Vinyl track warning

NOW you tell me..

-mutter mutter Boba Fett helmet still tacky after 3 years mutter moan-

I absolutely HATE being the black sheep of the family, but I have sprayed and washed Tamiya's new vinyl tracks with enamels and enamel thinners with no problems whatsoever. I have tracked vehicles sitting on my shelf from ten years ago with no signs of deterioration. Since Metallizer is a lacquer, and not enamel, it may indeed be responsible for track degradation. Rather than Metallizer on tracks, I would suggest using a dry brush of aluminum, gun metal, or a VERY light application of chrome silver. Silver Rub N' Buff also gives superb results. Although I've never used them on tracks, the ideas regarding the use of acrylics is also well taken.
Gip Winecoff

Yep!Same happened on my tamiya Js3 and Wespe.It's gotta be the solvents in enamal.

Yup, I've built tons of vinyl garage kits (Godzilla, Ultraman, Gamera, etc) and learned early on (luckily, before I actually painted anything!) that enamel doesn't work on vinyl.
However, for a little drybrushing, I've never had any problems, even on bare vinyl. But if you're gonna cover the whole track, use acrylics.

But tnker101's problem was breakage, not a lack of drying, right?
Hmmmm.....

J-Hulk, tnker101,
You are both right, now while i do not know the actuall reaction, i can tell you from experiance that painting any kind of soft vinyl with enamels is a bad idea, i painted a small Anubis figure from McFarlane's toys and the head was made of a soft vinyl, i painted it with a semi gloss enamel since it was all i had, and to this day (about 9 months now) the head is still wet in a sence...kinda the same as the tamiya tracks oozing...just thouhgt i would tell you:)

I've never had any trouble myself, but I do remember hearing something a few years ago about Tamiya vinyl tracks giving off some kind of oozing, greasy substance when painted. It might have been with enamels, but I can't remember. I do recall that they were, ironically, the Cromwell tracks, the same as your Centaur's.