I have begun to build my first tank; a german mobile Anti Aircraft gun.
The one thing that I have noticed about tanks vs say aircraft is their Inside Out quality. I have all these little little things on the outside that need to be painted that need to be glued on first (or at least the directions show it that way.)
It seems that I can’t just put it all together and then go about painting the small parts afterwards; shovel, wrench, replacement treads, etc.
How do you guys do it?
There is a lot of camo here, even behind the treads
And then there are those “rubber” wheels.
One last thing, the tracks of this tank model are rubber. If I put a coat of acrylic paint on them before attaching them, will they bend or break?
Welcome to the world of armor modeling NGC [:)]. First thing you’ll notice about tank modeling is, we don’t follow a lot of rules. Your question for example will get almost as many ways to do it as responses. This is how I do it: I put almost everything together first then paint it. I do any camo pattern right over the tools and tracks etc. then hand paint the small details later. That’s my way. I’ve not had any problems with painting rubber band tracks, but some of the guys have. I’m sure you’ll hear from them soon. Road wheels can be done many ways. I paint them on the vehicle, but leave them so they’ll roll. Then I use a chisel point black Sharpie and roll a demarcation line around the rim then fill the rest in with a wider marker. They look kind of lame at first, but after a coat of dullcoat they look fine. Once again welcome to our little corner of the world.
Another flyboy lured to the darkside! [;)][:D] Seems like everyone has thier own to go about building armor. I think I change with everything I do depending on what it is. I usually put on everything that is the same colors as the vehicle and then paint everything else before I out it on. I’ve never had a problem with painting the vinyal tracks before putting them before. Just put some on a Panther tonite that have een painted for a couple of weeks and then weathered them once they were on it. The sharpie way is the easiest I have found to do roadwheels. Good luck and welcome to the darkside, there is no turning away now you know.
hey ngc,
welcome![:)] spamicus laid out the way i think most people do armour, although obviously it can vary with the project…
regards,
nick
ps “…only now will you know the true power of the dark side…”[}:)][}:)][}:)]
[(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
I learned to do tanks more by trial and error than the forum (even If I did get sucked into the void the moment I visited the forum). if your gonna do the shovels and things a different paint scheme than the cammo job of the modle, then paint them before they go on the moddle. and a great way for doing tracks if you dont want them to be cammoed over (which I dont like cause after a day of rolling through the country, the paint will be off) Paint the whole track burnt seinna, then take raw seinna, and give it a pretty heavy drybrushing, then take raw umber and do the same thing as the raw seinna, finally take tamiyas gunmettal and lightly dry brush over the whole thing. then once its dry do the same thing to the part of the track that the wheeles run along, finally take Tamiyas gunmetal and give the spikes on the tracks a good coat of gunmetal so they shine nicely. let this dry for about a day so all the paint dosnt come off when you start manipulating it, and if you have trouble mealting the tracks then try stapling them and hiding the staple under a wheele.