Well Im not sure what to do now. I just finished putting the final coat of german grey over my marauder 2 and have a plastic set of tracks that I have no idea what to do with now. Do I paint them and finish off of the model and whats the best way to paint and weather them. I look at these tracks and just dread having to mess with them.

I prime mine with a caot of flat gray spraypaint, let dry, paint a flat black, let dry, then drybrush a steel color on the tips of the tracks. After that I weather with pastels (depending on the color of the dirt)

good luck
shain

Make sure that you wash them off is a light detergent with water and dry them off. If you don't get all the oil residue off the plastic the paint might not stick and then it will peel off.

Usually spray mine black then highlight with metals, silver and rust before installing.

Majorbeef
(Like I thought I would ever type that)

I paint mine off the model, dark grey, almost black. Then I give them a rust color wash and let that dry. Then rub smoe graphite (ground up number 2 pencil) on the high spots.

Hope this helps,

Shaun

I believe the metal used by the Germans for their tracks had a natural reddish color, with only the cleats and high spots worn to a steel color. So, new or not, the tracks always had a rusty appearance. Maybe someone more knowlegeable can either correct me or back me up as I think this is true, but am not 100 % positive.

I don't know about the red colour, but I think German tracks were made out of magnesium, so they would be a quite a dark silver.

As you are using vinyl, they are probably already some metallic color. Some of the later German tracks were a slight reddish color (Model Masters burnt siena darkened with black would be a good base color) then hit the high spots dry brushing with steel. the other base colors recommended (Black or dark gray)also look equally as good. After you install track then weather/wash model with a highly diluted black to blend everything in, then do whatever special weathering you feel you need to complete the effect you are trying to show

If you go to the Paint and airbrushing forum theres a permenant post on how to paint tracks its very imformative. pictures as well

I am not saying for certain that German tracks weren't made out of magnesium but I can't see any logic behind it they were. It is easily 100 times more expensive than steel and it burns, I mean really burns, when it gets hot. It is lighter than steel but doesn't have nearly the tensile strength. We were milling magnesium plate in the pattern shop and hit a steel bushing in the plate we did not know was there. The cutter got hot and lit the plate on fire. We couldn't put it out and just ran it outside and let it burn out in the parking lot.

Anyway, I think if the tracks were made out of magnesium you would never seen any tracks on German tanks that burned after they got hit because the track would burn as well, much like the rubber road wheels.

Just some thoughts from a foundryman...

Shaun

Well, I am. They weren't. They were made from high _manganese_ content steel for high wear resistance. The natual colour would be a dark, dull silver-grey. They were painted black when brand spanking new, but this usually lasted as long as it took to drive across the parking lot.

All wear surfaces of any track will be a burnished, dull steel colour. If the tracks sit overnight they get a quick coat of bright orange rust that is gone very quickly after the vehicle moves across country.

If the tank is moving in dry soil, then the faces of the track will be that burninshed steel colour. If the ground is wet, you probably can't see much of the wear surfaces, because they are covered in muck. Any wear surface you can see will be either be burnished or packed in muck. Any non wear surface (and there aren't actually many of these on a track shoe) will be a dark, dark brick red rust colour.

Go to a construction site and take a look at the bulldozers & earthmovers. Make the tracks like what you see. Burnished steel with muck or dirt packed into the corners and a little really dark dull rust on the outer surfaces away from the dirt.



You were really lucky you didn't burn your plant to the ground. A magnesium fire (actually any metal fire) is almost impossible to put out in any normal way.

A few thoughts from a mechanical engineer. :-)

HTH

Paul

Paul,

I know the effects of a magnesium fire all too well. The foundry I work in had a sister foundry. They stored the patterns, many of them mounted on magnesium plates, inside the foundry. They had a fire in the pattern storage area and the whole foundry burned to the ground. We don't have any patterns mounted on magnesium plates but we still store our patterns in a building separate from the foundry.

As far as the alloy for the tracks go, high mang steel makes a lot more sense. I always thought they were just regular cast steel.



My grandfather worked in a steel foundry where they cast Sherman turrets in one big chunk. That was some serious metal casting.

Thanks for the input from a mechanical engineer's standpoint...

Shaun

Here's the link on how to paint tank tracks....

Hope it helps

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/13266&page=1

[quote]As far as the alloy for the tracks go, high mang steel makes a lot more sense. I always thought they were just regular cast steel.[quote]
Some countries did use cast steel, but those that added a lot of manganese got tracks that worked better. :-)


Not so off topic, we are still talking tanks.


If he had stayed there for a while longer some of those foundries were casting entire M26 hulls by the end of the war. M4A1 hulls were nothing to sneeze at either. :-)

Paul

It's a pretty good technique, but it produces tracks with too much rust on the operating surfaces for my taste. As garish as it might seem, operating metal surfaces really are quite bright. Only the dust or muck that settles on the surface prevents the surfaces from positively gleaming. This is one area where I feel that modelers really aren't matching what the real vehicle looks like, but what they feel it "should" look like. I have B&W photos of Rams training in dusty soil and the whole face of the steel chevron track is very bright, right down into the crevases between tracks. In real life these would have really reflected the light.

On the tracks in the article, the guide horns on the M47 & M41 track should be really bright steel, not dry brushed lightly with steel. The inside surfaces of the T-55 track should be the same way.

Take a good close look at the tracks of a Cat D9 at a construction site and see what you think.

Just my opinion, of course, your mileage may vary.

Paul

There is a great discussion thread on this in the painting forum (sticky note on the first page entitled painting vinyl tracks ). Well worth the look.

Well, actually, that link is referred to in the messages above, and, as I said before, I don't hink it produces like-like results. Makes great rusty looking tracks, but tracks aren't rusty. Modelers just _think_ they're rusty, and they're not.

Paul

I prime my tracks as a start, then mask them off with masking tape, and airbrush metal and silver coulors on metal parts, and a dark grey color on rubber pads. Since I normally build modern armor I pay some attention to the area where the road wheels touch the tracks, since this area will be "polished". I weather the tracks with a wash made of Raw Umber oil paint to simulate rust.

Erik

"OOOOH!!!!!" Erik,
I bet your fitters/mechanics get upset with you.......all that paint on the tracks .......and simulated rust..... Guess it costs you a fortune in beers ......... :-) :-) :-) :-)
aye
Barv
(GOSBG)

Barv, You Dog!!
You of all people should know that tank tracks get rusty!

BTW have you got the drawings I sent you?

Erik
:-) :-) :-) :-)


WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS RED C**P?

Thanks for linking back to the posts Fabio and I made on painting tracks. I guess what's lost in the discussion is technique - "brown" shouldn't be considered "rust" as so often it seems. Also, "brown" can be substituted with different color(s) to mimic other terrain/weather conditions.

Substitute your prefered paint/pigment for what you're modeling and have fun!

Now, returning to the fun that awaits on the workbench...

Gunnie