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Make Tracks!

Part 7 : Bridging The Gap

Now the track is almost done, except for a few links at the bottom (figure 7.1). I always finish at the bottom on purpose because sometimes you get fitting problems at this stage. Sometimes adding an extra link is too much and makes the tracks look loose and sometimes taking one away makes them too short (figure 7.2).

If this happens there will be ugly gaps between the links, so it’s better to have it at the bottom than somewhere more visible.

Part 8 : Trial And Error

Here I just had to guess how many links would finish the track (figure 8.1). I tried 4 (figure 8.2), but found when I put the track on the model it was too short and the newly glued links broke apart (figure 8.3). This is ok at this stage, I just took the track back off and added one more link. This fixed the problem.

Painting and Conclusion

Painting the tracks is simple compared to all the other parts of the construction. If you followed the instructions carefully you should be able to get the entire built track off the model, which makes for easy painting and detailing. For German tracks I use Tamiya’s XF-64 Red Brown, which best matches the colour they would have been during WW2. The paint is applied with an airbrush at a fairly high psi. Once the tracks are painted I give them a wash using red oil paint followed by another wash with brown oil paint. I have found that to get the best results I apply the wash and then tap the whole track a few times on a hard surface. This works well to remove any of the excess wash. Once that’s all done I do some dry-brushing to all raised areas. The amount of dry-brushing depends on what particular model you are doing and your personal preference.

Voila - I am done!

It doesn't take long to build Individually Linked Tracks.

This track (one side; the other side I completed earlier) took about two hours to complete; drying time considered, it took about 12 hours.

Copyright ©2002 - Text and Photos by Bob Lester (Sohcahtoa) All Rights Reserved.