HOW TO: Painting REALISTIC Rusty Tank Tracks

tanktricks come in many shapes sizes and colors they can be soaking wet and muddy dry and muddy snowy dusty and anything and everything in between today we're gonna paint plastic workable tracks and make them look totally rusted out and covered in dry mud because that's how tracks usually look like on abandoned and destroyed tanks [Music] tracks on decommissioned tanks look almost always the same covered in dark rust and dry earth tones these can be in form of dry mud or just dust it depends on the environment some tracks can be almost black but that's no fun every technique I'm gonna show you is universal aka it can be applied to any tracks but some are crucial when painting workable plastic ones I'll let you know each time when one of those comes up and I'll explain why these tracks have very nice details but unfortunately have visible ejector pin marks on the outer side which are impossible to remove so we'll have to take that into consideration while painting just like any other type of workable plastic links these are fragile so we'll have to be gentle these tracks also hate enamel thinner and will fall apart quickly if you flood them while blending pigments or enamel paints for example and that's why we'll create 90% of weathering with acrylic paints I have connected each track with removable piece of copper wire to make painting easier I have to disconnect them turns out locating the wire is hard and removing it even harder once they're painted I'll wrap them around the tanks running gear and connect back so I have to make sure not to lose them let's start painting I believe each rough surface should start with dark grey base color both of these paints do a great job because they are flat German gray is best because it's quite dark but unfortunately it has dried up so I'll have to use dark grey it actually doesn't matter that much the paint consistency should be something like this a bit thicker than usual so we can achieve a nice opaque base coat Spray the tracks evenly making sure to keep the airbrush moving at all times to prevent paint buildup as you can see on the white background my air pressure is quite low so I probably shouldn't be giving you any airbrushing advice but let's just say it's not a problem in this case once you think the tracks are perfectly painted check again the paint won't get into these corners if you paint them laying flat on your workbench normally they wouldn't be a problem but it's gonna be visible when the track wraps around the drive sprocket and idler wheel so grab your airbrush once again and paint those one-by-one now the tracks are fully painted Tamiya paints dry fairly quickly they get dry to the touch in a matter of seconds and you can continue painting as soon as you're done airbrushing this is without a doubt the best acrylic Rusted you can ever get now this is not a paid promotion I'm sure life color doesn't even know I exist and I bought these paints with my own money but seriously these are the best acrylic rest paints ever and no other brand gets even close to their quality they are sold in a set called rust and dust and I strongly recommend every armor or diorama muddler to get one they have a high pigment content which makes them very opaque and thick which means they last you probably for ever it's best to apply them starting with the lightest one and finishing with the darkest I picked this trick from Mike Rinaldi and it really works for this purpose I'll be thinning them down into a heavy wash I'm demonstrating this with the first paint but the remaining ones will be diluted the same way the application is extremely enjoyable because you just have to slap the paint on the track this technique doesn't require any skills or experience you just need to know how thin the paint's should be an order in which you should apply them the surface tension will prevent the paint flowing freely around smaller details so a small brush is needed to fix that and don't forget the other side spec link is a great technique if you want to create lots of natural-looking textures in a short amount of time in fact it could paint the tracks entirely with speck link but that would obviously take too long the result doesn't look like much while the paint is still wet and because of the large amount of water it will take some time to fully dry but when it finally happens the result is just great and that's just the first layer when working with plastic workable tracks you should pay attention to each link when the large amount of paint we're applying dries up it can create friction between links which can result in making the track unworkable and it will quite possibly fall apart to avoid that make sure each link can move without any friction after every paint layer and if some don't just force them gently of course let's now repeat the process with the second color I find this technique very enjoyable and relaxing it makes me feel like a kid again because this is pretty much how uncle nightshift used to paint all of his models when he was a little lad note that this time I'm just applying the paint using the speckling method that's because if I applied it as a wash and then with speckling it could overwhelm the previous layers and the result could become monotonous and boring after three layers the track looks pretty much ready to be attached to the model and you actually don't have to use all of the rust paints if your references show the track being more orange or if you don't have them but just like the idea then just use two paints my reference is show very dark rusty tracks so I'll be using every color the last color pretty much represents what I see in real track photos and is the most realistic representation of all the rust but I believe rust effects should always be created in layers using different zones in order to get the best results I then think the paint even more and applied it over the tracks as a light random wash that means I didn't spread it evenly over the entire surface and then I went back and used the