Painting and Weathering Tank Tracks

I usually paint and weather my tracks off the tank and add them last,but before antenas and easily breakable stuff.I don't have too much experience with rubber bands,except for newer Tamiya and Dragon DS,they paint and weather normally.I have not done a kit with the older vinyl tracks.

I would avoid rust color tracks unless its going to be a derelic.You should Google images of your tank and where it served and note the color the tracks end up in the pics

If the tracks seem like rubber, they may be vinyl. In either case, it is hard to paint that stuff. I have found no good primer for these materials.  Paint tends to soften them, and never dry- it stays soft and "wet".  However, dry pigment stuff can work well for weathering those materials.  In addition to normal dry pigments from paint stores or hobby shops, many drug stores have several shades of talcum powder which is useful for "dust" weathering.

I have recently used decanted Krylon primer made for painting plastic and it seems to hold up pretty good. I paint and weather the tracks off the vehicle to make it easier, then carefully attach the tracks back.

You can try the Krylon from Home Depot, spray it and let it dry for several hours. You can use some dark grey acrylic paint to dry brush and help pop some details. A brown or tan wash will settle into the corners and provide some dirt and grime. Here's an example:

 http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/AAFTankMuseum/USTanks/M48A5PattonTank/pages/04M48A5PattonTankTracks.htm

I also use Krylon primer on styrene plastic.  But it ruins vinyl.  

Thanks for the replies. Since it was an inexpensive kit it allowed me to play. I'm guessing the tracks are vinyl and not rubber. I went ahead and primed it with Surfacer 500. It dried just fine with no issue. Since I primed it I thought I could simply paint them with MM Enamel. Big mistake..... Has Don stated the paint never dried. They were just a sticky mess. I was able to save them by dusting them with some earth tone chalk I had shaved into dust. Maybe I should have painted them with Acrylic paint after the primer.

Indeed chalk can be ground into nice dry pigments for weathering.  Chalk is readily available in various colors and can save a trip to the hobby shop if, like in my case, even the closest one is quite a drive.