slifer44

Small update today. Decals have been applied to the Chieftain. I went with the 'Al Capone' option but the decals for the name broke apart on both sides so the tank is with out Al Capone marked on the hull storage bins on the front. The rest of the decals went on without to much fuss. I decided I would add one of the Union flags to the Chieftain (like on the option for the tanks in West Germany). Out of curiosity does anyone here know what the red AF mark is on the back of the turret? George

Merry Christmas all! Finally managed to make some progress on the Chieftain. First job was to remove the black camo on the skirt and re-apply some NATO Green. While that dried I painted the Wheels (by hand) and left them to dry. I then re-applied the black camo matching up to the hull camo and I then tweaked and went over the camo already on the tank. Then the tank was glossed and final assembly competed. Next up decaling and weathering. As it stands now: (does show that I forgot to gloss under the gun crutch ) George

Update on the Chieftain, better late than never, First thing I did was not related to the Chieftain but instead to my Challenger 2 (which has been on and off for around a year because I am determined to do as good a job on it as I can). I ended up building up and attaching in most cases parts that I had left off for painting but have decided need to be on. After about 30 minutes I got the airbrush out and tried my hand at pre-shading, didn't go very smoothly as the airbrush wasn't behaving (no surprise there). Now onto the Chieftain, having slightly thickened the paint used on the Chally 2, I started painting on the camo for the Chieftain. Must admit didn't know what I wanted to do with it, except to keep it as close to the real thing as possible, and I don't think it came out to bad, particularly happy with the hull . Any assistance with the airbrush spraying all over the place (as demonstrated in the Chally pics) is much appreciated (yes i'm on the smallest nozzle I have still haven't replaced the lost larger one). George

Thanks for the kind words mixup. My first armour build was also Tamiya's M26 Pershing, it's a brilliant and fun kit. I'm sure it'll turn out great George

Update on the Chieftain! I haven't been able to do anything model related for the past few weeks due to school work, but I'm finally able to do a bit. So I decided I would get the NATO green on the Chieftain. I decided I wouldn't paint the road wheels yet as i don't think the rubber is dark enough, so they'll be painted when I give my Challenger 2 it's first coats of paint, which hopefully will be next weekend. So here's where the Chieftain is at:

UPDATE!! I've finally managed to give the Chieftain its first coat of black paint. After a rather bad week I thought I would try and crack on with the Chieftain. The first go at applying the paint went the usual way, with the airbrush clogging so I went to clean it, and in the process of cleaning the airbrush the 0.4mm nozzle at the front of the airbrush vanished and I can only assume it went down the drain, sigh , so i'll have to get a replacement eventually. So I equipped the 0.2mm and swapped the Humbrol acrylic for Tamiya NATO Black and thinned it with water, and low and behold it worked. So here are the pictures of the tank with its first coat of Black. George

Thanks for the kind words shelfspace . I hope you overcome your issues with the Humbrol Varnish and complete your Mk1, best of luck and stick at it. George

Thank you all for your kind words

Hello all, I'm calling this done (till i find a suitable base). Not remotely up to the standards on this forum but the best I could do with what I had. This is my first airbrushed kit and the first kit I've tried to weather with powders (Humbrol Weathering powders). While the construction was simple and straight forward (although I did make a mess of the rear steering wheels) the final stages were a nightmare lasting 3-4 months. The varnish meant most of the weathering was blown off and 'frosted', wrinkled and destroyed the paint. But it was finally fixed and finished (thanks to a bottle of Valejo Matt Varnish and a lot of patience). Here it is, the completed model: and the missing paint, a reminder not to use humbrol varnish again:

Hi Keith. Thanks for the info and kind words . I never thought about the issue being the hardness of the water, I believe my area gets hard water from what I remember from my GCSE Chemistry lessons. I'll give distilled water a try and see if i can get some acrylic flow improver if that doesn't work. George

Hi Dan, I've been thinning the paint with water as it says on both the site and bottle that it can be thinned with water. I have thought that might be the problem but having thinned acrylic with water previously, I didn't give it much thought. George

Right, sorry for the lack of updates on the Chieftain, other commitments have kept me away from it for quite awhile. I did try and get going again 2 weeks ago and tried to get the pre-shading done. However every time i tried, the paint blocked up the airbrush and required a complete clean before i could try again. I tried three times at varying pressure and paint to thinner ratio to no avail. Last weekend I was out on an expedition and so couldn't paint. So i tried again today. I got my other airbrush out (for the first time) and equipped the 0.4 nozzle and needle. I put the paint in the hopper and thinned and it clogged almost immediately so it was cleaned and i tried again. This time it worked and i could finally start pre-shading, but the paint wasn't particullarly black, more grey, so i added abit more......and it clogged :/. So it was cleaned again and i gave it one more shot, with the smaller nozzle. Unlike every other time i had tried this time the airbrush was clogged before had even passed air through it 0.0 . So I was again stopped cleaned it and packed it all away having only got the front slightly black and more paint on myself than the tank. So you guys got any words of wisdom? The paint is Humbrol 33 matt black (acrylic) never had a problem brush painting it. The pictures (and yes there is a very thin layer of 'black' on the tank) Thanks, George

Thanks for the info Dan, I think i'll be getting them both then, hopefully they'll be here by Monday . George

Thanks for the info Dan, I am airbrushing the Chieftain so I'm going to order the Tamiya paints. But what would you guys recommend i get for a gloss and matt varnish as I'm probably going to replace the Humbrol varnishes once there empty, as they cause too much silvering and peeling on the paint. Thanks George

Hi guys, i am finally getting around to ordering the paint for the Chieftain (i know i took my time ). Currently I'm contemplating getting Humbrol 33 matt black, either humbrol 30 or 78 and 26 for the termal sleeve, there not perfect matches but they look the closest from the Humbrol acrylic catalog. The aulternative being Tamiya XF-67 NATO Green and XF-69 NATO Black, but the problem is i don't know if they'll work with my varnishes (Humbrol Matt varnish(rattle can) and Humbrol clear gloss varnish) and it says they have to be thinned using Tamiya's thinners. Which would you guys recommend i get if i want a Chieftain that looks as real and accurate as possible, also what color for the thermal sleeve. Any other suggestions are appreciated but try and suggest paints that are acrylic and will work with the varnishes (I've had too many unwanted reactions between the acrylic varnishes and Humbrol enamel, probably shouldn't of tried combining the two ) Cheers, George