OK, after a tread on texturing vehicles in scale, I'm wondering how is the anti-slip texture applied to real vehicles? Is the rough texture made on the surface itself, or are there anti-slip strips glued to the surfaces?

BTW, can you tell me what surfaces would be textured with anti-slip coating? I'm building Warrior from Op Telic and I'm thinking of making all horizontal surfaces anti-slip...

Mario M.

The stuff is sprayed on kind of like paint. In fact, I think it is maixed with paint. Rob (Sabot) has a good scan of the Abrams application diagram.

Rob

On vehicles like the newer Bradleys and some of the newer vehicles, the anti-slip coating are actually big black decals that are applied during the manufacturing process. They are black and rubberized and have "bumpy stuff" on them. I haven't inspected this type to see what the bumpy stuff is made of. For these types of coatings, it would be possible to cut wet dry sandpaper to the proper shape and glue them into position.

Most of the tanks and M88s have a anti-slip coating compound that was applied to certain areas of the vehicle (as opposed to having the decals applied). You can get this stuff to apply to various areas for touch up and then apply a coat of paint to blend it in with the surrounding pattern.

Rob, when did they start doing this. I remember occassionally seeing this when I was active (76-80) but hell we banged up our fenders so much that after a while we finally got smart and ordered one set for show that we kept in a storage shed. We just kept banging out major dents only replacing for rips and tears. Don't remember if we had coating on these or not

Thanks guys... Rob, can you tell me on what surfaces is the texture applied? Horizontal surfaces of hull and turret only?

Mario M.

M1 and Bradley were the first vehicles I saw this stuff on. Only on newer M113A3s and rebuilt M88A1s as well. Most modern equipment is coming with this stuff. With a lot of aluminum out there, it isn't as easy to knock out dents. The aluminum doesn't dent, it breaks and tears. The steel was tougher and could be banged out or welded.

It is applied to horizontal areas, where one would step.

So in the picture below, was the non-slip applied to the basecoat and then the camo pattern applied over? Interesting wear.



Paul

Unsure of how the Germans do it. It looks like they applied the compound over the pattern. It could be that they touched up the anti-slip strips. I don't know if they even use the same stuff as we do. A US vehicle would have the entire surface covered with the anti-slip compound with about an inch or two between the edges and around the bolt heads.