Hola

I am in the process of building a Rusian SU-85 from Dragon.... The kit comes with individual link tracks, my firt one of this kind.....

I haven't yet figure out a good way to go about it. I have cleaned each individual link and have painted the bottom side. Then I was going to lay then over the wheels and glue them. Now I realize that the mud guard wont let me paint the upper side of the tracks....

Does anyone have a good method for this kind pf tracks?????

Thanks a lot

Generally if you can see something you can paint it. Try jamming an old paintbrush in there if nothing else works. I wouldn't even worry about painting the whole thing if you can't, as you probably can't see it anyway . My modeling philosophy is-if I didn't paint it, I did'nt intend for you to be on your hands and knees looking it.
As for the track, I usually use liquid cement and do the whole bottom run, and the portions leading up to and around the sprocket and idler. Then I do the top run with a bit heavier than usual application of cement, let it set a few minutes, and then cement it to the rear sprocket, and let it flex up to the idler. The good thing about the T-34 based chassis is that you can rotate the idler slightly to adjust it, or just let the track get sloppy over the road wheels. The drawback is that you can't just adjust the track length by removing one link-you always have to remove or add a pair. Paint them AFTER installation. You can paint the roadwheels first if you like to make it easier. Just run them over a large sheet of wet/dry sandpaper to remove the paint where you'll cement the track. Again, if you can see the iinside portion of the lower track, you should be able to carefully paint it. If you can't, you can add mud. That's why we do armor instead of aircraft.

I do indi tracks a little different. I make an upper and lower run out of them. First, I build the straight runs, top and bottom. Then I put together 4-5 piecs of track for the curved areas at the sprocket and 1st/last road wheel. I use the sprocket or road wheel as jigs to get the angles right. I then attach the curved pieces to the top run. Next I build the angled pieces that come up from the ground to the sprocket and first/last road wheel. I attach these to the bottom run. You should now have two pieces for each side, an upper and a lower section. I paint and weather the whole tank next. I leave the track till last. Paint and weather the track off the tank as well. Once it is dry, attach the two runs to the road wheels and return rollers, joining them at the curvd ends. A light dusting of pastels to blend it all together and you are set.

I think I have a way of doing it a bit faster,I experimented on my KV 1.
I attached the inner halves of the roadwheels,already painted.
I added the inner half of any support rollers.




I assembled the idlers and sprockets,but left them loose,not glued to their shafts.
Then I placed the sprocket and idler in place,and built the track around the entire wheel areas.




Since the idlers and sprockets were loose,I could slide the "loop " off,and paint it.
Then I slid it back on ,and added the outer roadwheels,and the support rollers.





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Thanks guys. I'll let you know the out come.