So my son wanted two Taurox to move his Veterans around but he didn't (like most) like the look of the front tracks. He asked, "Where are the front tires?" He didn't want tires for both front and back but he wanted a half-track instead. So, after scouring various conversion kits, we settled on the this kit from "
Blood and Skulls Industry" found on E-bay, called the Buffalo Half-track conversion kit. There are other half-track kits with different types of bogeys and one with two rear tires.
The kit was only $16.00 and $3.00 shipping so we bought two kits at $33.00. Not a bad price. Delivery was also pretty fast with only a couple of days in between. So here is what we got:
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| The full kit. |
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| The outside. |
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| The inside. |
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Looking from the top. Notice the tabs on the tracks. They should be facing up when installed.
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As you can see, the parts are very well done with little to no filing or cutting. You can tell they are 3D printed but most of the print lines have been smoothed down and are not easily noticeable. The only drawback is there are no instructions that come with the kit. This is a minor drawback since it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how they go on. But here are some pointers in case you want to try it.
Build your Taurox just as the instructions indicate. But, do not build the track components (since you're replacing them anyways). Build the suspension sections but do not put them on the chassis. You will need to cut off the tabs that would normally go into the track sections and file them flush. Do this for both the front and back sections. See the picture below:
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| Cut off the tabs circled in red. |
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| File down the cut tabs flush. |
Once you've done that, put together the kit pieces as shown in the picture below. There really is no difference in the parts. The only thing you may want to keep on eye out is which way the track links travel. As you can see by the picture, the pieces that attach to the suspension has lipss on the them. For the front wheels, the lip faces up. Because they are resin, you will need to superglue them. The track sections have a lip also but goes on the bottom. The tabs above the axles should be facing up when installed.
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| Pay attention to the small lips when attaching. |
If you put the tabs facing down, the tracks will be angled the wrong way and you get this:
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| If your tracks look this way, you've put them on upside down. |
Another thing to keep in mind is the conversion kit does add some height to the Taurox, making it look a lot more beefier. If you like the streamlined look of the original kit, this may not be want you want. In the picture below, you can see the height difference between the two.
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| The conversion vs. the original. |
The kit is well done and thought out. The price is a real good deal and does not require a lot of cutting or filing making installation very easy. My son is really happy with how they turned out.
