I am doing a Tamiya Sherman (M4A3E2) and it has the rubberband tracks. This is my first armor piece and I was wondering what the quick and easy was with these?
John

Hi John,
you can paint and weather the rubber tracks and put them on your model using a bit of glue here and there to hold them in place so you don't get that unrealistic look that ruber tracks usually give or if your willing to pay a little bit more you can purchase some aftermarket single link tracks such as Fruilmodel or Modelkasten which are easy to make up and give a really realistic finish.
Hope this helps

Russ

Hi John,

Are you refering to the paint job (color, weathering, dry brush etc.) for the tracks or how to attach it with a more realistic look? If you are refering to the latter, then Russ is right in stating that you need to glue some parts of the track to similate the necessary sags....As for the track paint job, it depends on how you want to depict the subject -- it can be rusty, muddy, or dusty.

Wear, Mud, Rust and Sag...

I paint them flat black with a spray can, then dry brush steel, and then aluminum. Next dry brush rust and finally the dirt and dust of my earth color from my base.

I sag my by drilling holes in the side of the tank hull and pushing & gluing regular straight pins in to hold the track down in the appropriate place ( look at reference pictures for right location)


Good luck!

John
www.johnneill.com

Thanks guys...John, good info, I had the same idea with the straight pins!Maybe I can figure out how to post pics so I can show you guys the results.
John P. O'Shea

Just a little note ..remember that the shermans don't have any real noticable sag to them ,but I do use the pin technique on german and russian kits..Good luck with your Jumbo kit ...

Rick

Excellent point Rick. They certianly do not have the same amount of sag as most German Tanks.

also remember the Rubber Chevrons tend to be off black and faded to a dark grey(ish) color. I dry brush with Panzer Grey.

for images posting I use html code becuase a lot of my work is on line at my webpage. If your on the web then simple type in

<
then "img src=
then the location of the pic... (
example: http://www.johnneill.com/m4.jpg)
then close with >

John
www.johnneill.com

Good stuff guys...thanks!
John