o3d miniatures, universal carrier tracks

This is a set with replacement tracks for the four IBG Universal Carrier variants. The hard plastic tracks (link and length) included in the IBG kits are not bad at all, but, due to the size of the parts, their assembly can be quite fiddly. First, you need to clean up 25 (very small) links and 4 lengths per side (each having several difficult attachment points) and then glue everything in the correct shape. Luckily, IBG provides a track former to make life a bit easier.
So, o3d comes to the rescue with a set containing two preformed, "almost" ready to use, 3d printed tracks in Frosted Ultra Detail material, known as FUD. They still need a bit of cleaning up, because the wax residue on them must be removed. Since this residue can be difficult to remove around small details o3d suggests to use an ultrasonic cleaner. As I suspect a lot of modelers don't have such a device at their disposal (I don't!), I tried another method, rubbing a stiff paintbrush and some detergent and hot water with mild force over the details. Most went off rather quickly, except in the small holes on the tracks. This had to be treated several times, using also a hair dryer between each session.
	Since the tracks are already preformed, I wondered how they would fit the IBG running gear. So their shape was compared against the IBG track former and the result seem promising, especially because the o3d tracks have a sag, something that's not easy to achieve with the original ones.
The material of these printed tracks is semi transparent, so to get a good look at them, a light wash was painted over some links. I then compared the o3d tracks against the original ones and the difference is quite striking. The IBG ones are much finer, more detailed and not as wide as the o3d ones.
	This site gave me the measurements for the real thing (9.5") which gives 3.3 mm in 1/72 scale. Guess what, IBG is spot on, while o3d is 1.1mm too wide.
O3d provides a nice explanation how to install these tracks, something which isn't often found in such sets.
Conclusion This set is a kind of a mixed blessing. The tracks are much easier to use than the IBG ones, but they're too wide and could use some more details. Preview sample supplied by Sonny Sy of o3d miniatures. o3d miniatures products are available at

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Article Last Updated: 13 January 2015