Tracks on, tracks off!

I’ve reached a crossroads concerning tracked vehicles.
Until recently, I’ve always built and painted the vehicle and tracks seperately, painstakingly painting the rubber bits and all, even carrying out most of the weathering seperately before installing the tracks.
My local hobby buds have said that’s all rubbish and a waste of time, since after weathering, it all basically becomes one color down there anyway (assuming you’re doing a weathered vehicle, and not something in the showroom). Based on their advice, I now completely assemble the vehicle, tracks and all OVM installed, and then prime and paint.
I roughly AB on a basic color for the tracks, then the wheels, and then just drybrush on a bit of rubber if it’s rubber-tired. After washes, filters, drybrushing and dryscrubbing, and some dark earth blown on, I reckon it looks pretty accurate.

So, how do you do it?

Tracks on, or tracks off?

I guess I’m a tracks off kinda guy…I paint them and weather them before putting them onto the kit. I think that you can achieve a better rust and wear that way. After the tracks are on then they get the same treatment as the rest of the tank with pastels but you can still see where the rust has been drybrushed on.

Good points, Robert.
I should have mentioned that I am still a little reluctant to do it “tracks on,” but I thought I’d give it a try for a while.
Actually, I don’t think I’d do “tracks on” with vinyl tracks at all, or even workable link tracks. Lately, everything I’ve done has been non-workable link ,or link & length, and I just found it easier to get a natural hang and sag building it all first, gluing it firmly to the running gear, and painting the whole shebang later. If the vehicle has skirts, I guess you should darken it up a bit in there before you slap them on.
The E-100 I’m building now is in that category.

I guess it depends on the project!

I like to use individual links so I paint them metallic, assemble and mount them and then weather them with the vehicle, like what would happen in real life.