I don't do 1/72nd in armour but I do have the 1/35th kit. It seems to me your best bet might be to paint the whole shebang, wheels, tracks and all dark grey and then brush paint the wheels blue? Just seems to me that trying to get up in every nook and cranny with the tracks will be a royal pain otherwise. 

Thanks. I was talking to my buddy on the phone while I was building the kit, and absent mindedly glued the track assemblies to the main body.

Ugh, what a ding dong I am. So I spent last night sawing them off so I'd be able to paint them separately. I'm thinking I'm going to either do what you said, or the inverse and paint it all blue and then brush the track... who knows.

But hey, in my vision, she's pretty weather worn, so any issues just get covered with some mud. 

Ouch! Not sure I'd have sawed them off!!!

Personally if mud is fine I'd just airbrush the whole friggin' underside, hull, track, wheels and all with mud coloured paint!  Maybe just leave some blue showing on the suspension bogies. 

Anyway, good luck! Please post photos when you're done. I want to see a blue civilion M4 tractor! 

Gamera

Personally if mud is fine I'd just airbrush the whole friggin' underside, hull, track, wheels and all with mud coloured paint!  Maybe just leave some blue showing on the suspension bogies.

One of the most head-scratching things I ever saw was in a magazine where someone was building a Pz. III and was painting all the wheels and tracks separately. He went to the expense of using commerically-manufactured masks to cover the hubs while he sprayed the tires a rubber colour. Then, after the wheels and tracks were added to the model, he covered everything in such a slurry of pigments that you couldn't tell that they were ever different colours. 

Personally, I've found that I have trouble painting AFV tires on or off the model, so I usually assemble everything, because I don't like putting glue over paint.

Hello!

I agree. It's been a long time since I've come to the conclusion that it's nonsense to "paint" dirt over original "clean" colours. It's best to paint the colours "slightly dirty" or "mud" right away, and then pick out some clean features afterwards.

Here's an example of how I do it - I have glued all the wheels and tracks together, then painted it "vietnam dirt" and then painted the centers of the road wheels OD:

Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

E. Halibut

 

 

Gamera

Personally if mud is fine I'd just airbrush the whole friggin' underside, hull, track, wheels and all with mud coloured paint!  Maybe just leave some blue showing on the suspension bogies.

 

 

One of the most head-scratching things I ever saw was in a magazine where someone was building a Pz. III and was painting all the wheels and tracks separately. He went to the expense of using commerically-manufactured masks to cover the hubs while he sprayed the tires a rubber colour. Then, after the wheels and tracks were added to the model, he covered everything in such a slurry of pigments that you couldn't tell that they were ever different colours. 

Personally, I've found that I have trouble painting AFV tires on or off the model, so I usually assemble everything, because I don't like putting glue over paint.

 

ROTFL... Been there, done that, got the t-shirt... 

Went though lots of work painting running gear and then covered it all with mud- could have kicked myself afterward.

I think Pawel has the right idea there... 

Well, I definitely went the route of painting everything and then covering it right up!

I airbrushed the main colors, careful as could be to avoid spraying the treads. I did a decent job, so I was able to just paint the treads black and add some silver drybrushing.

Aaaaaand that's when I added the mud. You can still see the blue, kinda, if you look reeeeeeeally hard. Modeling is a labor of love, so I'm not upset about it but I did kind of take the long way 'round.

Check the album: https://imgur.com/a/6WvW2zZ

That works....now the better half is going to come looking for her flower garden

Looking cool to me!!!

Love the chipped area in the bed!