Rock, they are like artist's crayons. They are chalky and are ground into a dust with sand paper or sharp knife or other methods. Once you have the dust form, you're ready to go.
They are like the photo below, but of course with earth and military colors.
Just be sure to look for the chalk ones. You DO NOT want to get the oil type.

This an excellent post for me who in the near future will climb out of the cockpit (temporarily) and attempt a first armour kit.
I will refer to it no end....
Thanks lads.
Cheers
Peter

Hey Jims... why not turn this thread into an article? If had to hunt around for it a few times since I like to refer people to this thread when they ask about track painting on my site. An article would make things a lot easier.

Paul.

Thank you guys!

.

I use the oil types for making washes Not the heavy ones but very light washes. It is more practical to use enamels but if you have the oil based pastels, you van use them too

wow !!!!!!!!!!!! what a great learning tool this thread is, thanks in advance, will keep refering back to this one, as i am a newbie in going one step further in building models. again thanks and great tips!!!!!!!!!! wow !!!!!!!!!!!

reb

Ditto on that, great tips there, I have been doing the method I saw in a older issue of FSM magazine, and have been using that since...now I have another method to try! Thanks guys!

Ok im still curious about the lacquer thinner bit. I went out the local hardware store and bought some lacquer thinner but it ended up dissolving my colour pallette and would have made short work of my model as well.

Is there a lacquer thinner specific for modelling?

No, that's the stuff and if you let pools of it sit on your model in the same way it sat in your colour palette, it'll dissolve them, too. Laquer thinner is a really aggressive solvent. When mixed with paint & sprayed in thin coats it doesn't dissolve the model. It evaporates so fast that the model doesn't get a chance to get wrecked.

Not all paints work with laquer thinner. It is a really good cleaner if a brush or non-plastic surface has dried paint on it, but for many non-laquer paints, it also destroys the chemical in the paint that adheres the pigment to the surface. The pigment is still there, but it wipes right off no longer having a working binder after the laquer thinner destroys it chemically. So, mind which paints you thin with this stuff. Laquer paints, though, when painted in nice thin layers and let dry make one of the toughest and hardest finishes you can put on a model (that's why car companies use it).

The vapours are quite harmful so spraying in a well ventilated room is a must and a spray booth that vents to the outside is even better.

Keep it in the can or in a glass bottle that has a good seal. The vapours alone will dissolve many plastics, so mind what you keep it in.

HTH

Paul

FNG here, looking for just this type of info. Thanks to all of you guys for spending the time to photo and post your stuff.

THX!

WOW! those are nice tutorials/refference!!!

*bookmark's thread for futre stuff*

"I use the oil types for making washes Not the heavy ones but very light washes. It is more practical to use enamels but if you have the oil based pastels, you van use them too "


Hi,
And how do you do that?

Hey, it's OFF topic, but what use do you hve for oil pastels?
:)

Thanks

A

Hey, although the topic seems to be dead, I have a question about vinyl tracks.
I just installed one on a tank, and did not "train" it previously. (I didn't know I had to.)
Anyway, I'd like to create some realistic "sag", you know to show the tracks lay against the wheels.
Also how do you hide the point where the tracks are joined?

Would it be necessary to use an airbrush to paint the tracks? I mean, is it possible to do it with a normal brush?

Yes, you can paint them just as easily with a regular brush. I use a combo of both, sort of, for mine. I first paint them overall flat black with a spraycan, then add the rust wash, bare metal, dirt/dust, etc. with a brush. Comes out quite nicely.

Interesting topic,,as im sure, I have tried VARIOUS ways of painting track. And am pretty sure so have many of our fellow members.

I remember once that someone asked "how to paint german camo on thier tanks". And the reply thier really was "no set way", as each was painted by thier crew on the field, so they all had different looks.

Which means, since thier are over a 100 ways to paint armor, thier are over 101 ways to paint tracks.

So, pick the one like and go with it, that is, until you see another method that you like, then go with that one.

Enjoy.

Fabio,

first thanks for the pictures. I am building a PzH 2000 which seems to have tracks pretty similar to the ones in your pictures. This is my first time painting models and I have a question for you: In your reply you mention that you prime the tracks then over that goes a layer of rust (as shown in your picture). Then on top of that the "rubber" areas get a coat of rubber. How do you do it so accurately? From what I can see you've manageed to pain the rubber portions perfectly, with zero overyspray into the "rusted metal" areas? Do you have to mask your tracks?

OT, what are actual tracks like these made of?

TY,
123

Believe him. Gino turns out some of the finest models you will ever see.

You guys awesome!! thanks for the tips

for what it's worth, here are the tracks i've made for a project i'm working on. I'm at the stage of drybrushing the metal parts that are exposed due to friction;

i started with a light rust colour and applied several tones of pigments, dark rust, light rust, dark earth, light earth. I have fixed the first layer of pigments with terpentine, the second with white spirit, and the last two are just powdered without any binding solution.

the last step will be a lighter dusting using the same pigments on the tank and the tracks, but i'm waiting for that until i've finished the base of the diorama it will be placed in, to get a nice cohesion of the colours used on both the ground and the tank.

first picture shows a painted track and a track with the first pigments applied to it


after applying the light rust (top one of the two tracks shown each time) and dark earth (bottom one) this is the result:



after the light earth pigments this is the final result:



all that needs to be done is use some silvery paint and a simple crayon to simulate rubbed metal.
hope you liked it.

I know this has been said before, but this is what makes this site wonderful. People are not worried about sharing thier secrets. My wife makes pottery and getting a potter to share a glaze secret is like getting the state lottery to tell you which tickets are the big winners.

I always have trouble getting my treads to look right. These tips will surley help.

Thanks again fellas for the tip and the great pics!

This is great information from both of you. Thank you for the assistance.

bump

Ditto! Thanks for sharing...very much appreciated! Cheers!
Tim