"Best looking tank tracks" Topic

Looking for ideas on the best method ( and color ) for doing tank tracks.
Thanks!

It depends on what theater and when. I like to do them muddy for my tanks, but I do east front. So I use a base of raw umber, then wood grey mixed with that and then highlight with wood grey. I also mix in some static grass so that you get the effect of turf being caught in the tracks.

Static grass ! Good idea ! Thanks

I like to mix up some plaster, flock, paint, and glue and glob it on the tracks, then wipe it off with my finger so it stays in the recessed areas. You can do lots of patchy washes on it so it's not too monochrome. Then finish up with a graphite pencil on the parts that are supposed to look like worn metal.

That's how I did the tracks on the 1/35 Tiger model you can see here, though I went pretty light on the mud in the tracks (When you assemble tank tracks out of individual links with little wire pins, it feels like a shame to completely cover them over):

link

And the same technique on a pair of 15mm Grilles:

I just slap on VJ track primer… And leave the work to the pigments.

My favorite method is to lather them with mud or dust and then drybrush the cleats and bits that stick out and would be polished to a sheen by constant friction with silver or gunmetal.

That's how most of the bulldozers and diggers look like when I examine their tracks.

Piers – that is astonishingly good.

Check out the Tiger Snodipus built by following his link. Beautiful work!

Hoser

Just look at any bulldozer.

I picked up this tip some years ago, from whom, I forget now. Paint the tracks black, then earth brown and finally dry brush with oily steel from Vallejo. The effect is quite satisfactory. The tracks take on a well used look and the dry brush lifts the raised detail to show typically worn looking tracks.

Personally, I don't bother with the black, but I guess it is to give a shadow effect and coverage if you miss any areas with the earth brown. There are plenty of earthy dusty pigments to experiment with, but they do need fixing with a matt varnished coat to seal,if you wargame with the models. Otherwise, you have very well weathered fingers ! The downside is, pigments look really good and achieve an excellent look, but when sealed with varnish, the effect is mostly lost. For that reason, I just stick with the painted effect.

Found a fast and easy method. I am doing 15mms. I do a primer coat with flat brown of the whole model (I prefer the Krylon flat brown in their camo range). I then paint and detail the tanks (picking out tools, things like that) but leave the tracks in the dark flat brown. Then a dry brush with Vallejo oily steel of the high points and you are done. Sometimes, for variety, since I use a black wash, I do sometimes hit the tracks after with the wash which helps tone down the oily steel a bit (that and sealing the whole vehicle with dullcoat).

Since I do mostly desert and Italy I do mine in gunmetal with a wash of black ink and some tan drybrush for dust.

I have a mix of mid brown and silver that works pretty well. Sometimes with a black wash for T.34 and M3A3E8 'waffle' tracks, lightly dry brush with silver on the guide teeth. M10 and most other Sherman tracks have rubber pads; these are dry brushed gray before weathering.