Good evening,
Can anyone advise me of any paint that will adhere to vinyl tank treads? I build mostly WWII aircraft but recently have tried some armor. I have had no luck with any paint that I tried that will adhere to vinyl treads. They look great until they have to bend, then the paint flakes off. I have tried acrylics, enamals, commercial spray from the local hardware. I have tried primeing before all different types of paint, no luck.
Anyone has an idea or a solid solution, please e-mail me at jackieb51@verizon.net.
Thanks
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Jackie,
first of all, Hi, and welcome to the Forums!, Second, have you considered fixing the tracks to the model and then painting them? This avoids the problem you have experinced, which can affect the vinyl ‘rubber band’ tracks on some brands of kits - I remember it happening to me, some years ago, on an Academy Warrior APC.
If you do this, you’ll find that you can then spray your model with any suitable primer - I mostly use Humbrol satin black or medium grey enamels but automotive acrylic (not laquer) spray primers work well as well. You can then brush-paint the tracks with dilute acrylics. You may not be able to get to every part of the track, but the bits you can’t get to won’t be visible on the finished model, so what does it matter?
I’ve used this method for several years now - if nothing else, it speeds up assembly and painting considerably - and here are some of the results:
Dragon 1/35 Nashorn:
Dragon 1/35 Pz.IV Ausf.E:
AFV Club 1/48 Sturmtiger:
Tamiya 1/35 Chieftain:
If I were advising on methods to use to win competitions, my advice would be different, but if all you want is a good-looking model, this approach works fine.
Cheers,
Chris.
The model I just finished is a 1970 Tamiya motorized model that my daughter picked up at a flea market. As long and I don’t use the motor (one c battery) everything is fine. When I run it, the paint flakes off the treads. I have built two other panzers and did what you suggested, fix the treads and then paint them, which worked on non-movable treads. So, thanks for the suggestions.
Jack
Those are made of rubber and will flex constantly making paint adhesion inconsistent in various areas. It’s like painting a half inflated balloon and then blowing it on up after the paint dries.
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Yup, you can’t paint flexible vinyl tracks if you are then going to use them on working motorized models. the paint will flake off, sure as eggs are eggs. That’s why they’re moulded in ‘track colour’.
The Chieftain on my previous post post was originally motorized, and had tracks which did work. I , however, was building a static, non-working model so could safely paint the tracks as escribed above.
Most tank nodels these days are non-motorized. Those that are are often designed for radio control, and these often have non-paintiable, one-piece, rubber band tracks. Other motorized tank kits have hard plastic (or even, in some cases, white metal) tracks made up of individual links and these can be painted. Such models are usually to be found in 1/25 or 1/16 scales. The 1/16 scale ones, in particular, are not cheap.
Cheers,
Chris.
