weathered tracks

T-34,

Here's some pics to go along with Moses's explanation:


http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/other/awpaint/awpaint.htm

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rw/wash/wash.htm


good luck

A wash is basically a very thinned down paint. You can use Oil, enamel and Acrylics. To do my washes on my tracks I usually mix Mars Black, Burnt Sienna, and Vandike brown oil paints..thinned about 90%-95% with Turpenoid (paint thinner)/ This mixture will be very thinned, more of a tinted thinner, then a paint.

How do you do a wash and what's a wash?
Thanks.

As usual Moses is right on the money. Tanks left the factories in Leningrad and Stalingrad quickly as possible into harms way.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E. Lee

I usually paint the metal tracks with red brown or rust, then a black wash and finally a silver/chrome drybrush on the parts in contact with the ground and the roadwheels. As far as I remember after the second time we went out with the tanks after receiving them from the factory or changing the tracks all teh parts not in contact with the ground or the roadwheels/sprockets got covered in rust almost immediately...
Ciao

Nothing really major to add, but alot of T-34's left the factory unpainted, especially during the german invasion. They basically rolled right off the asembly line into battle. This would also apply to the tracks.

Like the previous posts, you can't go wrong as long as you keep your colors in the range of brown's, blacks, rust, and steel. In no particular order

You can take a look at Adam Wilder's awesome Russian Armor on sites like www.missing-lynx.com in the gallery section. I personally feel he is probably the best Russian Armor modeller around.

i just was working on a T 34 ( italeri 1/72 kit) over the weekend...
my reference photos show lots of rust on every set of T 34 trax, so i used my base color followed by black wash, then rust and
steel dry-brush coats, with some mud to finish off...
HTH
frosty

T-34's have all metal dead track. The color can be pretty much anything you want as long as you keep in mind that any part of the track touching anything else will wear and turn bright steel colored. If the vehicle is on the road a lot the tracks will be gray with the contact points bright. If off road the tracks will be a grayish brown with the high points bright. Modern US tank tracks come covered with a glossy black preservative, it wears off very quickly so only spares hanging on the turret etc. would stay black. Tracks pick up a lot of stuff from the terrain. Remember, tanks move "through" the terrain not over it. Experiment a little and you'll come up with a look you like.