. Some of these are spacers for the drive sproket to allow a good fit. I used two for this model as it not a Sherman variation.
the bottom two loose pieces are to use for the idler wheels so as to adjust track tension which is a good thing for Sherman based rigs.

[Larry Bates]

Here is a length of track that has been assembled. As you may notice there is one block on backwards. Oh well just like in the field. :lol:

[Larry Bates]

Here you see the four main track block pieces separated from the sprue before clean up.

[Larry Bates]

The end connectors are a bit trickier to separate from the sprue compared to the track block pieces. Last weekend I cracked two at the holes straight across, one of them in two. After assembling the other pieces that I had cleaned, I reglued, using testors liquid cement and a small brush the damaged connectors and when dried, attached them to the track run. I used a cutting wheel on a dremel tool to first cut the connectors from the restricting sprue legs. Then when those were gone I used snippers to finally free the pieces from the remaining tree. Whew! Now I was getting a more reasonable way of assembling these tracks than what MK gives you in the box! I'll post pics of that later.

[Larry Bates]

I used the end of a metal ruler to support the end connector while using tweezers and an x-acto knife to clean up the sprue gates.

[Larry Bates]

This is what it looks like before gluing together. The two track pins are set in one half of the track block, here the instructions would have you use "a weak or tacky glue" or something to that effect, in the center. Instead, I held the two block pieces, along with the track pins trapped between, together with tweezers along the horizontal axis, then using a very small brush, touched the sides of the track block along the seams on the two long sides ONLY! Set down and move on to the next, and let dry. If you do it right the block cures at the seam and the track pins will still be free to rotate! Even if the pins attract a little glue I was able to break them free with just a bit of persuasion from a pair of tweezers. I did lose one to an exceeding amount of torque on the pin from the tweezers. :angry: