OKB Grigorov
www.onthewaymodels.com

Tracks for M13/40
Kit #: S72251 Preview by Rob Haelterman

 



The set provides 6 finely detailed lengths of track. It should be noted that my set originally arrived with only 4 lengths. This seems to be a known problem with a batch of this set and by contacting OKB Grigorov the problem was solved in a few days, free of charge. It is nice to see that some companies still know what "customer care" means.

Thanks to information obtained from Antonio Tallillo, I now know an M13/40 should have 84 links per side and that each link should be 26cm wide (3.6mm in 1/72). I can only tell how many links I will end up using when I come around using this set, but each length of track contains 36 links, so there should be no shortage. I measured the width of the OKB tracks and compared them with those in the Esci/Italeri kit and those in the First Air kit.

  • OKB Grigorov: 3.6mm
  • Esci/Italeri: 4.2mm
  • First Air: 3.6mm

It is clear that the OKB Grigorov tracks are spot on when width is concerned, as are the First Air tracks. I have no references on the pitch, but that of the OKB Grigorov tracks is slightly larger than that of the First Air and Esci/Italeri kits. This all means that, while the OKB Grigorov tracks might be more accurate, it will not necessarily be easy to use them on the other kits, especially the Esci/Italeri one that has an exaggerated width, which is reflected in the drive wheel. On top of that, I still haven't figured out what the best way will be to make these resin tracks conform to the basic shape of the suspension.

The tracks are moulded in a grey resin, and has crisp detail on the inner and outer faces. This is a huge improvement over the Esci/Italeri tracks, which are not only horribly stiff, but also very bland. The First Air tracks are actually not bad and are very flexible (and thus easy to use), but are still no match to the OKB Grigorov tracks when detail is concerned.

 


From left to right: First Air, OKB Grigorov, Italeri.

 

 




Preview sample purchased by the author.

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Article Last Updated:
24 February 2017

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