another armor question

Now that doesn't sound very appetizing at all c.m.c.

But you bring up an excellent point about how some paints have been known to react with the tracks over the years. I have used Tamiya Acrylics and Model Master Acrylics over the years without any problems whatsoever.

Do NOT use Model Master enamel on the newer Tamiya treads!You know, the ones molded in the very soft material.It will cause a clear thick liquid to ooze out after a couple of months.This happened to the VERY nice JS-3 I built two years ago.Use an acrylic instead.

What I normally do is ;
-Clean them real good with detergent and let dry completely. If you don't do that, the paint will lift off when you curl them on the wheels. Nasty looking
-Brush or airbrush entirely with Tamiya gun metal added a little flat black.
-After dry, soak it in Burnt sienia and Raw umber. Make sure the mixture is not to thick or thin. It's now your choice for the mix to be more on the reddish/brown or the lighter brown side. My own impressions, reddish/brown looks more for a vehicle that was parked in museums so it collects rust. Let it dry for 1 night.
-Now, slightly drybrush with metallic grey. I like using Tamiya enamel for this step on a flat brush.
-It's now time to fix your better looking rubber tracks on your model.

Drybrushing metallic grey on track surface simulates tracks contact to hard surfaces such as concrete roads or similar.
But if you wants to create a battle field muddy or dirt look. Paint or drybrush them tracks the same color as your mud or dirt as the hull. My English is not so good but if you close your eyes and imagine of your 4WD truck just went off a pond of wet mud. You can hardly see the blakening of your rubber tyre.

Have fun!! :>

I agree with jdeltaarrrow about enamels. For me, they just seem to cover better. However, if I'm painting seperate track links, then I airbrush Acrylics only. I totally understand about the fear of the seperate links, but I discovered once I had the courage to try them myself, that they were far easier to assemble than I anticipated. Unfortunately, they take a bit more time to assemble, but the results are worth it. If cost is your issue also, look into DML or other manufaturers that have kits that already contain seperate links and are reasonably priced. Good luck!

I have always prefered the enamel . Had trouble years and years ago with the first water based paints (poly S)and don't like the way the new ones airbrush on As everyone else has givenyou pretty good tips on how to paint the tracks my only point is to say go easy on the rusting. Traks move alot on a vehicle and get rubbed quite a bit thus not giving rust much of a chance to settle in too many people put tons of rust on them and while this looks good, it ain't really realistic

I like the acrylics because I'm basically to lazy to clean up after using enamels. Acrylics are just easier to work with IMHO.

Hey great, I guess I'll experiment a bit and see what I like best. Do acrylics work better than enamels or lacquer?

I use Tamiya acrylics on my rubber tracks.. I spray a base of red brown and drybrush steel over them..
There are many different techniques for painting tracks and you'll probably get many different suggestions.. My only suggestion is to use what works best for you

absolutely :)

Usually i first paint the tracks metallic grey. Then a wash of Humbrol Rust, and a bit of burnt sienna. After that, i drybrush the edges with silver colour

Absolutely. Paint away ..... I use Tamiya Acrylics and Model Master Acrylics to paint my tracks. Skill level really doesn't effect the choice of AM tracks, usually the choice is made depending upon the quality of the kit track. I just about always use Tamiya, DML, and Academy tracks that are supplied with the model. Italeri is the only one that I will regularly change, only because of the stiffness involved.