Hey everyone

So i have a few Dragon kits, in particular (Elefant, Jagdpanther and Pzkpfw I )
They are the smart kits.

Im very new to the "MagicTracks" so i kind of have an idea on how to put them together.

But can you guys recommend on how to paint them. Whats the best technique?

Do you glue them on around the wheels, and than paint them after? But wouldnt it be harder to get into tougher areas with a brush. Like the inner side, around the wheels etc...

Or do you paint them before you start glue them?

Thank you for any tips.

Hi Roman,

Their are different opinions on paint tracks.
My opinion is the following: Put them together,paint them before putting them on the kit.

Gunmetal, silver, steel, and rust for the paint.

Weathering should be done after paint and while tracks are on kit, I.E. mud between running gear, etc.. Again, this has different opinions on this step also.

Hope this helps.

Brian

thank you so much for your input

Painting and weathering is no problem for me. I have a lot of experience with techniques on painting/weathering.

Mostly I want to know the best technique to paint the tracks. Im more familiar with Tamiya's out of the box tracks. The rubber ones that are ready to be wraped around the wheels.

I never worked with MagicTracks before, so i really dont know the best way to paint them. Before or after they are around the wheels. Because once they are around the wheels, you cant take them off right? Because you have to glue them.

Thanks again for any input and tips

Roman,
OK, No problem. I'd paint before assembling on kit.

Right, if you want dirty ones. try an brown colour, the closest one to mud will help. You then need to pain the inside of the track where the road wheels are flat black, to represent where the road wheels constantly touch, last point is drybrushing the tracks on the outer silver for a polished effect. Pigments, you just paint them on with white spirit, seal them with pigment fixer and then do your flat black and polished steel. You can also use a tiny bit of orange for a bit of rust on the tracks. HTH

Martyn

ive recently tried a few ways of assembling and painting magic tracks,ive tried ron goins method of painting the tracks when assembled and on the model but i dont have a steady enough hand for it im afraid!..the last set i did i assembled 2 runs of track then after the glue had been set for about 30 minutes i shaped them around the running gear making sure i had enough links in the runs to fit snug..it just a case of painting them and glueing afterwards..

Andy

There were two brilliant threads on tracks, one on using magic tracks, one on painting tracks(with a whole bunch of input from different modelers) that should of been permanently stickied or added to features long ago. I will try to search for them.

Found the paint one
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/13266&page=1

FINALLY found it, the definitive Dragon Magic Tracks how-to

https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/84.

THIS NEEDS TO BE PROPERLY INDEXED IN FEATURES/TECHNIQUES

i always put them together first in sections then painted and slightly weathered them before applying.

Hello everybody, I just noticed this post....hopefully my input helps. I have been working with this type of link-by-link tracks for a while now. My personal approach is just to put al the tracks together using a good glue such as Faller or Model Master Pro Cement. I prefer those because they take at least 1 hour to set completely, allowing you to make a very long single track but flexible like the ruber ones from Tamiya that you can easily accomodate in the kit.
As far as painting, I used to paint the track once al the links are glued and previously to attach to the kit. This entire process of gluing links, painting track and fixing to the kit ususally takes me 30-45 minutes.

I have never tried doing this as the tutorial shown a couple of post before....I think for me it would be complicated to attach segments here and there.....


Hope it helps..

Mirko

Mine is the reverse layered method. It may not be the best but its works for me.

First I paint the track with a good rust colored acryclic. I then paint them again with a thinned paint color by Poly Scale called RR Tie Brown, which has a fair amount of black. I fade the two together so that the inner most recesses of the track, (the bits least likely to be abraided by anything keeps the rusty appearance. The result is a combo of active reddish rust in the cracks with the more brown polished off rust on the higher areas. Then I rub artists graphite on the high spots of the cleats and/or metal parts that get rubbed frequently.

After all this I used pastels to simulated dust and dirt accumulation on the track. Looks pretty good but learning continues.