| M3/M4 Track Sets | Mirage Kit #72T02 (T-49) Kit #72T03 (T-62) Kit #72T04 (T-74) |
| Article by Doug Chaltry; last updated 20 April 2009 | |
 |
|
| Modeling the Sherman Tank in 1/72nd Scale |
| M3/M4 Track Sets | Mirage Kit #72T02 (T-49) Kit #72T03 (T-62) Kit #72T04 (T-74) |
| Article by Doug Chaltry; last updated 20 April 2009 | |
|
|
| Shortly after Mirage
released their very impressive M3 Lee/Grant kits, they
released several sets of replacement tracks. These tracks
would be perfectly suitable for use on M4 Shermans, as
well as the M3 Mediums. In order to simplify production,
Mirage chose to mold only the basic T-51 rubber block
tracks in soft plastic, with the different versions of
track obtained by gluing individual photoetched parts to
each rubber block. Interestingly, Mirage never released
the T-51 tracks independently as their own set; they only
come packaged with one of the photoetched sets. These tracks are very nicely made in a gluable and paint-able rubber. The detail is nicely molded, and the tracks are thick enough and just stiff enough to wrap around the wheels in a very convincing manner. I think these are just as good as the Dragon Styrene tracks. But again, they are not available as their own set; you'll need to buy one of the sets shown here to get them (they are, of course, also available in the Mirage M3 Lee/Grant kits). Mirage has released three versions of these rubber/etched track sets: T-49
T-62
T-74
Although I really like the idea of making the tracks modular like this in order to reduce production costs, I am concerned that the track surface detail will be too flat. It will also be very time consuming to make these. I will soon attempt to assemble some of them and post the results here. Bottom line is that I think it would have been better to have made these completely in rubber, as Mirage did for their T-48 rubber chevron tracks. Many thanks to Michael Hatch for his very generous gift box that included these items. |
| Modeling the Sherman Tank in 1/72nd Scale |
