Hello all--Happy Holidays

I was trying to weather some vinyl tracks based on some photos I had found which basically show the entire undercarriage as well as the road wheels and tread being covered in soil.

I found a site that sells fine sand--which looks realistic when applied to common plastic. I used elmer's white glue that was diluted in water and basically brushed on the solution prior to sprinkling the sand on in the appropriate manner. The application method works well on plastic but I am having problems keeping the sand to stick to the vinyl treads. The sand adhered really well for about a week and a half and then one night I noticed it starting to peel off . After dabbling with it a little--it all fell off-lol. Anyway--I was going to try this method again using a higher glue to water ratio and see what happens. I was just wondering if any of you souls have found a better method for performing this kind of task on vinyl treads. Thanks in advance for any input.

What company vinyl tracks were they? Ive had serious problems trying to get anything to stick to italeri tracks ... now I dont use them anymore!
Maybe if you brush them with white glue and water ... and leave this to dry first, it might give the soil layer something to bite to.
Just a thought.

Hello Frank

I am building an LVTP-7 Amtrac from ACADEMY. I had a heck of a time getting paint to stick to the vinyl also--but maybe I didn't clean it enough. Plus I saw a past post that mentioned something about applying a matte acrylic? before applying paint which provides a rough surface for the paint to adhere to. I haven't gotten heavily into painting yet since I have just got back into modelling so the matte acrylic may be wrong.

here is something i've used on wheels and vehicles to depict heavy dirt and mud buildup..

I took some squadron white putty and mixed it with enamal paint of the earth color that I wanted and very finely screened dirt to give it texture... after applying to the vehicle and tires it dried very hard and I havnt' had any problems with it.. not sure how it would work on vinyal tracks yet but might be worth a try..

here is a pic of the project I used this with..



you can see how well it built up on the steps and the back of the fenders..

good luck.

Hi,
try to brush your tracks with trichlo. This removes the molding chemical agent from the surface and eases the painting/weathering process.

cheers
olivier