I’m building a 72nd scale M60 and it comes with link and length tracks. Not as tedious as individual links but never the less, I have a question.
I’ve finished assembly and am waiting to mate the upper hull to the lower hull. Before I do that, I have to paint and attach the tracks. What is the best way to go about this? Should I:
a) Attach the tracks then paint them while I paint the lower hull?
b) Paint the tracks separately then attach them?
c) None of the above?
Normally for indy links, I paint them before attaching them. I’m not sure how easy it would be to glue these tracks together, paint them, then form them correctly around the sprockets and road wheels. If some one has a tip, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
haha i jest, personally, i would build them in removable, managble sections, and paint and weather off, and then glue on, and if needs be hide the glue marks
i would, Glue them, form them remove, then paint, would be very difficult to glue paint and form.
Ha, yeah you got that right! I don’t think I’ll do another braille scale tank for a while.
So if I understand you correctly, you would glue them in separate sections, off the tank. While they are still malleable for them to the tank and wait for them to dry. Remove the now glued section, paint and weather, then replace them on the tank?
Seems like a good process to me and one I may have to plan out. Thanks for the help!
sounds good to me, i have done various segmental sections of tracks before, sometimes top and bottom, with the joins midway on the drive and idler, amd sometims front back top n bottom, its dependant on the acess you have to the roadwheels e.t.c
This is how I do it in 1/35, and I can’t imagine it would be any different in your minute scale. Just weather the glue points when you reattach the tracks to the tank to hide the glue, and that’s it.
When I did mine, I assembled the lower hull/running gear and then did the tracks directly onto the running gear. I found the L-n-L tracks to be a little PITA to work with, so I put them directly onto the running gear as best as they would fit and then hid any errors with paint and muck. You’re a better man than I if you can get them assembled off the model, painted and weathered and then back onto the kit without breaking something. Those tracks are tiny!
Zokissima, thanks for the tip as well. That’s what I love about armor modeling, you can disguise some mistakes with a little strategically placed mud.
Dre, thanks for weighing in. This is the Revell M60 with ERA. Never the less, the link and length tracks are a PITA indeed. There was a time where I would have assembled the entire tank, tracks and all, and then painted it as one complete model. Doing it that way I always ran into trouble accessing difficult to reach areas with a paint brush, like the inside section of track, or road wheel. So I had wanted to paint the tracks separate from the model so to ensure full paint coverage on the tracks and the running gear. But I think you’re right, i don’t want to bite off more than I can chew.
If I plan it out and work carefully, this could work for me.
I remember the first question that I asked when I bought my first kit that didn’t have Vinyl tracks was “how the hell do I paint them”?
The obvious answer has to be don’t paint them prior to assembly as the glue will mess up the paint pretty badly and will cause the paint to lift causing breaks in the track joints.
I’d assemble a base run that goes from halfway up the front drive sprocket, under the road wheels and then half way around the rear idler. I’d then leave these in place to set and would put something of a suitable height under the front and back ends so it’s held there until totally set. Then do the top run the same starting from the front or back. If you want track sag use Tamiya Thin cement as this is easy to work with and doesn’t melt the plastic like some of the harsher cements. In between the top bogies push a piece of foam to give sag (basically the foam pushed the links down a bit giving an impression of sag-I found that foam industrial earplugs were best) and leave overnight.
You should then be able to remove both sections and paint and weather accordingly. Fit back on and glue the ends together. I haven’t done this myself but my friend fohn who loves Magic Tracks by Dragon swears by this method.
If I can’t get Friuls for a ‘top shelf’ build I’ll leave it alone or at a push use Dragon DS vinyl tracks which are very good but as I like German armour It’s nigh on impossible to get sag effect with vinyl tracks which is why I like Friuls.
I can’t see how you can get full, decent paint coverage with fitted L&L tracks that are unpainted.