Couple of quetions if you don't mind.

Here are a few answers:
For the Tamiya tracks, I recomment you cut the posts down some and use super glue to attach the two ends together. The hot-knife method looks pretty sloppy and unrealistic.

For Roadwheels, two methods I use.
1. Build the roadwheels and place them, do not glue them onto the tank, paint with an airbrush or spray can along with the rest of the model. Take them off after painting to paint the rubber part with a fine bruch. It helps if you put the roadwheel on a stick or the end of another brush and yoiu use this to hold the roadwheel while painting.
2. Leave the road wheel attached to the sprue, paint it allover black. Next use a circle template or cut out a circle from plastic card or heavy cardstock to the size of the whel hub and use it as a stencil to spray the wheel color through. Remove the roadwheels from the sprue, assemble them, touch up the black at the sprue attachment points, and install them to the model after it is painted.

Lastly, I find individual tracks to be relatively easy, just time consuming. They do look great once added to thye model.

Hope these help you out.

Just my two cents...
I've tried using various methods to join single-piece vinyl tracks (the ones you describe). If you chose to use the 'hot-knife' method, nails actually work better. Take a nail and clamp it upside-down in a vice-grip (lockable) pliers. Heat the head of the nail and press into the vinyl tracks (after joining them through the holes :) To have this be less visible, make certain that the resulting join is cleaned up. if you are building a tank with side skirts, just tuck it in there, it won't be seen. But Heavy is correct, it will not look too nice. Depends on how much care you take to build it.
I've tried using superglue, but because of the construction steps I take, I end up having to 'stretch' the tracks onto the assembled wheels, and I find that superglue joints allways snap for me.

For roadwheels, my technique is a mix of HeavyArty's. I keep the wheels on the sprues and paint overall the colour of the tank (the colour they're supposed to be). I remove them from the sprue, and paint the 'rubber' portions (the outermost black regions) with a fine brush. I find that most roadwheels are attatched to the tree by the outermost points anyways, and that way when the black 'rubber' layer is painted, it covers up the part where I cut them from the sprue.

QUOTE: Originally posted by jimz66 I live in an apartment. While I prefer aircraft kits. I desperatly want to get into armour. For one reason, I know nothing about tanks and have always wanted to learn about them. Second, I have very limited space, so Cars and Armor will be nice additions to my collection. Ok, I live seperate from my parents. I do still have my closet full of stuff back home. Among my kits at home I have two Tamiya tank kits, both based on the M113 chassis. They have a thing with the tracks were you are supposed to use a hot knife to melt the tracks together? Can someone explain how to do this?

I use a nail held in needle nose pliers, this allows me a little more control and makes a larger "weld". It is also easier to get them flat.

QUOTE: Second in the articles I have seen from FSM it seams that whenever some builds a tank, they put all the roadweels(?) on before painting, How can you paint around them. Do yo spin them once they are on the model? How do you paint behind them?

This mostly depends on the vehicle, Shermans are easy to do with the suspension mounted but Panthers, Tigers and other vehicles with overlapping wheels need to have them done before mounting. I almost always put on a base coat before mounting.

QUOTE: PS and what about individual track links? How difficult are the? NO REALLY how difficult are they?

I have experiance with Tamiya, Dragon (glued plastic) and Fruilmodel (workable cast white metal) indy tracks and they are all MUCH better than the rubber band ones. The Tamiya ones were very easy to work with and had minimal clean-up, Dragons were a little harder with quite a bit of clean-up (seams in the pivot joints) and the Fruil were real easy but time consuming (making sure the pin holes were clear). I am satisfied with the final look of all of them but the Fruil are my favorite so far.

QUOTE: Thanks for taking the time to help out. I hope that those of you on this section are as helpful as those of us on the Aircraft section are.

You're Welcome.

Rather than painting the rubber rims of the wheels with a brush, a lot of us have been using "Sharpie" markers. I use the fine size for smaller wheels, but find the chisle tip works the best if the wheel is big enough to allow it. The fine ones have a tendency to skip a lot for me. They are a little glossy at first, but a dull finishing coat will blend them right in. It takes me probably no more than 30 to 40 seconds to do a Panther road wheel this way. Painting is probably closer to 5 minutes per wheel. Maybe more.

Good luck and welcome to the heavy metal side of things!!

My advice would be to avoid the rubber treads. They are good for beginners in Armor, but once you get adapted and better at armor you should probably start using single treads. I can tell rubber treads from a mile off, but I sugest you use them because your starting. Single treads are a little tricky and they look so realistic when done right. I used to glue my rubber treads with super glued (I now only prefer to use single treads). They are a little frustrating and time-consuming more than hard. If anybody is to do single treads I seriously recomend Tamiya Extra Thin Liquid Cement! It isn't globby like traditional modeling glue and doesn't dry fast like super glue. The Thin Cement stays gummy and plyable for enough time to make a big string of glued together treads and bend them around the wheels before the glue dries. But that stuff dries hard when it dries overnight. The worst thing (to me) about doing single treads is that Tamiya's Liquid Cement smell awful! Make sure you have some serious ventalation when you even open the bottle! It's just as potent as Squardron putty!

QUOTE: originally from wipw Rather than painting the rubber rims of the wheels with a brush, a lot of us have been using "Sharpie" markers.

I used to use sharpies for the rubber rims of the Tiger's/Panther's roadwheels but I noticed that the sharpies give off a purpleish shine in the sun. I don't want to put that Idea down because it works good, I just don't use it for that reason. For roadwheels on tanks I glue them totally on and in the position they should be in. Then I paint them with the airbrush and make sure that I get all the wheels painted with the camoflauge. It could look really bad if the paint isn't completly on the wheels! The trickiest thing is painting the treads and roadwheels when using single treads. Don't worry, it won't take many armor kits before you get the hang of it and are satisfied with the results. Hope it all helps!

i think most of questions have been answered already

Wheels: I remove them from the sprue and clean up the inevitable mold seam along the tire. Next, airbrush the tires PollyS or Floquile Grimy Black, dark grey, almost like Panzer grey. When dry, circle template (from an office supply or art store, about a dollar) for the rims. I've yet to find a rim that wasn't close enough for government work. Assemble the wheels and set aside. Assemble and paint the tank the base color. Do not apply camo at this time. Add the wheels, except for the drive sprockets if you're using "rubberbands."
If you do use the rubber bands, you can use a heated X-Acto blade as well as a nail. After you've heated the nubs, they're still soft enough the press down and pretty much hide.
To attach these. I align the sprocket teeth withthe guide holes, run the tracks over the idler and road wheel and aattach the sprocket to its post. I've never had any break.
Indy tracks will be done differently, depending if htey are workable (Friul and AFV) or glue together. Workables are by far the best tracks I've ever used and get applied liek the real ones are.

I use the nail technique, but I don't actually touch the little rubber nubs. I just get the really hot nail head close and let it melt them that way. While they're still soft I press them flat with my finger. I install vinyl track before the roadwheels, I string the joined track on the idler and sprocket then install the front and rear road wheels.

Painting; I put most of the vehicle together. I usually leave the upper and lower hull apart and I leave the road wheels off. I line the road wheels up on a piece of masking tape and paint them the base color first. Then I paint the major assemblies and come back to the road wheels. They normally can be handled by now so I flip 'em over on the tape and paint the other side. For the tires I tend to use the "sharpie" method, but I pick one road wheel arm and put the road wheels on it one at a time and roll them to get the tire painted.

As you've probably gathered, there are many ways to do this thing.