Tamiya gives a code, but I’m curious to see if anyone here has a better color match for American WWII all-steel track links. I’ll be heading down to the shop today at lunch to pick some up. My shop will undoubtedly be out of stock (they seem to get stocks of paint once every decade or so), but it doesn’t hurt to ask! [(-D]
I have been using Tamiya Gun Metal as base coat for all steel tracks. I think Tamiya prescribes metallic grey but I personally find it too shiny. However, if you are to do heavy weathering of the tracks, both are good colors to start with.
Thanks Dwight. I suspect that a very dark color would be best. Then again, the tracks probably would rust pretty heavily over time, so a basecoat of a rusty color might be best.
You’ll be drybrushing with a lighter metallic colour at the end anyways, so a dark colour, regardless of weathering, is a good start.
When I do all-metal tracks I spray them with Tamiya’s Dark Earth Brown first. This is a lacquer spray in a can. It gives the tracks a nice dark rusty-looking base color and then I dry-brush the lighter shades of rust and bare metal. Metal tracks rust pretty fast in combat; showing a vehicle with unrusted tracks would be OK if it’s factory fresh or just had new tracks installed in the field. But keep in mind unpainted steel would rust even overnight. If you’re showing a vehicle that’s been parked overnight the worn part of the track would likely show bright-orange new rust. To get a good idea of what all-metal tracks look like after even a few days take a look at modern earth-moving machines. They use all steel tracks and look exactly the same as metal tracks on tanks.
Hope this helps. Good luck![:D]