RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

That‘s why I use that Humbrol 160 to give it a brown shade.
Driving outdoors makes it, in my opinion, look pretty realistic.
That color is not supposed to be rust!
Just look at my StuG pic taken outdoors how the track look after some use.
At least, I like it.

Rob I wasn't referencing your track images as rust. To me that just looks like reddish brown mud. I'm thinking of a lot of what I see on 1/35 forums. Even guys with unbelievable talents say like Night Shift tend to go overboard with rust on armour. I realize their creations are total works of art it's just rusty German tracks just don't look right even as spare links. Lots of mud and dust looks much better

No offense, so don‘t worry please!
Just drive the damn tanks outdoors and the natural weathering will do the rest!
On one of my Tiger 1‘s I did leave the black the way they came with the tank, so the Taigen black.
Just a ride outdoors made it already look different!

Again thank you to every one for their reply's .Regards John.

After any painting done on my tracks, the last step I always do, if you want it to look like a working tank, is to take some medium-grit sandpaper & gently scuff the very bottom of the cleats (and any other parts that come into direct contact with the ground) until they are silvery. If you look at old photos & footage, that's frequently the only part of the links that reflects much light, the rest being still painted or usually caked in dirt & mud. Reports from tankers in the field stated that in the right (or wrong) weather conditions, even those shiny bits could get rusty overnight, but that within a few minutes of moving the vehicle in the morning over the terrain they'd be shining like mirrors again.

Belated tip, I have never had a problem with Gun Blue as a tank track stainer, Immerse the track in a shallow bowl for a few minutes, Take out the track (Gun Blue will harm the skin so use rubber gloves) if it is not dark enough repeat the process.

I too have gotten some good results with 'blacked' tracks (using Birchwood Casey gun blue), but watch out doing it for too long or too many times, because it's actually oxidizing the metal & you will notice a loss of sharp details in the tracks before too long. I usually immerse my tracks in the solution in a double-bagged ziploc bag (with 1 small bottle poured in), so that you don't have to waste a ton of the stuff. You can re-use it a few times before it's cloudy with rust particles. Also it gives you better results than brushing it on, which gives uneven results. You should see the color change from silver to a dull dark grey fairly quick, then you can buff it to a lighter shine (and you can even clean up the cleats like I described above with painted tracks). I might leave them in for 30 sec per dip, and maybe do it two or three times total to go darker each time

Thanks lads Very interesting ,the variations used. John.