Painting tracks

[Awins]

My Tamiya KT has black plastic tracks, as supplied with the boxed kit.
My question is that once I have painted them to look as authentic as possible then surely the paint will wear off thus showing the black plastic through, how do you prevent this?
Cheers guys I know ive asked a lot of questions as a newbie.

[ALPHA]

There is a metallic application you can do before painting...Rub and buff...comes in different metallic colors...it's pretty tough stuff..hard to rub off..but depending on the surface you will be running on Awin...It's inevitable that the track color will bear itself ...it's because of the type of plastic the tracks are made of...so there is really nothing to do but to touch up as it wears

ALPHA

[Awins]

'Rub & Buff' Alpha please could you tell me a little more about this product.
Is it available in the UK

[billpe]

If you're using it to actually battle then keep the plastic tracks. I think the rub and buff alpha is talking about is literally a type of wax based metal paint, which can be polished afterwards. AK interactive do a very similar product called AK True Metal and it's basically the same thing - a wax based pigment which once dry can be polished. However you need to apply it over a primer and it's pretty hard to get another layer on top - like acrylic based pigments - to stick to it. Nice finish though but it's no substitute for some good metal tracks.

I use Impact tracks on my Tamiya King Tiger and they're really high quality, almost no wear on them. They're probably the best available but are also fairly expensive.

[Awins]

Hi Billpe please could you tell me about 'impact tracks'
Is that the make or type and where are they available please.
Cheers

[billpe]

You can get them from mitosal.com. they're in Singapore but ship by FedEx air freight so you get them within a few days. Welsh Dragon sometimes stock them as well.

[ALPHA]

'Rub & Buff' Alpha please could you tell me a little more about this product.
Is it available in the UK

The easiest way to describe it is....It's much like shoe polish in a stick ....it looks kind of like a fat crayon....you just apply it..rub off the residue..or in your case ...work it into the details of the track....artists use it for guilding figures ..picture frames etc....really cool stuff...once it sets it's fully ....you can handle it without worry of it coming off...if you ran your tank on smooth surfaces..it would probably never come off...but stuff like cement sidewalks...rocks...surfaces like that work like sand paper so would probably wear it off...notice I said "wear" off...not chip off....that's the one thing good about it...it doesn't cake up to where it can do that

ALPHA