Pros and Cons of painting tank tracks before or after

[Erik]

Good day all,

I hand paint, i dont have the tools or abilities at this time to airbrush.

I have a Ryefield RM5050 and am closing in on the tank tracks. Curious as per title of pros/cons of painting before and after assembly - lots of parts to this one.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Jakko]

These are workable tracks: if you don’t glue the pins, the links will articulate. That makes the choice simple, if it were me: paint after assembling the track, but before putting it around the wheels. You can spray a track like this easily by hanging it over your finger (wearing a latex glove) and spraying the links there, then pushing it onward a little and spraying the next ones. This way you can ensure the paint gets between the links as well — if you spray the track flat, you will find bare plastic showing everywhere you curve the track.

 

[langy71]

Agree with Jakko on this,
Personally I always paint/spray any tracks 'off the vehicle', like Jakko has mentioned it gives you the best possible way to cover the whole track with paint and not miss any spots...

quick tip, give the tracks a base coat of black before the top coat / colour, this will help hide any spots you might miss and help give the tracks some 'depth'.

 

[Tim Marlow]

With a little ingenuity you can even arrange link and length and non working single link type tracks to be removable for painting. Much easier than painting them on the vehicle.

 

[Erik]

Thank you kindly. FWIW, i did mean assembled as in the lower left photo, not while on tank, but i heed all the advice. Those pins are tiny, but i wouldnt mind trying to have the tracks workable if i can! cheers!

 

[Jakko]

I’ve built a number of sets of tracks with pins like that, and they’re generally OK if you do it as the picture shows: to insert them, leave the pins attached to the bit of sprue they’re on, and only cut that off (carefully!) once the pins are in the links. You can probably do several links at once, provided you ensure the pins are not bent on the sprue (any that are, you should be able to just bend back).

You may also want to see about pressing each pin home with a pointed but blunt tool after the sprue has been cut off. If you find pins come out with simple handling, a drop of gel-type superglue (nothing thinner than than) on top of each pin should keep them in place but the track still workable. Wipe off excess glue before it sets, so it won’t form a blob on top of the pin, though.

 

[Dave Ward]

Erik,
I usually paint the inside of the tracks before assembly, when using a brush - it saves having to retouch the road wheels when you slip. Outer track painted with a wide flat brush as normal after assembly to the hull. I imagine most modelmakers have their own take on this - it's best to find the way that suits you! I'm not a fan of 'working' tracks - if you mount the model on a base, it's pretty pointless to have movable tracks. I glue them together so they'll stay where I want them
Dave

 

[Jakko]

Whereas I much prefer workable tracks, because they can be installed far more easily after painting If you have to glue the links together, that means you generally end up doing one of three things:

1. Glue the whole track together and to the wheels before painting.
2. Glue the links together into a couple of lengths that can be taken off the wheels again, so you can then glue those lengths to the model after painting.
3. Paint the links and wheels before glueing them together.

All of these have problems that make me not want to use them if I can avoid it With method 1, it’s generally difficult to get paint everywhere you can see. With 2, it’s tricky to get everything lined up correctly, and I find lengths may break when taking them off the wheels or when trial-fitting them later on in the build (for example to ensure other parts won’t interfere with fitting the tracks after painting). With 3, you have to use a glue that will work on painted parts, and that will probably leave visible stains or glossy spots.

Of course, the main down side of workable tracks is that they will usually be more work to put together — sometimes a lot more — than links you have to glue together.

But as Dave also says, everybody has their own ideas and ways of doing things, so my advice would be to try different things and see which you like better (or worse).

 

[JR]

Si Benson is the master of removing completed tracks and wheels in one go , I struggle with link and length. Moved to Fruils, but the expense seems silly when most cost more than the model.
Rely on mud to hide any bad joins, given choice I would use the rubber type.