First time armor builder and first time poster to Armorama. I am building a Dragon M4A3E8 and as I am sure you all know the running gear is pretty intricate, so I was looking for tips on how you guys go about painting it.

-Eric

For the Sherman's I have built in the past, I build the running gear leaving the road wheels turnable, and don't mount on tank right away. I add a piece of tape to the location on the running gear where it will attach to the tank and then airbrush the primer and a darker shade of the color I am using. The reason I paint them off the tank, is I can rotate them more freely to ensure I can get paint into all the tight spots.

Once the paint is dry, I attach to tank, once the tank build is complete, I tape of the running gear and prime. Then remove the tape and airbrush as normal, including the running gear in the color modulation.

Once the tank has been completely painted, I go back and hand paint the rubber on the wheels, thus the reason for leaving them turnable.

I hope this helps. This is only my method, and I am sure you will hear of more, you have to find the method that works best for you.

SgtRam

I left the tires off the road wheels and painted them seperately- the rest of the running gear is OD when I was finished painting that I added the tires and weathered the lot together
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