As it Relates to Painting - Track Assembly Preference

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

This might be a bit hard to explain, but bear with me a moment. I am looking for people’s preferences on whether people build and assemble their tracks and leave them assembled (track glued to the wheels, drive sprocket, etc.) or leave them in seperate components prior to painting. If you do assemble them and leave them assembled, do you also leave them on the tank or remove the “assembly?” I am guessing that it also depends on the types of tracks (vinyle, link/lenght, individual track, plastic/metal… whatever). Also kind of looking for pros and cons of each.

The reason I am asking is that I currently paint individually and then assemble after the main body of the tank is close to finished (as far as the lower half goes)… but I also feel this is not the best way for me to do this. Some issues I run into are that I find it difficult to do without damaging some part of the weathering or having the track break at least once in a random point. I have a bit of a tremor (medical issue) so fine motor skills can be a bit difficult at times. I find this especially true when the tank drive sprocket is fixed and does not rotate making it next to impossible to feed the track back over everything and under the fender and everything else that gets in the way.

Lastly, what methods do people secure their road wheels and such to the model when they are forming the tracks around them? I tried using a small bit of Tamiya quick liquid cement (as I’ve found it doesn’t hold as well), not always, but I have had disasterous results when trying to remove them again.

I model mostly German and Russian WW2 armor so tips related to Tigers/Panthers, T-34’s, KV-1’s will probably be the most helpeful if they are not universal techniques.

2

I always build my tracks and paint and weather before i fit them to the vehicle. My preferance is for metal tracks which are workable so thats pretty easy to do. With plastic tracks and build them up and form aroubnd the wheels which i dry fit. I then take the tracks off and paint. I am not a big fan of plastic tracks as one issue i have is that weathering useing oils and white spirits softens the join between links and they often break apart.

3

I have struggled with this exact issue. German armor is my specialty and incidentally, I just dealt with this while converting an Aufklarungspanzer Panther and wrestling with a set of individual plastic links.

For vinyl tracks, I paint and weather them separately. Same for link-and-length tracks that have a track jig, and metal individual tracks. If the tracks are individual plastic links or link-and-length with no track jig, I build them on the suspension then paint & weather.

I don’t think I’ll be doing this much anymore though, I find individual plastic links to be too much of a hassle and I value my sanity and free time too much to deal with them. From now on, it’s vinyl or metal & pins all the way.

4

Metal tracks are great indeed. I wish the cost wasn’t often as much as the model though. I started trying to buy them preassembled … some times the monotony of putting all the pins in can get to me. I seem to take more enjoyment in the painting and weathering than assembling; especially true when it comes to models with small parts that my gorilla hands and shaking were not made for. I admit, there are times when an outsider looking in would think I hate doing models based on the amount of swearing and yelling that goes into their production. I do love it though. Back on topic though… Coffeepower, when you use your vinyl tracks 1) do you have a prep that you find helps the paint adhere to them better? I haven’t found a method that a few good shakes can’t make the tracks look like new again. 2) do you glue the tracks to the wheels, use pins, or sew them to get the track sag? Bish… never thought about the white spirits destroying my tracks, but that probably contributes greatly to them crumbling because I also use oils and spirits. I will have to consider that in the future.

5

[dto:]

Same thing here, I sometimes use metal,but they cost,so I try to use the plastic indies when I could.

As far the roadwheels,some kits use poly caps which are great,it there is plenty of room between the wheels and the fenders I will glue the wheels on permanently,except for the drive sprocket and idler,if not poster tack works

Road wheels are permanently glued

6

Sub-assemblies. I clean up & assemble as much as possible, eg hull & suspension, then wheels and tracks separately, then the rest of the vehicle, turret etc.

Then I paint appropriately, and assemble the painted parts. I find it easiest.

With tanks, I will wrap the completed suspension & tracks with clingfilm/saran wrap/Alu foil to protect it while assembly & further painting takes place.

7

I hear that - metal tracks are great, but I only get them for tanks I really like. Got a lot of armor in my stash and metal tracking them all would be waaaay too expensive. Incidentally, I’m the opposite - I love assembling models, but painting them fills me with anxiety. I am however right there with you, that an outsider would think I hated modeling by listening to me at the workbench.

For vinyl, it depends on the track. I’ve had Tamiya vinyl that took paint no problem and never flaked or chipped, and I’ve had low-grade tracks that never accepted a single drop of glue or paint no matter what I did.

The only solution I’ve found for tracks that won’t take paint is to make up a mixture of plaster, brown paint, pigment (optional) and artist’s medium (optional), and mud the heck out of them. Then you can add lighter or darker layers on top of that. It kills the detail, but with low quality tracks, this may be a blessing.

Again, depending on the track material, switching up the paint you typically use may help. I’ve had a couple that wouldn’t take acrylic, but took enamel and/or lacquer just fine.

I typically use pins in the hull for track sag. Never tried sewing and I glued my fingers together one too many times to enjoy gluing them down.

I’ve also taken a bit of a “good enough” stance lately. My free time is very much at a premium for various reasons, and the only person who will ever see my models and know anything is off about them is me, so I usually let things like track sag go unless it’s really noticeable, like on a Panther or King Tiger.

Check out Tabletop Minions on YouTube, he may be helpful!

https://m.youtube.com/user/tabletopminions

8

A guy in our club suggested rubber bumper paint from the auto parts store for rubber style tracks. It’s formulated for rubber type plastic so it sticks to it without any issues even if you flex it and provides a good primer coat for any paint laid down over it. Just spray a couple light coats and then paint. So far I haven’t had any issues with it.

I always do the same as Tojo with individual link tracks. Just assemble them and slip off. Paint the tank and the tracks separtly and then slide them back on.

9

This is basically the method I currently use… I must just have the finessee of a bull. Sliding the tracks back on becomes the proverbial square peg in a round hole for me. Road wheels go on great, wheels and track painted happily… trying to push the tracks back on though usually results in breaking the track, often multiple times. There are times when I could probably do less damage if I just crushed the track in my fist. Seems like it should be fairly straight forward, yet I can never really get it past the sprocket. Is there a trick to getting everything to feed properly? Looking at your post, should I be putting the track on and then the sprocket and idler? Now that I think on it I wonder why I haven’t put those parts on after the track… I must have seen someone add the sprocket first and then never thought there was a better way… sometimes it’s surprising my knuckles don’t drag on the ground…

10

I will defintely try this. Is there a particular brand recommended? Anything I want to avoid (something too hot for the plastic/vinyl)?

11

This is what I’ve been using. Seems to work. I’ve used other brands before and never had any issues though. If you’re worried about it being too hot or not drying if the rubber band tracks have any of those little plastic tabs to cut off just spray them as a test before messing with the good track parts. Plus a couple of light coats with time to dry between them are better than one heavy one.

12

Try putting the roa wheels on but leave off the drive sprocket and idler. Put those into the curves in the tacks and fit the whole thing in place.