1/35 WW2 Armour

[robemcdonald]

Quick post. I have been trying out my new airbrush on some cheap WW2 Tamiya kits I picked up from hobbycraft.

So here are my first proper modelling attempts (for about 15 years, so be gentle)

They are Panzer III,IV & V.

No lengthy build thread just the finished articles. Different levels of weathering on each.

[robemcdonald]

I have dime that the panther isn't quite finished. I need to spray it with Matt clear and then dust with buff as suggested above (the two smaller tanks I have already done this on)

[robemcdonald]

Here are some more pictures. I did some more work on the panther last night; some chipping and staining, followed by a light coat of buff and finally some Matt clear.

I'm family happy with the results.







Here are a couple of better shots of the panzer iii







And finally the IV

[robemcdonald]

Probably. The paint guides on these older tamiya kits are pretty poor. In fact the kits themselves are pretty ropey. I appreciate they are old these days, but some new tooling would be nice.

I am thinking about trying another brand of kits for my next build, but don't have to worry about that as I currently have a tamiya harrier (equally horrible) a bandai x wing (this is how kits should be IMO) and of course my Tipo 33 to build before buying anymore.

[robemcdonald]

The harrier has been shelved (maybe permanently)
I decided to build one last tank before getting on with the Alfa. So I picked one of my favourites from world of tanks; the Matilda.
Much better kit than the others I have built. I got through it pretty quick and here's the result.









Maybe a bit ott with the buff and chipping, but I'm happy enough.

[robemcdonald]

Hosenbugler said:

Surely the tank in the AK livery is a Panzer 2, not 3?

Yes you're right. My mistake.

[robemcdonald]

A couple of new additions

First a Tamiya tiger one with eduard pe zimmerit







Second is strictly speaking off topic as it's modern. Academy M1 A1 Abrams

[robemcdonald]

Thanks.

I'm still getting back into it and a long way off what most of you guys can achieve.

Anyways.

I just finished a trumpeter challenger 2.

I'm trying out as many manufacturers as I can to get an idea of good and bad.

So far I'm at

Tamiya modern - excellent
Tamiya old - pretty good
Academy - pretty good
Trumpeter - lots of parts and a pain in the arse to be honest as lots of prep work is required on the parts.

I have an italeri Sherman up next (hopefully better than they used to be)

Coming up will be a Takom Chieftain, something from dragon, afv club and then the Russian company whose name I forget.

And so to pictures

[robemcdonald]

ftypical said:

TIPS/CIPS panels on the turrets need to be as close to matt white as your weathering scheme will allow.

Have you identified a favourite make/model to build yet?

Thanks for the tip. I don't think the lighting helps, but I may just take another look.

Should they be white on the abrams too? Most of the reference photos I used seemed to show them as the same colour as the tank.

In terms of a favourite manufacturer. At the moment it's probably Tamiya followed byAcademy.

As I said before next up after the fury is a Takom chieftain, then something by dragon.

I'm going to try them all. The dragon and rye field stuff seems very expensive. Time will tell if it's value for money. Actually regarding value for money I would say Academy are the best. Quality is not too far off Tamiya, but kits are half the price.

[robemcdonald]

Just put the finishing touches on my Italeri Sherman "easy eight" fury.

I started out really liking the kit. Nice crisp moulding, no flash. What's not to like?

Well it's just poorly engineered really. No real connection points for any of the surface details made it a real pain.

I have to say though I am impressed with the results.

I saw the original tank from the movie at bovingdon last year and took a lot of reference photos just in case.

To start the real tank...




Now my version.

[robemcdonald]

The_Jackal said:

Some nice tanks on here. I do like how you can build them easily then have more fun painting and weathering them than planes.
Here are my two. Need to get some inspiration to build my others.
1/76 Revell Jagdpanther


1/48 Tamiya Cromwell Tank

Nice work. I really like the Cromwell.

I had thought about going for a smaller scale, but there doesn't seem to be so much choice as 1:35.......

Also 1:35 is nice and easy for my basic skill set.

[robemcdonald]

A couple more shots.

[robemcdonald]

So after a holiday I did build the Takom Chieftain.

Initial impressions of the kit were awesome. There was something about the square sprues and 3D cad instructions that appeals to my inner engineer.




You also get wonderful full colour painting guides for all the different schemes, really nice decals and probably the nicest PE (super thin) I have used to date.





The problems came when I was removing some of the small parts from those massive sprues. Access was limited so I ended up having to cut sections of sprue away to get to the parts. Not a massive problem, but a bit thoughtless. The fit of the parts also wasn't great with no specific locations marked for major items like storage bins. This meant eyeballing their locations (which quite frankly is a bit st)

The individual link tracks, each with its own pad were very time consuming, but preferable to rubber band type.

I used a piece of masking tape to assemble sections, then cemented the parts together, waited 30 minutes for the glue to go off a bit. This gave me semi workable tracks.

Anyway heres the finished model prior to paint...


And now the completed model.






Overall it's a nice model, but hard work. 6/10

[robemcdonald]

Taking a Christmas break from cars I thought I'd try the academŷ m10 wolverine, with full interior.

It took a little while longer than tank kits normally take me. Christmas duties also limited my window of opportunity for making models.

Finished now though.