Hi. I'm wondering what methods you all employ to weather tank tracks? I've seen a wide variety from using rail road track weathering solution to simple drybrushing.

What's your process?

As I use mostly Friul I do the wash first with soap and water then into the Blacken-it bath for as how long As I decide it should stay.
This begins the weathering,
Then after it dries either a lot of washes of Rustall or Burnt sienna oil paint in thinner, then as the final touch a light rubbing of the raised surfaces with fine sand paper then the graphite pencil over the links to give a little well look to them.
On plastic I have tried Nato black from tamiya and oil wash pretty satisfied with it so far!!
This is me don't know about others!!

I'm not familiar with Friul. What is it?

Howdy ambrose,

sgtreef was just trying to say the word 'Fool' with his mout full...so it came out as 'Fruil'......just kidding. #:-)

'Fruil' stands for 'Fruilmodelisimo' , which is a aftermarket company that makes metal replacement tracks for model tanks. The great advantage of the metal tracks is not only are they accurate, but they also 'sag' just like the real ones do.

Tread.

Here is a link to site to look at these Fine tracks.
Funny one Thread and what have you been up too!
http://www.rollmodels.net/nworkbench/onlinebuild/howto/lordtracks2/tracks2.php

Everything explained in the article (++)

This is what they look like painted

http://www.smallshopeu.com/JSIIEARLY%20Pics/Compleate_Close_Rear_right%20track.jpg

To put my 2 cents in, what i usually do is first paint the tracks a faded black color ( 90% flat black + 10% flat white) acryllic paint. I then make a wash of artist oils -mix colors as you like. I then coat the tracks heavy with the wash. Let dry at least 24 hours, then lightly rub the track pads with my bare fingertips to expose the black paint underneath. If paint is too dry then i go over the track pad lightly with a q-tip wetted with mineral spirits. I highlight the metal links with a drybrushing of flat silver. I drybrush the track pads either a light sand color or a medium grey color depending on what the terrain the vehicle is suppose to be in.

Aftermarket tracks are great - although a bit pricey.

I primarily use the track provided. Once in a while I will pop for some plastic after-market. Tamiya, AFV Club and others make plastic track.

I first will start with a red-brown color. Tamiya makes a great red-brown and I prime the track with that. Once dry I will used a "dark" wash of burnt umber and rust and go over the entire track. By dark wash I mean a pigment rich wash that covers the track. Once that drys I go back with lighter washes of rust, followed by an earth color to fill the nooks and crannies. Finally I dry-brush the contact areas with steel, including the track teeth. Over that I will dry brush my earth color so as to tone down the bright sliver color.

If however, the track really stink - I use MUD. A mixture of real dirt, a bit of water and Modge-Podge. "paint" it on the tracks with a disposable brush and even the weakest of rubber-band tracks can be made to look halfway decent.

I do what GSPatton does, except the mud is acrylic texture gel, pigment powders and tamiya paint.

Those look good Stormfront nice work on those Friuls
Texture Gel good idea!

I have only one "heads up" for you.... make sure that you don't apply too much rust to the tracks. As a career long Cav / Mechanized Infantry guy I can honestly tell you that tracks do a decent job of cleaning themselves while they are being operated. I agree with the picture above, good interior detail.
Make sure that you don't leave any rust on the portion of the track that would come in direct contact with the ground, as tanks, APCs, M88s, etc operate they basically grind off all surface rust and show a metallic glare.

Hi Jeff,

They are MK's not fruilis. Really nice tracks for the T55, I'd buy them again for sure.

Well having painting and weathering my first set of tracks....(only just hand painted them and no weathering before). What I did was a custom mix color....I took some Tamiya Nato Black, added in 4 or 5 drops of Tamiya Metallic Grey and then 4 or 5 drops of Tamiya Flat Black....mixed it up and sprayed it on....gives it a dark greyish black cover...but the metallic grey gives it enough of a metallic sheen to it.

Once that is dry I took a mixture of brown pastels....(choc brown with a little beige and red added in), mixed that and added some thinner to the the mix to make a slurry.....painted that on the tracks and let dry. After its dry, take a stiff brush and brush most of it off.

Now it looks like a dark underlayer under the brown....then I procedded to take some rust colored pastels....take a small brush and wet it with thinner and put a small amount of rust pastels on it and work it into the tracks.....going behind with more thinner as you don't want a heavy rust color to it. Once thats done....over coat with a flat coat to hold the pastels in, then drybrush with silver or steel or the color of your choice.

So far so good....but its the first time I have done this.

Well, I'm probably wrong, but here's how I do it: On tracks I get with the kit, I first lay down a layer of silver (aluminum, gunmetal, etc.) and let it dry. After it's dry, I take a small or large (it doesn't really matter for me) brush that's on its last leg, dip it in flat black, and "jab" at it, so it has some silver showing and black showing. Sometimes I also sharpen a pencil, and grind down the graphite and rub it on the tracks. Though I do this, I'm probably wrong.

Howdy stormfront,

I have to agree with sgtreef, they DO look like Fool's, oops, (sorry Jeff, ), Fruil's. It even looks like you can see the 'scrunched' ends of the metal wire Fruil supplies you! Fancy that.
Either way, excellent job.

to viper29: I like your painting/weathering method. Very similar to my own, except, I don't have to do the 'silvering'.......I use Fruils.

to MEBM: again, nice method for plastic tracks. Metal tracks fortunately save you the 'first' and 'last' weathering process you mentioned.

I am a fan of the 'Mrosko' method of track weathering. Works well, and looks excellent! Although I must say......stormfront's tracks are rockin'!

Tread.

Well I can vouch for stormfront.....they are in fact not Fruili metal tracks but Model Kasten (sp?) plastic tracks.

Stormfront is just good at making them look real!!

Stormfront, Beautiful! To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee: "Nau, Thet's a trek!"

cheers guys, I should add that the metal is from testors buffable paint. Drybrushed on and then a buff froma q-tip or paper towel and bob's yer uncle.

Zoomie... your sig quote reminds me of a song I head the RAF 617 Sqn pilots sing to a Luftewaffe Tornado crew at CFB Cold Lake during Maple Flag a few years ago... ahhahaha....if its the right song I'm think of, you're probably laughing with me. :-)