I am in need of some ideas on how to paint tracks. Anything would be of great help. :-)

There is a good article in FSM that describes one way to paint and weather tracks.
I could send it to you if you like.

Andrew

I may have that article in my collection of FSM now that I think about it. What issue was it? :-)

I could use a copy of said article please #:-)

What I usually do for tracks is I first paint them with tamiya's earth colour then I add washes of black ..burnt umber ...raw umber ..and.burnt sienna ....this leaves them rusty and oily looking ...I then use pastels in brown to orange and rub them all over the tracks....then I use Humbrol metal coat paints to drybrush the high points on my tracks...hth

Richard

I paint them differently depending on the weathering.

If the tracks are to be fairly clean, I spray them gun metal overall, and then drybrush with steel or aluminum. I then do slight weathering, which may include dark brown or rust coloured washes, pastel washes, and/or straight pastel chalk dust for a more dusty appearance.

If the tracks are to be quite dirty, I will spray them the colour of soil, along with the running gear. Higher areas in contact with the ground will be drybrushed with gun metal and/or steel. Of course, the other weathering techniques already mentioned can be applied here, too. On the Sherman I am working on, I may try making mud on the tracks with Celluclay and static grass.

Nic

You opened a can of worms now !! Painting tracks is one of the great armor modeling mysteries...:-)
I usually paint them a medium brown/dirt color, heavily wash with a dark brown, then drybrush heavily with steel, and lastly, a light drybrush on just the highest parts with chrome. The last step can be substituted with a silver colored pencil.

Hola!

If you are familiar with Mirko Bayerls work, and have seen his famous tigers and panthers, you must have noticed the tracks. I do it the same way he does it.
Assemble the tracks, then paint them in humbrol 173 (Track color) and then let dry completely. Now take an old film canister for 35mm rolls of film, start scraping 6-8 different shades of tans, browns, reds, yellow's and any other shades you fancy, then mix this with thinner, make it pretty thick, and apply all over the tracks. Set aside and let dry for atleast 24 hours. When dry use your fingers or a soft brush to wipe off the excess pastels and to show wear. If you wish you can spray with dull coat after this.

Howdy,
I've got an old thread on the subject in my favorites folder. Painting Vinyl Tracks
The last time I painted tracks, I used Testors Buffing Metalizer 'gunmetal' with a number of black and rust colored washes. The high points were then dry-brushed with silver.
You can barely see this in the picture of my M41 Walker Bulldog...


(the image is a little chunky because it is scaled down to 500 pixels wide to avoid 'stretching' the forums. Here is the full size image
I will be 'touching up' the model one of these days... after the experince with a two-year-old nephew. (in short, two missing antennae and a broken gun barrel )

YodaMan

Well it just so happens that the walker bulldog is the tank I am working on. Well I decided to that instead of sitting here making myself crazy over what to do with the tracks I should do somthing even if it's wrong. After all that is the only way I am going to learn. So here is what I tried. First I painted with a rust color, then washed with black, then I painted the pads with burnt umber instead of black. Then I very lightly drybrushed with flat steel. The reason I used this method is because it is what I had on hand. The tracks came out looking suprisingly good though. I plan to try different methods on each model I build and see how each turns out. Thanks for everyones input on the subject. It will be of great help in the future :-)

Be sure on m41s to rust the hell out of the inside of the tracks all pictures in my squadron book show them the bright color of red somthing like burnt seana
Branden