Metal tracks on my Sherman.

[Wight]

Hi guys.
Got some new metal tracks on the Sherman.They are Heng Long tracks for the Pershing which I know are not strictly correct for the Sherman as the centre guide pieces are different.But for £26 plus postage I thought why not.
Got to say I was a little worried that the narrower guides might be a problem so was preparing myself for a slightly tedious task of dissassembling two sets of tracks to replace the guides with the Tamiya ones.But so far all seems ok,just does not look quite right,so it may still be on the cards to do the surgery.Also one set has the letters HL on the backs of the links which will be an even more tedious task to remove.
Anyway I am quite pleased with them.More weight,more traction and no more worries of wearing the treads off the plastic ones.
If anyone has any methods of painting metal tracks they would like to share please feel free.So far I thought of base coat of matt black then matt brown and then running them.I reckon this may need to be done every so often as I can't see the paint lasting long.





Cheers.
Steve.

[BREL]

cool looks great with those tracks on it, and they do add a lot of weight for traction over rough ground,
I have the T66 version on my Sherman which is the early type track for the HVSS sherman

[Ex_Pat_Tanker]

I use 'el-cheapo brand' black enamel spray cans from the local DIY store - sticks really well to the parts of the track that aren't in contact with the ground, but wears off quickly on the areas that would be scraped to the bare metal from running. So far it looks good...

[xrad]

see my 'bagging' method under my Matorro King Tiger build. Saves much time and will make your tracks look great. But you will have to give them a 'pre' coat of flat black or something

towards bottom page two

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[Wight]

cool looks great with those tracks on it, and they do add a lot of weight for traction over rough ground,
I have the T66 version on my Sherman which is the early type track for the HVSS sherman

Thanks guys.
I would have prefferd the T66 tracks myself as I like the way they look and they look as if they would provide good grip.But for the price of these I could not resist.

Thanks for the paint tips,bagging method looks like a great way,will give it a go.

Steve.

[grim_marmazet]

I used a gun bluing solution, called Perma-Blue, on my Tiger tracks which gave a very realistic look as it chemically blackens the tracks.

Then I used a mixture of Mig Pigments, dappled onto the tracks, and held in place with Mig's Pigment Fixer. After a few layers of this, I sealed them all in with matt acrylic varnish. It gave a decent muddy, blackened track in my opinion, though its not for the faint hearted, I thought i'd ruined the tracks several times! lol




Cheers,
Rik

[Wight]

Rik those tracks look incredible.
Thanks for the advice.

Steve

[fleshpedler]

Well Steve those tracks sure look the real bis ...... as you said it will add weight to the sherman as i have now forsaken my metal tracks so that i can put the correct tracks on the firefly it will be interesting too see if i may have to add weight to make the old girl respond as she should...
the results hopefully will be known by the end of this week......
Fleshy...............

[grim_marmazet]

Rik those tracks look incredible.
Thanks for the advice.

Steve

Thanks Steve. They took a fair bit of experimenting, and I recommend practicing the mud effect on some spare tracks first. If you use the Thinners For Washes instead of the Pigment Fixer, you can just rub the pigments off, and start again.

Putting the varnish on made the pigments go weird at first, like they reacted somehow, but after a day or two drying, they came out how you see.

If you want to know more just let me know.

Cheers,
Rik