The conversion set also adds German sprocket wheels and PZ III/IV tracks. I would assume that these are the 36 cm tracks ... Any information about planned release date? / Robin

Are the tracks a What If, or did the Germans really do a track conversion?

LINK They really did but I'm not an expert enough to know how widespread this conversion is or if it saw any action.

Never would have thought that the Germans would have converted the track and it begs the question of why. Surely there was enough Soviet T34 track captured to keep their tanks running. The conversions themselves are nice but you largely get the same thing (minus the weird track thing) with Dragon's T43 40 and 41 releases.

You're right about the tracks-it seems a lot of effort for a crew to go to (getting a full set of tracks, two sprockets, and modifying the tank to get them to fit) just to put on some tracks that offer no real advantage over the originals.

this has nothing to do with Pz III. Drive sprocket was unique to that project and tracks were from Pz I Ausf J. Hard to say why they tested that option.

One reason would be somebody preferred a toothed sprocket and this was the unit the Panzer II J was foisted upon? Maybe the guy had a bad experience with the track pins on a T-34 knocking out and wanted German track. Let's do this and see if it works. All it requires would be the sprockets and tracks and considering how easy it was to reach the T-34 final drives any mod would be a couple of hours. By the way, in one overhead photo of their yard, you can see what appears to be a line-up of Pzkpfw I F and Pzkpfw II J where the tracks for this conversion come from. They got a ready supply of these unique tracks and just don't have access to tons of spare Russian track so what would you do? Sure there would be tons of wrecked Russian tanks to grab track from but most captured T-34 were abandoned due to a lack of spares and the Russians themselves had a lack of spares for their own maintenance. (According to some accounts, Russians had tons of spares for Lend-lease vehicles but spares for domestically produced vehicles were hard to come by) So what would it be like for captured tanks?

Somehow donor track from a Pz II J never occurred to me as a possibility as I also was thinking PZ III/IV tracks as the likely items. Weird. Regardless, it would have been a weird marriage of necessity I'm sure, just as drive sprocket/idler replacements necessary for the conversion on the T34 would hardly have been a "slip 'em on and tighten" kind of conversion. Think really unlikely in terms of compatibility or ease of conversion, or even of practical application with the tracks not being designed to take the strain of a heavier and more powerful tank. Desperation, I'm sure. Or way too much free time for some werkstatt personnels' hands. Still, I'd like to thank those out there that provided the supporting photos as I otherwise would have doubted the whole thing.