Ah! Now I see how they work. That’s pretty cool. I wonder how well they worked. I could see them maybe cutting a tire, but I suppose they had that worked out.
I would need to up my soldering skills before trying such a thing. Or, maybe that would be a good item to improve my skills…not sure.
I would saw they are and they aren’t. Kind of like they were only intended to make the footprint larger so they wouldn’t sink in the mud or snow.
Thank you very much Tom… great photos and explanation. The light bulb went on as soon as I saw the photo 
I am definitely looking forward to seeing the end result!
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who needed a nudge! 
So I wasn’t alone lol.
Man…you are just screamin’ through this build now Tom. Looking forward to seeing you get those tracks onto the wheels. I never even knew this kind of stuff existed.
Well, it took a while, but I got those tracks primed, painted, chipped, and glued to the wheelsets. It required some creative engineering which you can read about in detail over at the main build thread.
In the end, I’m very happy with the look, and any irregularities can easily be hidden during the weathering process. Speaking of weathering, I’d better get back after it!
Yes!!! They look fantastic! Well done! 
I love it! I bet it’s a real pain to put these together
Very cool. I like it!
Hey mate, what a top idea and fantastic application for custom decals!
Is it just a matter of running the decal paper through an inkjet printer and then treating like any other waterslide decal, or are other layers/preparation involved after running it through the printer? I skimmed through a YouTube video on the topic and it seemed pretty involved…
Thanks!
Yes, you can make decals pretty easily with decal paper and whatever printer you have on hand. There are a few tricks though…
Now to use decals you print on decal paper you also have to spray them with clearcoat or they will literally fall apart. I spray them with 3 coats. First coat is kind of light. Then once that sits for 5-7 minutes and gets tacky I’ll spray it with a heay coat. Then 10 minutes later another heavy coat. I use Mr Super Clear.
When designing the decal, leave clear areas where you want the paint under the decal to show through. So on my plaid pattern, Most of the design is clear so that light green shows through. Then the plaid pattern is just a darker green “grid” and then for some color I also added a thinner yellow “grid.”
I hope this helps.
You can’t really see the yellow in the pattern, but this is what I drew for the green.
Brilliant, thankyou @ctruss53 ! The resource I looked at initially didn’t mention that you can’t print white, which sounds super obvious now that you say it 
They’d also mentioned using Testors Decal Bonder in place of your Mr Super Clear, however it was a 5 year old video and the Testors product went out of production 4 years ago - Good to know there’s an alternative producing excellent results!
Couple of final questions if you’ll indulge me…
Started the Schwimmwagen late this afternoon. Not many parts to this and I decided to complicate it by adding an eduard photoetch set!
Didn’t get much done apart from the first step in the Eduard instructions. Camera really isn’t good enough to see much detail maybe thats a good thing.
Photoetch is really difficult for me since my left hand is shaky so I had to redo some of the tiny parts a couple of times.
@GreySnake01 do you fold up the etch just using tweezers, pliers, by hand? If so, you might want to consider getting a photoetch bending tool. It will hold the part while you bend it, thus you can use your right hand to fold, and your left (shaky) to hold / stabilize the tool on the work surface. This may help you especially with the smaller parts.
That image is seriously zoomed in. There isn’t much texture other than paint brush strokes. The vertical ribs are part of the panel.
I think any clearcoat will work. I have only used Mr Super Clear though. And yes, Micro Sol and Micro Set work. The work a little different, but still work.
If you cut the decals with a sharp blade on a hard surface you will have a nice clean cut with no issues.
I have only been folding etch with tweezers. A bending tool is on my wish list and something that’s overdue. Going to purchase one in a couple of weeks since I used my current budget on an order from Spruebrothers this week.
@GreySnake01 I think you’re off to a great start. You look like you’ve accomplished more than I have in the last month.
@ctruss53 thanks for the detailed custom decal info. I dabbled in that at one point but really struggled due to, I think, the low quality of my inkjet printer. I may re-dabble, but then again I keep thinking about getting a cutter for mask-making instead…
Nice! They can add so much to what’s otherwise a pretty basic kit. Excited to watch this one come together, especially given how much fun it is to say “schwimmwagen” out loud every time I read it. 
It’s looking good already. You gonna do the driver figure too?
I’ve got complete assembly complete on the BA-6. A little bit of paint touch-up on the tracks and the DT 7.62 machinegun, and then it’s on to oils for pin washes, shading, rust, and other weathering.
