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i saw some scratchbuilt ork battlewagons and thought" im going to do that" so i set off to build a scratchbuilt battlewagon. but i ran into a problem. how do i make tracks? please tell me so i can finish my project.

There're a couple ways to go about it.

You could grab some tank tracks from a plastic model kit from Tamiya or another brand and use those

You could get some Baneblade tracks and copy those bad boys up (there should be a tutorial on Dakka about quick and easy resin casting in the articles section)

Or, the third way, and the hardest, is to scratch build track sections or individual tracks. Here are some links to get you started (kinda), and hopefully someone else can fill in the gaps.

http://www.40konline.com/community/index.php?topic=153393.0

http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=15255

Scratch building tracks is a huge amount of work, but the good news is that orks would scratch build their own (if they couldn't find any to loot), so the tracks don't need to look factory-made and regular.

Something I'm gonna try is to use those little plastic tabs that come on Wonderbread bags, and see if I can't line them up side by side. I'm not sure how that'd turn out though.


Pretty much your best bet would be to start with the wheels that go inside the trakks. Small cylinders would work best, like sections of large pen tubes or wooden dowel. Maybe small PVC pipe sections. Depending on how big you want them, you might be able to get away with soda bottle caps, though those are better sized for plain wheels instead of track wheels. What you'd then do is use plasticard (or cardstock, cardboard, balsa wood, whatever) strips of whatever shape and size you want- lots of them, and glue them down to a piece of paper or thin plasticard (or cardstock, etc). Then wrap that around the wheels you have mounted, and presto! Trakks!

I've done some theoretical thinking on this. and essentially, there is a simple way around this.

Long strip of thin plasticard,

Cut thick plasticard into two types of squares, rectangular planks, the size of the links you want, and small rectangles serving as joints between plates. for the most part, you will need 2 side links holding 2 plates together, except for the exposed front and back. With these, use a file to grind out the middle top and bottom of the plank, so that there are three swivels between each plate/tread. Then, glue the big plates onto the strip, wrap it on, glue that on, and now add the small link-joints. Lastly, get some tubed styrene, and cut off nibs, glue them onto the treads, and now you also have traction.

method evaluation is about 4/10: clearly, more work needs to be done for the drive-train to make any sense, and then there is the issue of the edges of the treads not forming a groove for the wheels, add to that the cutting and poor quality detail. It does however get the job done and, barring labor intensity, is fairly simple.

A better metod? Kill yourself, proverbially, designing the best and awesomest track that you can think of, in a straight strip. Then create a green-stuff mould using it, and you know what to do from there.

thanks guys im gonna finish my scratchbuilt tank crusha