lightest color also heavily diluted you might find yourself going back and forth between each step and that's fully okay it's all about achieving the result you're after if you still don't believe me these paints are really the best here's the proof the result is that flat and the colors look authentic and the best thing they're not toxic and don't smell but the tracks look too fresh and that never happens in real life maybe in a factory but not outside so let's add some dried up mud this will be made with wilders textured earth it's an acrylic mud with beautiful gritty texture and it can be blended with water it's important and this again applies to plastic workable tracks to be precise while applying the mud you just can't slap the mud all over the track and then blend it because it will get between the links dry up fuse them together and then the track would fall apart this of course is not a problem with metal tracks from full model master club or Spade ace because those are much tougher and can withstand surprising amounts of brute force but in this case we just have to apply the mud with a small brush exactly where we want it and then use just a small amount of tap to blend the edges you might have also noticed that this step takes care of those ejector pin marks I mentioned earlier we have to work quite fast before it starts drying up now that I only work on two links at a time sometimes just one I believe this technique is superior to pigments because you have full control over the effect and pigments even if you fix them in place with lacquer thinner could still get between links and damage the track as you should go without saying don't use enamel mat or anything like that the enamel inner which you'd use for blending would eat the track live when the mud dries the tracks look once again a little bit more awesome and in fact quite presentable but the color of the mud doesn't match what's on the tank and also there are just more steps that can make them look more realistic let's add some acrylic dust effects this is my own dust mixture made from Tamiya paints I use it almost on every model and if you want to know how to make one yourself check this detail tutorial it's definitely worth it because this mixture is water-based I can slap it all over the track without any worries it's semi-transparent so I don't have to think whether I should apply it as a filter or as a wash so like I said I'm just slapping it all over the place it will naturally collect in every crevice get absorbed by the acrylic mud and create a nice dusty film on the flat spots one thing this paint is not very good at is blending it just can't be blended when it dries and because I need to address a few spots that require more precise application and also some blending I'll use the aquiline paint from Wilder it's an acrylic paste without texture that can be reactivated once it dries but because it's not identical to my dust mixture I'll have to mix them together this will change the color but also make the paint slightly harder to blend but it's not a big deal as you will see the Tamiya mixture created some ugly effects or the guide teeth so naturally we should fix that the first step is obviously application and the second step is obviously blending with tap water there are some stains left over by the Tamiya mixture but I'll fix those later and then I added more dust around the Aldredge i'm leaving the center clean because this is where the wheels come in contact with the track these parts are usually devoid of any dirt and are just rusty if these were tracks from an operational vehicle those places would we polish dark steel color the result is totally presentable but there's one more tiny trick we can employ to make them look absolutely out of this world enamel paints yeah I know we must avoid enamel on plastic workable tracks but we're not gonna flood them or anything of that sort in fact we're just gonna apply tiny amounts using the speckling method this way the enamel paint won't even come close to those moving joints so nothing will fall apart the reason why I'm using enamels is because their surface tension is much lower than water and thanks to that they'll naturally seep into the surface or should I say they are pretty much blend themselves it's just once all of those specks dried they won't have such sharp edges it's gonna look awesome both the light and dark color rust wash will add more tones but also tons of fine texture to the rusty spots and the dust and mud layers as well and they'll also fix some of those ugly stains left over by the acrylic dust mixture I used previously by visually breaking them and that's it the result our miniature tank tracks made from plastic that look like real ones made from cast steel and the techniques that we used are super easy you just have to be a bit patient I hope you found this video helpful or at least interesting to watch and if you did please leave me a like and subscribe if you haven't already because I have more content like this coming your way thank you all for watching I'll see you mates in the next one and here are some bloopers tracks on the code the code deep to make spray in fact you could paint the tracks entirely with speck link but that would be obviously obviously both the light and dark color the rest wash will add more to both the light both the both the both the light and both the light both the both the light both the light both the light both both the light both the light both the light

Channel: Night Shift

Views: 225,127

Rating: 4.9762802 out of 5

Keywords: scale model, tank, plastic model, model kit, tank model, tutorial, how to, model building, martin kovac, night shift, scale model techniques, scale model tips, scale model detail, art, craft, modelism, modellismo, miniatura, modellbau, chipping, speckling, rust, enamel weathering, beginner tips, corrosion, derelict tank, scrapyard, mig jimenez, ammo mig, tank tracks, friulmodel, tank treads, adam wilder, lifecolor, acrylic paint

Id: 1fXGHx3yZcU

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019