These were a set of metal tiger tracks I had and was thinking of using in a project. They were stored for 8 years in a dark box. They were painted at some point.

On picking them up, small bits started to fall off like dandruff. It took a while but the bits were from an area holding the pins. The track function seems OK but it cannot be healthy.

Is this caused by the paint perhaps or something else? I don't know if the tracks are steel bit I doubt it.

P

They're probably cast zinc, and low quality zinc can be subject to "zinc rot". Another reason zinc gears don't make good gearboxes. I saw a lot of it on the detail items on my mato all metal P3. The zinc just seems to get all crumbly, if that makes any sense. I can't say for sure that's your problem, but it would be my first suspect. I would put them on a tank that doesn't get run much, or maybe even a static tank. On the other hand, if you can get video it might be fun to run them to failure. I made a video like that when the zinc gearboxes in my Pershing went bad and it came out pretty good. Actually watching a gearbox fail isn't something you see every day, and I don't think I've ever seen video of zinc tracks giving up the ghost.

Anyway, to answer your question, I believe the problem is in the metal itself and paint had nothing to do with it. Hope that helps.

Zinc pest, no doubt. Whose tracks? I know one manufacture had a problem with the pest some years ago.

I don't know where I got them as its a long time ago.

I'm a bit stressed about my other tracks now! I have a fair few metal sets and I don't want them turning to dust like this!

If it's zinc pest, not a thing you can do, it's metal rot from inside the metal which means the metal was not pure in the first place. It sticks in my mind who made some tracks with this problem but it was ten and more years ago.

I think I got them from the US. I have no idea where they were made though.

Can you identify which tracks are vulnerable? Some kind of test or something to look out for?

The tracks in the photo are open pin, that's the first comparison I would make on your other tracks. Any closed pin tracks you have should be OK and you don't need to worry about them. Open pin will be suspect but they don't all suffer from the pest/rot so you might still be OK. I don't know any way to identify the tracks with the rot, except waiting for them to start doing what yours are doing. Sorry I can't be of more help, but you just have to keep an eye on them and hope for the best.

Here ya go, wrote about this here some years ago:

Lessons from the past - zinc alloys?

I often wondered if/when this would show up in this hobby with it reliance on zinc alloys..

Jerry

Ooooh crap............

It's the thinnest part of the tracks near the pins thats crumbling off. I guess the rest will follow eventually.

What a pain in the ass.

P

if them rotting until failure is inevitable, i would slap them on a tank and run them until they go "snap" haha

it would make for some good pictures

I guess it's true, great minds think alike.

The new guy at work is also a jeweler and he tells me he can cast individual track links. I guess he would put them on a tree and cast them 10 at a time. I'm going to give him a couple of 1/6 scale hetzer links and see what he can do with them.

So the question is, what material? Bronze? I kind of hate to use zinc, and aluminum seems a little bit too lightweight, but I don't know of any steel that he could really use. What do you guys think? What do you think would be the best material to use for 1/6 hetzer tracks?

Bronze I reckon? Be heavy and expensive though?

Well, if I go with bronze I can get my material right out of the scrap bin here at work so that won't cost me anything. It just depends on how much the guy wants to charge me for casting them. I'm going to tell him I need 200 links. I'm pretty sure the hetzer has about 96 links per side, but I don't think it hurts to have a few extra. Also wondering about coloring a link black. We send a lot of our stuff out to be blackened but I'm not sure if they can do bronze. I know they can't do zinc. But, if they can do bronze that would be perfect. So the next step will be to get a few links and bring them in and give them to the new guy it see what he can do with them. If he has any success, then I'll build a jig for drilling the holes for the track pins, and I'll do that at the Bridgeport so I get a nice straight, true hole.

Did you know https://www.giesswerk.de/
This guy cast tracks in brass.
A set of tracks 1/16 scale kingtiger cost 880, - €
The quality and details were absolutely top.
Unfortunately the owner died of cancer two years ago.
The family does not want to continue the business ...

If they're not going to continue the business that doesn't help me very much, and I would have shied away from that price, anyway. I'm hoping the guy at work can do the whole job for $200 or less. One of these days I'll get a desktop metal studio and then I'll be able to print my own in stainless steel. All I need is the $90,000 to buy the desktop metal studio. Now where did I leave that big bag of money?

Bronze would be sweet.......I'd be tempted to just leave them as is! Bling.

Maybe some gunsmith knows how to blacken it.

P

Lucky b^&*$#d! I'd love to have access to a scrap bin.....

P

That's just one of the many advantages to working in a machine shop and being an RC tanker. The people I work for are pretty cool and they'll let me come in after hours and use any of the machines that I want to. Most shops that I've worked at have been like that.

I think your guy will at least charge the material costs, which can easily be more than $ 200.
Look down your body, between the legs should be a big bag
......but there is probably no money in it.

Again, let's try to keep up. I already said I can get the material from work for free. If you mean the wax and plaster, I'll be getting that for free as well, in exchange for a few lathe lessons.

Bronze has a melting point of 1,800°F degrees which is actually pretty high, but it is still doable at home or in a small business. Steel melts at over 2500°F depending on the carbon content and requires some kind of blast furnace so it's usually out of the question for most non-industrial casters. Whatever material you use needs to have a decent resistance to corrosion.

Bronze needs to be carefully fluxed when you cast it so Gary I'd keep an eye on that part- you're friend will tree up waxes to make those parts I'd imagine
unless he does sand casting as I do.. That's a good thing with 1/6 scale that the tracks are big enough that sand casting for especially the larger tracks becomes
even more viable than for 1/10 scale... If he uses your part as a master there will be some shrinkage difference between your original and the copies but it shouldn't amount to much, different metals having different shrink rates. I can't recall bronze but aluminum is about 1.5% or thereabouts. Aluminum should be strong enough for a hetzer link...

I'm very familiar with Geisβwerk, Martin Schroeder's work. I wrote about this a while back (Sad news).
I just received an email from his brother Stefan a few days ago. There still are some of Martin's original waxes left to be purchased if one has a casting firm to make the links for themselves. The loss of Martin and his marvelous work is one of the biggest hits to this hobby in years IMHO... people like Martin are so rare...
His work really helped 1/10 scale in particular; without it there aren't so many options- this helped push me into 1:6 scale and even there the loss is felt.

There's a fellow in the UK who is looking into having 1/6 King Tiger tracks cast in steel. It should make a beast of an Armortek model even more beastly. Definitely won't be run indoors!

Jerry

Don't know if its Bronze or not but I had a set of KV tracks cast from Germany which the guy called alpaca (nickel silver), yet its not silvery so maybe something else or different composition?

They are the coloration of light brass/bronze are heavy and had held very well even on concrete

This reference explains the differences better than I could. I have had David Dibb ( Armorpax) make up photo etched tool clamps for me
in both 1/10 and 1/6 scales from nickel-silver. It's a bit harder than regular brass photo etch but mostly I like it due to looking more like
steel if /when paint chips or wears off. I have nickel plated some parts I've purchased over the years from WECOHE and Geisβwerk for the
same reason.

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/nick...-alpaca-149118

Jerry