"Appliqué track-link armour colour" Topic

When track links were welded to the exterior of tanks to increase the armour protection, were these tracks typically painted?

Probably only if the whole tank was painted. Welded track as armor was usually done in the field. The tracks had a coating that protected from rust in storage, but it quickly wore off.

I painted mine rust brown, with a layer of dust/mud.

I always went for a metallic track colour but I gather sometimes they got over sprayed with the base colour since it was a factory addition. Sometimes.

Tools usually got the factory colour too, though it's more fun if you can paint them to contrast.

Tools usually got the factory colour too, though it's more fun if you can paint them to contrast.

We had some discussion around this on the Braille Scale DG, where it was asserted that this is something of a myth and that tools were commonly natural wood / metal or if painted it would be in some other generic colour used by the sub-contractor.

Interesting. Feel better about mine now!

Tools on modern vehicles get painted the same colour as the rest of the vehicle. For WW2 I pick them out in different colours if I can bothered, but often not, or maybe just weather the handles and blades a bit.

I've seen photos of British, Canadian and Polish tanks where the track-links had clearly been painted the same colour as the vehicle. In the case of the Poles, markings were then applied to sheet metal plates that had been welded on to the track links! :)

Tools were often painted – it was good practice in order to protect them from the weather. I saw one photo of a German tank where the camo had been sprayed on to the tank while the tools were fixed to it. Where the tools had been removed they left shovel/pick-shaped gaps in the paintwork.

I have a feeling that in the field, crews are not going to take the time to remove stuff to paint the tank.

For WW2 I pick them out in different colours if I can bothered, but often not, or maybe just weather the handles and blades a bit.

Ha! exactly both of my approaches! The latter especially favoured where the tools are already moulded on and the detail is flat/soft.

For those interested, I tender a few Panthers from the discussion I mentioned earlier where one can clearly see the difference between the tools and the underlying vehicle's paint job:

I don't think the track links were welded on.

Sometimes I think tracks were welded on to provide extra protection rather than just as spare links.

Often they put the spare links were extra protection was welcome – but sometimes just were there was space.

The British and Americans certainly spot-welded track links on as extra armour. As mentioned above, the Poles went even further by welding further plates on top of those to paint the markings on.

A lot of folks don't realize that tanks get pulled out of the line for scheduled routine maintenance every so often. This takes place at unit workshops where the oil gets changed, filters and belts replaced and worn components swapped out plus all the other essential jobs that need to be done just to keep them running. They also usually get a once over with the spray gun, so even bits and pieces added "in the field" will eventually look the same color.

I've heard that many of the 'spare' track links on British/Canadian (and Polish?) Shermans were actually Churchill tank tracks.

Can anyone confirm or refute this? If these were factory additions in the UK, presumably they were welded on and painted the same tone as the rest of the tank.

Yes, they were often Churchill links, though Sherman links also featured. These were attached in the field (by REME field workshops and the Polish equivalent), not in the factory.

The Poles received their Sherman IIa 76mm tanks during a prolonged period out of the line from November 1944 to February 1945. The early photos show tanks free of track-links, while the later photos of the same tanks show virtually every inch extensively covered with track links – this can only have been done locally.

Churchill tracks were preferred when available because there's more metal in them. Most types of Sherman track had large rubber blocks taking up much of the link