Sherman Skeleton Track
Panda Plastics 1:35 Track Set: Skeleton
Review by Terry Ashley
The set consists of 30 sprues with 6 track links each for a total of 180 links and 30 sprues with 12 standard end connectors moulded in a light grey plastic, the moulding is very clean without any flash or other blemishes with just the two sprue attachment points to clean up.
Care will be needed when removing the end connectors as the sprue attachments are next to the pin locating holes which is the weakest point and a few were damaged while cutting from the sprue.
The detail on the track rods includes the raised section at the end of each rod before the end connector pins with the separate end connectors also well done overall but the retaining bolt on the end connector included is just a small “notch” and could be replaced with a small hex bolt head for better definition.
Once the links and end connectors have been cut from the sprue and cleaned up assembly is very straightforward by simply joining two links with an end connector and then fitting each link in turn alternating adding the end connector from one side to the other.
I test fitted the track to the Tasca M4A1 Sherman (kit #35-010) with a perfect fit to the kit drive sprockets. The tracks will also fit the Sherman based kits from AFV Club, DML and Italeri but not to the Academy and Tamiya Sherman kit sprockets without some modifications due to the overly thick sprocket discs and spacings between the sprocket discs.
One small point to note if you want to combine the Skeleton track with full Panda Sherman tracks is the width of the Skeleton track is fractionally wider than other Panda track sets but this probably wouldn't be noticed on the model due to the nature of the Skeleton track?
The tracks are relatively easy to assemble compared to some other workable Sherman track sets and will be very useful for diorama builders.
Rating 8/10
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other Sherman related reviews.
