Text Box: “I have the Academy M1 kit, with the one piece Chevron tracks. I’m keeping them because I’m going for an early 1991 gulf diorama. How do I go about painting them, or do I leave them unpainted? They are a grey color vinyl/plastic”. You should definitely paint the tracks. They should be black overall since they were steel-framed covered in a rubber compound. This was so that they would not tear up the roads in built up areas. The only place where you could actually see the steel was the end connectors and the center guides. These are the places that also received the most wear since it was metal on metal contact. That being the sprockets as well as the center guide wear-plates between the road wheels. Getting back to the rubber, you should also lighten the color where the chevron actually meets the road surface. I the tank is depicted out in the desert, just leave it the regular black color as the wear would be evened out overall. What about painting all-steel tracks, like WWII Soviet armor has? As far as painting goes, this is the method I use for all-steel tracks. Base coat of gunmetal. Dry brush with rust. Dry brush with steel. Burnish with graphite. Dust with pastel chalks. Sometimes I use a product from "Sophisticated Finishes" called Iron Surfacer and Rust product. It comes in bottles. There’s nothing like using the real thing to make a simulation. This stuff has iron powder in it. It’s slightly grainy. When painted on, you let it dry then apply the rust activator liquid and there you have it, rusty tracks! I also hit them with a thinned out Humbrol dark or light earth airbrushed on to simulate just that. I really like these products. The nice thing is when you put the coats of the rust on you can immediately take a rag and wipe down the high (or metal to metal) areas so they do not rust. Exactly how do you use graphite powder? What I do is grind the lead of a pencil down in to dust. Then I use a very hi-tech piece of equipment (my index finger) and dip it into the graphite. While holding the tracks in the other hand, I vigorously rub the entire track (if it's all steel track) until I achieve the desired results. This is a very simple way to get a metallic look. If it's a track that has rubber shoes, then I'll only apply the graphite the end connectors and horns. Return to Hints and Tips