RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

How to tone down "silver" tracks. Having bought silver tracks for my Panzer III / IV HL tanks decided to try and blacken them. Searched the net and found a few products that do this chemicaly ( expensive). Decided not to spray them as paint comes off to easy. Read about darkening by vinigar dipping the tracks. Also read about one guy who had his tracks start to disintegrate using this method. Seems he used a stainless steel bowl to do this in and set up some sort of weak electrical field. I tried this method in a plastic bowl with no ill effects. All one does is put the tracks in the bowl and add enough vinegar to cover the tracks. then scrub the tracks all over with an OLD toothbrush to get the vinegar into every crevice  and keep turning and moving the tracks all the time they are in the vinegar. Remove after a couple of hours and leave to air dry. After they have air dried wash off in warm running water using the old tooth brush to clean everything. Next is the boring bit after the tracks are fully dry use a permanent marker pen to coat every flaming link and leave to dry for 24 hours. Then using fine wet and dry sandpaper remove the marker ink from as much or as little of the high points on the track as you see fit. And here are some I made earlier ( winterketten wide tracks are chemicaly blackend by the manufacturer ) the narrow tracks are blackend by me ). Hope someone can make use of this. All the best for now
Alan ( tankman )   
PS wash the tracks in cold water after sanding the high points to get rid of unwanted grit   

Wow cool tip Alan have read about the "Vinegar" method but was to afraid to use it

must say yours look better than the manufacturers version

Looks VERY nice, duno what im gona do to my metal tracks yet though.

Well done

i tried that with my wecohe late tiger 1 tracks did not work  must be different metal

I did mine with gunsmiths blueing solution, but used a plastic bowl just in case.
Pour the solution into a bowl, immerse the track and brush fluid into cracks with an old tooth brush, take out and slip it into a poly bag and start the other track.
Immerse both a bowl of soapy water and scrub gently with the toothbrush, leave on a kitchen towel on the radiator to dry overnight.

The stuff says 'blue' but its really black and it will score off in tghe right places to leave dull metal in worn areas.

another method you may want to think about is, using kurust, you can get it from any good car spares shop, halfords, etc. its primary use is preventing rust, i'm a welder, and i use the stuff after i have repaired something, as a protective coating before zinc primer.
kurust is a runny white liquid, which you paint on to the part, or you could dip the part in it, you then let it dry, it then turns black, and it dont come off easily, it etches in to metal, abit like etch primer. it will turn black on any surface you paint it on, ive had it on my hands loads of times, and its a bloody nightmare to get off, it wont destroy the metal tracks are made of, so is safe to use on them, just wear rubber gloves if you dont want it on your hands.
                  Tony

Hmm some good tips there. Thanks guys

I soaked my shiny tracks in 2 capfulls of"Buster" kitchen plughole unblocker mixed with about a pint of water for 45 mins. that took the shine off them.

I drive mine inthe dirt and dust ...... solved

I just took TIGER205 tip and while it did not turn my tracks black ( thank goodness ) they do look really good, and so easy to do. my thanks for that old friend. shaun