Hope your all fine today, im printing a T90, my first ever tank. Its in lots of bits etc and a bit overwhelming but I still have to print the tracks. Now my main question is in which filament should I print these in? Is it TPU? Or am I meant to print them in PLA like the rest? This is the tank, and you can see the tracks front and centre
Any help you guys can share id really appreciate. I think I tryed to print once with TPU before clogging my ams up and then realising its not meant for that so I do know ill have to run the external spool on my H2S.
If anyone has done a tank before how did you do it? Did you just use PLA Basic or TPU or some other filament. Im really unsure how to do it, ive never done any model before, im not even sure how the tracks connect to the tank etc. How do you guys do your tracks please
was the track print designed for tpu, or a rigid filament? i.e. will it break if you use the wrong one?
is this model drivable? If so, are you using heavily or just occasional use ?
if not drivable, do the tracks turn if you push the vehicle?
Driving under heavy use or high speed, TPU tracks will expand with the heat, and can slip off the wheels. (which also makes the problem of track retention during steering even harder). For maximum durability I would go with a rigid track link with a TPU pad on it (just like a full size tank, most modern ones use steel track with optional rubber pads; smaller excavators can use rubber tracks as they are low performance vehicles).
For lightweight driving or “push only” non motorised use, TPU will work.
For static models, rigid filament just looks better.
EDIT RC tanks are mixed bag. Some just buy a commercial track part from a snow mobile, factory-made RC excavator, or a drive belt for a mechanical drive system; the high performance ones are driving on rigid with tpu pads; the ones that don’t move well are driving on TPU. The most performant RC tanks I have seen are the one by HowToMechatrionics which is paid file and is fast, and the DragonTrack on printables, which is a true all-terrain one. The dragonTrack’s designer is having problems making a track and their most recent version is just rigid filament, with glued on real rubber. The commerical 1/16 tanks like HengLong look fully realistic but are terrible offroad.
How do I put tpu pad ona already made track? Thank you for replying so very kind of you to take the time. This is a picture of the tank im in the process of printing, does this give you more info, he does supply a picture of how the tracks go onto the wheels I think
What you say about RC Tanks is very interesting, I never even thought about RC ones, how much would you pay for a real gd one to print from the website you mention? Mayb thats something ill try once im a little better at printing
