"I have an idea, I'm going to make fully articulated tracks with individual links, it's going to be awesome".
What was I thinking?
So, with thanks to Greg for his photo and a bunch of photos and plans of the real thing, I've figured out how I'm going to do it. These are all hand drawn, after a couple of test builds and some trial and error, I'm ready to dive in to an epic session of cutting tiny parts.
I started with a basic concept and drew up a template based on my original idea. After making a few changes to the design, I ended up with a rather busy looking template, but I can use it to cut out 3 different parts, depending what I need. There are different parts for left and right tracks, and for the inner links. All of them can be cut from this same drawing, so to save some time I photocopied it a few times and laminated it onto card.
Each track link is made up of 19 parts, I need 80 links, so that's 1520 parts in total
I made a little jig to assemble the parts I'll call chain links, not knowing the correct terminology. I'll assemble the chain first, then glue the tread plates to them. A quick test build has confirmed everything fits and flexes as required.
It all fits and flexes for now but these have to be painted, so fingers crossed that won't cause any issues, unless I decide to assemble it all first, then paint. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.