Friday Quick Tip: Tabletop Tank Tracks

Posted by Grey_Death at 10:43

Tank tracks are one of the easiest things you can weather on a vehicle.  The method breaks
down to painting the metal, giving them a heavy wash, drybrushing metallic and a final
dusting. 

I can't just give that little info though now can I?  In this I'll run you through the basics of
painting and at the same time weathering tank tracks to a great tabletop standard.  Again, it's
all from my latest Sons of Medusa Razorback!  That APC has been a well of great tips!

I always start off with a black base color for my tracks.  Paint the tracks, the road wheels,
sides and inside of your tracks, you really want to be thorough with this step, it's the cover up
that will keep things from looking off should you miss a few spots with the later steps, in this
case, I would have a bright green showing through on my track if I wasn't sure to hit all facets
of the track links.  By the time your finished the first spot you painted should be about dry,
unless you use really watered down paint that is.  Watered down paint helps when painting
tracks, but you need to wait longer and do a few coats to get even opacity. 
Boltgun Metal is applied loosely and heavily.  Slightly watered to give me a bit more speed
of coverage in those hard to reach spots.  For nearly all of the painting you can use a larger
brush that will hold a larger volume of paint.  It's as simple as 'Larger area, larger brush'. 

To give that rusty look, I use a VERY heavy wash of Bestial Brown watered down to a milk
consistency.  I slop it on the tracks and allow it to pool all around and in the cracks.  A
second wash might be necessary if you watered your brown down too much.  See the above
for the final result you're looking for with the wash. 
Once your wash is dry, which will take a while, break out your Boltgun Metal again and give
your tracks a heavy drybrush to the raised surfaces.  This is to show the wear to the track by
the vehicles operation.  The contact points will be worn away and bare metal showing
through. 

To finish the tracks off, I use a quick dusting of Bleached Bone.  To 'dust' with paint you
simply need to set your brush and paint as if you were going to drybrush, but continue to
wipe paint off the brush until almost nothing is coming off.  When painting, start with light
pressure and work harder until you get a slight sheen of the color.

In the end you should have a nicely weathered looking tread with little effort.  The longest
part of this method is the drying time wait.  I've used this method on a few different models
in my Sons of Medusa army, each time it's enhanced the gritty hard fought look I've been
going for.