Just asking a bit of advice here.
On most vehicles I would paint vinyl tracks seperately to the vehicles, and Indi-link tracks once assembled and fitted.
I've got Dragons Panther II in the 'to-do' pile - it's got indi-links with three pieces for every two links. If I paint them first then there's the risk of the glue not taking, and if I fit them first I'll never get the paintbrush in amongst all those interleaved roadwheels to paint the tracks later in the build!

What do you regular german vehicle builders do here?

Hi Dave. This is how I did it with Italeri´s bergetiger and every indy set since. I find it easy enough.

Build the whole tank .. wheels and track.


Firstly spray all the wheels and all the running gear (also from underneathand behind) with the rusty track colour. Tamiya earth used for this. Then spray hull/base colour and spray a shot of the same into the centre of each wheel (use a circl template cut from paper to get better results, if needed).. doesnt matter about overspray. Tamiya dark yellow used for this. Then camo if appropriate. Then with a slightly thinned black humbrol paint/wash the tyres. Just what you see. Dont worry about splashes onto tracks. When finished dry brush tracks with rusty colour again to cover up the worst of oversprays and tyre colour. Heres one I prepared earlier. :-) :-)


Next wash, dry brush, decal, filter, weather as usual. The black on the inner road wheels that can be seen has toned down to almost become indistinguishable from the roadwheels that havent been touched. I use earthy filters overall but more on the roadwheels andrunning gear.


SU-76M done the same way



Same with JS1



Hope this gives you some help or ideas.

Thanks for that advice - I don't know if aerosols and brush paints will be as easy as an airbrush but I'll give it my best shot. At least tyres on the roadwheels won't be an issue as the Panther has steel wheels. I think I'll have to paint the lower hull and roadwheels, then add the tracks, paint them and then touch up afterwards.