The Little World

Whenever I complain about the folly of others I am compelled to regard my own. Fortunately I am hypocrite enough not to dwell on it too long…

Some days see a club mate building a model tank and looking in horror at the task of the tracks and wheels. I’ve heard groans before from the armour end of the club benches and ignored it but sometimes it gets close.

The fact that each track link was separate was no surprise…I’ve had a kit with that as well for some portions of each side. However, the design ofthe horror had several microscopic pins for each link that the designers required to be cemented. Barely possible, sure to be a mess, and totally discouraging.

I can see the advantage, of avoiding rubber tracks…they disintegrate over time. However, too many components for a styrene track mean the builder will hate the build very early on. And it will go onto a ponder shelf as a waste of a considerable amount of hobby money.

The crowning blow was the idler sprockets for each side of the tank. For whatever reason, the German builders made these out of spindly steel tubing. The model firm felt compelled to do the same, with little guarantee that the wheel will be at all straight. A wise kit maker could have moulded it in, at most, two pieces.