Recently, a fellow modeler was building up my 1/35 T54E1 tracks and sending me some thoughts on the set and the assembly process as he was going.

I love feedback like this. What works, what works really well, what doesn’t, what’s annoying…it’s all information that can be directed right back into products. And unlike injection kitmakers that have to commit to molds really early and then just eat shit from the red arrow brigade for every small inaccuracy, I’m offering STLs. Which means I can update and push new files on the fly.

In this case, that’s exactly what’s going to be happening with the T54E1 and T49 tracks.

Why?

This modeler noted that the gap between the track links looked wider than it should. I went, grabbed my own set I’ve been assembling, and yep. Definitely too wide.

I couldn’t investigate right away – I was focused on getting September releases over the line – but I figured it was probably a forest for the trees problem. As in, I got so focused on, say, making sure everything fit nicely on the sprocket that I forgot about other factors.

Over the past few days, I have had the chance to investigate. And yikes. When I compared my tracks to the plans I’ve been working from for Sherman things, three things leapt out right away:

The T54E1 links were underscale in both length and height. Bang on in width though. That length discrepancy absolutely plays a role in the link gap.

The link pinholes were slightly out of position. Likely not a major player in anything – we’re talking a handful of millimeters in 1:1 scale – but worth fixing while I’m in there, right?

The pin positions on the end connectors were entirely too wide. By probably a millimeter total.

The upshot? Too-short track links being held too far apart by end connectors with too-wide track pin placement.

Fixing that shit

The origins of the T54E1 1/35 links dates back to early 2024. Tweaking those and whatever the fuck I was doing with Fusion at the time would probably involve more time and effort than just building new T54E1s and C55592 end connectors from scratch.

So that’s what I’m doing. These first prototypes are on the printer now, and I want to make sure they fit together and fit sprockets before I dive in to details, alternate pin widths, revising the assembly jig and EC holder, and all that business.

The T49s also need attention, since they were built using the T54E1s as a sizing reference.

Both should be fully updated over the next few weeks (I’ll be out of town for a bit, and that’s going to slow down print validation), and those updates will be pushed out to every place the tracks are offered, from here to Patreon to Cults, Gumroad, etc.

After that? It’s on to T51s.