Since it has been raining all day, it has been a very good day for modeling. I'm one of the lucky once who have access to real armoured vehicles every day, so while I was waiting for the glue to set, I went back to base to get som reference pictures for my latest project. I have not paid very much attention to Tank Tracks before (exept for painting and weathering of course) but I think my picture of the real thing shows that I should have thought of this before.



The rubber parts on this Leopard track was changed last year, and shows the wear and tear after one year of hard training

When I got home I took a curved model knife and a motortool with a steel brush attached, and basically slashed the rubber parts on the track as an experiment ( I have a spear track, just in case...). The result is on this picture which shows the difference between the original track (on top) and the one I gave the full treatment. I have not painted the tracks yet, but so far I am quiet pleased with the result.





I would love to hear if any of my fellow model builders have a clever method for making tank tracks look like the real thing.

woow,very nicely done. Iet's see it painted.

cheerz Q

Erik,
Your effect looks great. I did it with a few M60 series tanks, but I don't think it looked as good as yours. Perhaps the Tamiya vinyl, who knows?
I'm currently doing another Paladin with a full interior, so I thought I'd give it a go with plastic individual link track. Here's the result so far:

The silver tones down just right after dusting.

Nice one Bravo!
The picture is a bit blurry, but I suppose this is a lot of work when you do it on individual tracks?

That's a great idea. Never would have thought of that but it makes perfect sense. I'm lazy so I can only think of doing that on the relatively few pads you'd see at the front and end of the tracks, where they curve upward around drive sprocket and idler wheel, unless it's something that could be easily seen on the top run.

Thanks for sharing.

Oh, and looks like you haven't been here too long, welcome to Armorama. You'll fit right in.

Well, Roger, it took me about 5 minutes doing the whole track, so I suppose you can be rather lazy, and still use this methode.

Thank you for the nice welcome to Armorama. I will probably use this site for years to come

Erik

Welcome to Armorama Erik.

Others might have thought of the same idea as you did, but probably as what Halfyank said its the lazyness that got the better of us .

Now that you've shown how easy it is I better try it myself in some of my kits. It sure does look like the real thing especially once you painted it. Thanks for sharing

Cheers

that has turned out incredibly well !!


the "randomness" of the markings looks remarkably good !

Nice work. Don't forget to attack the tyres on the road wheels as they get a similar bashing.

This is a very useful tip...I don't do that many tracks with rubber pads, but I will give this a try on my next Shermie. I do something similar with Fruil tracks; blacken them and then lightly sand the cleats.

Good tip guys!


Jeff

Wow! I build modern stuff all the time and this never occurred to me. I will be trying this on my next tank. Thanks for the idea.

I do not neccessarily agree about the road wheels on the Leopard. This pictures shows road wheels wich have been used for about a year. On a M-113 its a whole different story...

Challenger 2 as well....

Probably because of the rubber quality. We had the same problem with the roadwheels on our CV-90 IFV for a while. I think it turned out to be a problem with to soft rubber on the wheels. Today it is much better.

Erik

on an abrams we have severe problems with the pressed on rubber bands that make up our road wheels, and there often completely gone at the end or a mission, in iraq we killed probably 4 a week on highway security missions which are 45 mph passes along 15 miles of interstate, turn around and do it all over again for 4 hours a night,

Just a quick update on my technique. To get the proper texture on the tread pads, twist and turn your knife so you make the vinyl "raise" on the track. Use the motortool at the slowest speed, and wear safety glasses.