Thanks!
Last night I took on the painting of the tracks. Eduard provides the same track that came in the original Tasca base kit. These are two pieces per side of a modern rubber/vinyl/plastic hybrid of some type that are so well molded. Only three tiny pour stubs need cleaning on each section of track and these were placed on the inside where they would be hard to see at any rate. First two segments were glued together (I used CA) and allowed to dry. Next step was to mask off the end plates where glue will go when completing each run of track. Then it was time for paint, first Metalizer for the guide fingers and outer link connectors. Next was a dusting of rust, trying not to get any on the inside of the guides or on the rubber track pads. Once that was dry another light dusting of road dirt color, mostly tan and grey mixed by eyeball, went on over both inside and outside of the tracks. The final step of this process was gluing the end segments together to get a completed assembly.
Prior to installing the tracks I also dusted on a similar coating of road dust/dirt to the sprockets, hull, suspension and wheels to match the weathering of the tracks. To actually add the tracks is quite simple and ingenious. Just remove the drive sprocket and idler wheel and install the track to the road wheel/bogie assemblies. I used a tool to get the guide fingers to snuggle down properly on the top guides of the three suspension assemblies at this time. Then I slid the track forward far enough to fit the sprocket on the final drive and seated the track to the sprocket teeth. Final step was to slide the track rearward while maintaining good fit on sprocket and bogies and slide the rear idler wheel into the track. The manufacturer designed the tank with an eccentric rear axle (not unlike how the real one works) that allows the builder to properly tension the track. With the axle set up to give a loose fit I simply stretched the track and idler back and slid the idler onto its axle. This gave me a somewhat loose fitting track so the eccentric axle was turned with a pair of needlenose pliers to tension the track properly.
A note on Sherman track installation (from info my dad told me years ago, backed up by photos)--the standard for Sherman tracks was to keep them fairly tight when possible. Not too many photos show loose, drooping track runs on operational Shermans. Burned out machines with collapsed suspension are another thing!
