Tank tracks and stowage

[apologist]

Vehicles are my personal painting bane, so I thought I'd ask for some advice and ideas from the B&C brethren and sistren on some specifics:

 

Tank tracks

Rubbish at these. Never quite sure how to paint them. All metallic or black looks too clean; following real-world examples tends to simply be the same muddy grey-green-brown of the rest of the tank. How do you make them 'pop'?

 

 

Tank stowage

Always liked the idea of tanks covered in supplies. What sort of thing do tankers/supporting infantry carry on their tanks – and where? How's it attached? What do you make yours from?

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Kinda of an easy one on the tank tracks is to have relatively bright metal tracks, and then use some mud paste (e.g. Vallejo WeatheringFX thick mud) or pigments to clog up the track facing a little, giving you a contrast between the shiny metal and the rest of the track link.

 

For storage, probably your best source of inspiration is looking for images of tanks during WWII through to Korea - you'd generally see maintenance tools, fuel (or water) cans, and tarps. I know Tamiya (and others) make vehicle accessory packs that will likely fit GW vehicles scale-wise. I've also seen people make tarps (and other awnings/covered items) from tissue paper that was then "set" with PVA.

 

The historical modelling community may be our friend on this one.  

Edited June 26 by Firedrake Cordova

[sarabando]

stowage is hard to get feeling right. 

(mods please dont evaporate me) 

 

most important thing for stowage is to make sure its A. in a place it should be IE on racks and baskets. B. its not interfearing with the operation of the vehicle, no point putting your fuel jerry cans ontop of your engine vents as its gonna get hot and nasty. Dont block doors, hatches or view ports/optics. 

 

I find less is more when it comes to stowage, and marine vehicles are strange because they are usually deployed for quick strikes not long slog invasions. 

 

 

As for the tracks, two methods i like are paint them brown and then edge highlight silver. Or cake it in mud. You can also use a lighter weathering powder mixed with ISO to pin wash them too. This can be done with oil paints too. 

 

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Photos of tanks from WW2 are going to be your best reference for tank stowage, and there's a lot of how-to videos on Youtube from the scale modeling community on how to make it look good. Night Shift is one of the best scale model builders on YT and has great instructions for tracks as well as having stowage on almost every model he builds.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@NightShiftScaleModels

[Doghouse]

I know during the second world war American tank crews used to add improvised armour in the form of sand bags, logs and tank tracks and the like despite being asked not to because it didn't really do much good. Given the superstitious nature of the denizens of the Imperium however this kind of approach is perfectly suitable.

 

In my experience with tank kits stowage tends to lean towards additional personal belongings around the back of the turret along with additional things like water containers that needed to be at hand and tarps and jerry cans towards the back with the longer gear such as logs along the sides and anything that may make improvised armour on the front facing areas. You also can take into consideration their deployment, so Tallarn may take more water, Catachan may attach logs for traction if in jungles, etc. 

 

Tanks often had external racks or bins to store ammunition, such as machine gun belts, mortar rounds, or anti-tank shells. These racks were usually located on the sides, rear, or top of the tank. It was also used to carry tools, such as shovels, picks, and axes, as well as equipment like spare tracks, road wheels, and other maintenance items.

 

Then also often had external stowage for communication equipment, like radios, antennas, wire reels, spare parts, such as engine components, suspension parts, and other mechanical items, as well as supplies like food, water, and medical equipment. Then you have stowage for items like fuel cans, oil drums, and other logistical supplies.

 

I think the best bet is treat each tank individually and ask yourself what does this specific crew feel that it needs in addition to regulation gear. Are they even allowed to go beyond standard issue and if they can what kind of stuff can they beg borrow or steal?
 

Edited June 26 by Doghouse

[Evil Eye]

There's two approaches you can take for tank track painting. The first is to start with a fairly bright steel colour and then heavily weather it with rust, earth and whatnot (enamels and oils are great for this) until only the areas that would be seeing a lot of wear are left shiny (track cleats, guidehorns etc) where any dirt or rust would be worn off by friction.
Alternatively you can start from a dark flat basecoat (a rusty brown), build up the weathering and then highlight the aforementioned areas with silver.

 

I know you didn't mention this, but one thing you can add is armour texture to tanks. Real tanks (especially the kind that inspired 40K) do not have smooth panels like an aircraft; the steel has varying degrees of rough, pitted textures. Cast components have this +1. Whilst obviously you don't want to go overboard, before priming you can stipple on a texturing medium of choice (not the basing texture pastes, those are too rough; a pot of Mr. Surfacer 1000 is ideal for this) with an old brush, trying to recreate that same rough texture. References are your friend! You can also sand the dried texture down with a melamine sponge after it dries to tone down the effect. As a rule of thumb, thicker armour tends to have more of that texture, whilst simple sheet metal for track guards and fenders will have basically none. I find this not only adds a really nice, authentic look to the tank, making it look less toyetic and more like a chunk of metal, but it also makes painting a lot less stressful; you don't need to worry about perfectly smooth applications because tanks are anything BUT perfectly smooth. Technically, it's an approach meant for 1:35 tanks, but 40K scale is completely borked anyway and "overscale" details often make 40K tanks look cooler anyway. See: the Leman Russ's main gun...

[Indy Techwisp]

15 hours ago, apologist said:

Tank stowage

Always liked the idea of tanks covered in supplies. What sort of thing do tankers/supporting infantry carry on their tanks – and where? How's it attached? What do you make yours from?

 

 

 

If you are looking for GW plastic stowage options, the Guard Accessory Sprue, Rogal Dorn MBT and the new Sentinel kits have some Stowage bits (tho the Accessory Sprue is very old) plus you could use the spare fuel cans, backpacks and bedrolls from the Cadian Upgrade Sprue as well.

I've not personally seen any stowage bits for Space Marine vehicles tho, so you'd probably need to look for 3rd party stuff there.

 

In terms of where to put stowage, it really does vary from vehicle to vehicle but it's important to not put it where it would obstruct the turret's traversal or a door/hatch opening up (especially if the Turret/Door/Hatch actually does move/open on the model).

[Firedrake Cordova]

8 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

Real tanks (especially the kind that inspired 40K) do not have smooth panels like an aircraft; the steel has varying degrees of rough, pitted textures ... Whilst obviously you don't want to go overboard, before priming you can stipple on a texturing medium of choice ... with an old brush, trying to recreate that same rough texture.

Vallejo have a video tutorial on doing this with their plastic putty (hopefully the video will play a the right point ):

As you say, it's best not to go overboard with this; just enough to add visual interest is best.

Edited June 27 by Firedrake Cordova

[Xenith]

I try to add bits and bobs to my tanks where possible, don't have a painted close up, but my 'command' predator has stowage, antennae and spare track links in a semi-sensible place.

 

 

 

The colour of tracks depends on the model. My IW tanks basically have black tracks with a bit of weathering, my BA and AL tanks have silver tracks. I also swear by Tamiya weathering sticks, like lipstick for tanks, you can just rub it on.

 

https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/paints-hobby-and-scenery-by-manufacturer/tamiya/tamiya-weathering-accessories/weathering-stick-mud?d=22&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwm_SzBhAsEiwAXE2Cv2OAYZTU7mO-QzIwmX6kfb-DQpn8Z946xHEfLI2JmhUkEPvMLRNDxRoCSMIQAvD_BwE