As it’s almost paint time, it’s time for me to pick all of your brains about tracks.
So here are some photos of B1s complete with their tracks. My question to you all is, if the tank was driving around northern France for, let’s call it three or four days, how rusty/muddy should the tracks be made? I’m not looking for perfect authenticity, but I’d at least like to be in the right ballpark.
In three days for a new tank I would say they could be very dusty and/or muddy dependant on localized weather conditions. I wouldn’t think much rust would occur
Bottom one. Shiny on the edges of the track pads, worn but not excessively so on the slopes where they won’t get as polished.
I think someone commented earlier about the tracks on these beasts being crap and corroding fairly quickly, but if the thing is mobile it’ll wear away a good portion of the surface rust.
I wouldn’t vote for #3 too
I agree, the rust would happen after non movement. Driving around would polish the track. The rust would start happening after parking for the night and might see some in the morning but it would light. Weather conditions would drive how fast it turns.
Great points guys. I’m thinking that it will be similar to the track set in the third picture then.
Your model but I would go with pic 1, more mud/dust the rust. Looking at pic 3, the track and vehicle appear to be rusted from years in the weather longer then the war.
Complete with the World of Tanks logo, I imagine 
No #1. This is a well maintained museum runner that has been ‘out and about’ for maybe 20 minutes. the tracks are filthy. if it’s been running on hard surfaces, #3.
Applied cast texture to the APX4 turret, and also used heavily thinned primer to add a slightly worn texture to the steel - the base for corrosion effects on the exhaust was also put down.
To each their own. I didn’t notice that, only reading the articles. I mean looking at the tracks.
If it’s not too late…
Your model looks great so far. A few minor points are:
a) The bolt heads on your 75mm housing are much bigger than the real ones. You might be able to find smaller ones to replace those.
b) There was a row of rivets along the top of the armored sponsons, just below the upper track run, that tamiya missed on their kit. They are on the horizontal portion of the sponsons. It’s not a big deal and could easily be covered with dirt buildup instead, but if you want a clean tank then those rivets could be added.
You can see some of the rivets in this photo. The easiest ones to see are where the tan blotch meets the top of the sponson. But the rivets continue down the whole sponson.
You can also see from this photo that the turret casting was quite smooth, so your texture looks just about right. It’s more like a high quality US casting!
Thanks Dan! I got a whole set of rivets from Meng, so I bet that’s doable.
Lots of work got done tonight (always does on Fridays before heading to the store). I primarily occupied myself with basecoat painting for the tank, as well as working on the tracks. First, I primed everything with Mr. Mahogany Surfacer, and then overcoated with Vallejo chipping medium. My plan for the paint job is to distribute chipping medium liberally between colours, which not only makes chipping parts like the exhaust easy, but I’ve also found that the medium gives paint the sort of texture which one finds on B1s, even those which are well-maintained. Then, I sprayed Tamiya olive green.
Problem was, I found this drawing on the internet which conflicts with the paint scheme I found on tank encyclopedia:
Note how the green basecoat in this drawing is much lighter. Given the photos available and their basic colorizations, I made the decision to use this image I found as my guideline going forward, and not the profile from TE. With that in mind, I put the chipping medium to good use and rubbed quite a bit of the olive green off, though much was left on because if anything, it will make what chips I add to the final product that much more varied.
Next, the tracks. I painted these with a custom mix of IJN Grey and flat black acrylics (also from Tamiya, and also overtop some chipping medium.) We had a good discussion about how the tracks should look, but after doing a bit of thinking, I decided to add rust effects by splattering heavily-thinned acrylics over the tracks. My rationale is that 1) the tracks on B1s seem to corrode fairly easily, and Fantasque (the tank I’m representing) was in service in 1939, so it wasn’t exactly fresh out of the factory, and 2) most of the rust was going to be covered in mud anyhow, so now was a good time to try this new technique. My technique is basically a riff on Uncle Nightshift’s way of adding rust with acrylics.
While I was waiting for the rust to dry, I mixed up some buff and NATO Green and airbrushed the tank once more. I’m much happier with this base colour, and with weathering and filters, it should work just fine.
The night finished with me mixing up some AK pigment with resin, water, and IPA and distributing it liberally over the tracks.
And that’s it! Soon I’ll be busy handpainting a forest 
Take care,
Dennis
Handpainting begins! Doesn’t look like much now, but hopefully I’m able to wrap it all together into something nice. Not much has been accomplished because it snowed again here in Oshawa, which meant it was rally time with the TT-02:
It’s going to be a busy week, but hopefully we’ll see some branches get painted on!
Dennis
More painting for tonight, and I’ve finished all the handpainting on this tank. I’ve printed some custom decals for the name on the turret, and I bet I’ll have all the basic painting done by or during the weekend! The end is now in sight, time to break out my pigments and washes.
Dennis
Edit: well, perhaps a few more trees I may add. I do have to go through my brown paint, after all.
Hey! Where’d the tank go? Great paint job Dennis!
‘Can’t see the Forest (green Tank) for the trees…’
Nice take on the camo Dennis. Not your everyday challenge there.
