Tips to help you stay on track
Here’s a quick, simple, effective way I’ve found to render the rubber blocks found on tracks of modern armored vehicles.
Start by painting the vinyl tracks a metallic color (I used Krylon stainless steel), 1. Once the paint is dry, rub the outside surface of the tracks lightly with a fine-grain sanding block, 2. If you keep the sanding block level and use a light touch, it will only remove the paint from the “rubber” pads, making them black while the rest of the track remains metallic.
The abrasion also dulls the finish of the vinyl to give it a look of worn rubber, 3. This only works on black vinyl tracks. Yet even on tan tracks, like Dragon DS tracks, it’s a good way to prepare the pads for paint. I used this technique on Revell’s 1/35 scale Leopard 2A4, and the finished product looks great, 4.
Happy modeling!
Tip submitted by:
Fred Jones
Kingston, Nova Scotia, Canada