RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi Tankers. Some advice if possible. I have a set of Taigen tracks I want to paint. A lot of you will know that these come from Taigen with a oily black coating on these. I am going to wash them in a bucket of paint thinners which is some thing John at East coast armor does with his builds when using Taigen tracks. This will not remove the black coating but all the oil residue and metal fillings left from them being drilled from assembly. Is there anyone who has painted these, did they use a primer to stick to the black coating and and if so what type. Regards John.

Hi John.

Yes I have painted the Taigen/Torro tracks for my latest Tiger project.

I soaked, scrubbed and washed them with full strength Simple Green. I remember John at ECA sharing that scary tub of caustic fluid that he uses. I went with a less hazardous approach and product. No issues.

Then I primed them with Rustoleum Dark Grey Automotive Primer. Awesome recent find for me. Sprays like a dream, levels out superbly and dries almost as fast as Lacquer. Heck it might be lacquer but I couldn't find anything saying it wasn't a formula of enamel as Rustoleum paints usually are. And is Dead Flat.



Anyway the dried dark grey color looks great itself but of course I was going to paint them.

I clear coated the primer with Testors Dullcote which is lacquer as I wasn't sure exactly which paint route I was going in originally.

Then I airbrushed Tamiya acrylics thinned with Tammy lacquer thinner 70% thinner to 30% paint at 10 PSI using 50% Nato brown, 45% Nato black and 5% flat red. came out quite a cool color of oxidized steel.

Of note, The gray primer is virtually the same color as Tamiya Nato black.

Anyway on the left is the grey primed and clear coated track and on the right is the Tamiya track color mix. As it turns out this combination has proven a robust coating. Of course time will tell.



And here is what the tracks look like on the recent tank project.



I used the same Tamiya paint combo on the spare tracks in the front and on the hanging spare tracks which are also Taigen tracks.

Hi John.
On my Taigen metal tracks, I always use Humbrol Enamel Matt 160.
Never primed the tracks, it will hold!
Looks like this when done:

Thanks guys for the reply. The help is very much appreciated from both of you dedicated RC tank masters. Regards John.

No problem!

Just to add what I do. I just give them a quick clean like Mr. Chef did with a light cleaner and then I spray them lightly with Tamiya TS-63 Nato Black and then just use some Mig's Track Wash and perhaps a bit of soil wash to match whatever I have weathered the wheels with. Other than that I just let them naturally pick up realistic dirt, dust and mud running them around on the field. The thing with German tracks is they used manganese so no way they rusted in their service life

Thanks also Panzermechaniker. Applicate it. Regards John.

Paint thinner or brake clean out of the spray bomb Mr Glover.
That cleans the oil off.
I use a good self etching primer then over that goes the blended acrylic with a clear coat to preserve.
The Merkava tracks I used Tamiya spray packs from the TS series.

I use Rust-Oleum primer of the appropriate color (grey, flat red) and type (2X for plastic or etching for metal) and can follow up with any brand of enamel or acrylic with not problem whatsoever. I have do not needed a clear coat between Rust-Oleum primer and and the base and finish coats (although, of course, clear flat is always the last step for me). I have not has such good luck with Tamiya primer, and one of the regular Tuesday "Make Modeling Mediocre Again" gang has trouble with Tamiya paints over Tamiya primer, a surprise to us all, for the primer takes a remarkably long time to dry.

These are 2 shots of my Taigen mid Tiger's tracks ( thread made me realize it was time to charge the battery) This was my very first RC tank and this is the second pair of tracks. As one of my 2 main battlers these tracks probably have at least 60 hours of field time on them (believe me on our field that is torture testing) I think the original TS-63 coating has held up considering the abuse (look at those worn cleats) Like Rob I used no primer because as I found on my Taigen Panthers that if you use too much paint it starts to cause some of the links to get sticky. Of course there is nothing that beats running these things in the dirt and dust for realistic weathering