Returning modeller - Tamiya Chieftain OOB Build

[Landi_uk]

Hi

As said in my introduction, I haven't built anything for 28 years, so I thought this would be an ideal starter kit. It's straight OOB, no after market add ons. This was always about me getting back into it and practicing before starting on more challenging kits.

I will be using an airbrush and acrylics for the first time as part of this build, so would appreciate any feedback. So far I've completed the build to point of paint.

Dry fit of the complete tank

Breakdown of chassis, turret and skirts

I've had the tracks mounted for a number of days. I read a tip about training the OOB band tracks. It appears that the tracks are "learning" their mounted shape, but I think they'll need a few more days to improve.

This is what I'm thinking about as the breakdown for painting. If anyone has any advice about the breakdown then please let me know.

The next build update will cover starting the paint process, but if there's any other new starters interested I'll post up my airbrush setup for info.

I do have one question at this point. I've seen a lot of posts about acrylics and I do have some Tamiya acrylics , but are vallejo acrylics better for both airbrush and brush painting?

Thanks for looking, Ian

[Lumpy]

Hi, Ian, looks good so far.

I'm afraid I can't give any advice on the paints, I have heard too many horror stories about acrylics and stick to enamels

The layout for painting makes sense.

look forward to seeing more (and welcome to BM)

Regards, Steve.

[Killingholme]

The Vallejo 'model air' are geared for airbrushing- the 'Model Color' range are designed for brushpainting, but I have used the latter in my airbrush for a while now- they thin well and I love the very high density of colour pigment in them.

That looks like a neat Chieftan. Look forward to seeing progress towards finishing- the fun bit with armour models!

Will

[oz!]

i use both tamiya and Vallejo but prefer the tamiya' they thin well and are very user friendly, i use car screenwash to thin mine and tamiya also do a retardent which stops them from drying too quickly which is handy for the odd bit of brush painting.

regards and welcome back to the hobby................oz!.

[HOUSTON]

Ian.

she looks marvelous. .

great modeling...armor builds are super.

Your armor is STUNNING ..

[Shermaniac]

Before you apply any of the main colour you should apply an undercoat - I suggest a medium to dark grey. this will provide both a unifying colour standard which will reveal any 'issues' whilst also providing a connection between the kit and the main colour.

Personally, I use Vallejo Model Colour (heavily thinned with Airbrush Thinner) and Model Air and sometimes mixed together.

Initially you should apply 4 layers:

1. Undercoat - Acrylic based
2. Top Coat
3. gloss for the decals and apply decals
4. Acrylic satin/matt varnish - normally a Matt would suffice but, the post-war vehicles tended towards a light satin finish.

leave to dry for at least 3-4 days before applying any weathering/pigments etc

DO NOT mix Enamels & Acrylics on the same model until you fully understand the implications

You're doing OK so don't stop now!

Edited July 12, 2014 by Shermaniac

[Landi_uk]

Update

So not a lot of forward movement on the armour as yet. I'll probably look at starting the airbrushing with priming at the weekend.

However I have painted the figures that go with the build. I don't have some Klear and matt varnish yet so they aren't quite finished, but thought it would make sense to get any feedback while I can still clean up and repaint if necessary. :-)

I was wondering if it was worth applying a wash to the faces, so would be open to pointers.

Oh and looking for the digi camera so I can get better quality pics instead of the Apple device ones so far

Thanks for looking, Ian

Edited July 14, 2014 by Landi_uk

[hootch732]

I nice model, but Im biased, as I drove them. One point though, we tankies wore black belts, well in 2RTR anyway.

Edited July 15, 2014 by hootch732

[Landi_uk]

Thanks hootch,I did some lookup and found some pics. Was the black Norwegian standard too?

[hootch732]

Yes, a lot of us wore the black norwegian others just a KF shirt

Nick

[Landi_uk]

Thanks for the reply Nick, there's so many POV and opinions on the uniform on the Net, it's a struggle to sort out the truth from the rubbish at times.

Many, many years ago, as a kid I got to see some RTR manoeuvres on Salisbury plain, Dad was stationed at Bulford. There's nothing like being aged 6 or 7 and getting a chance to sit on a chieftain tank to leave an impression, so I was biased as the choice for first build too :-)

Edited July 16, 2014 by Landi_uk

[Hamden]

Looking good so far keep up the good work

Roger

[Landi_uk]

Not much progress on this at moment, been practising with the airbrush and I think I moght be expecting too much of the chinese (see cheap) ones that came with the compressor.

So decided I'm going to make a start on construction of the Tamiya Abrams SEP I have. So could end up with two to paint at the same time :-)

[Landi_uk]

So I broke down for priming and snapped the idler axle. Whilst fixing I thought about supporting the axle as it does flex under track tension and came up with the below using some sprue that I heated slightly to form to the hull shape.

So I've now done some priming below, using the Chinese airbrush that came with the compressor. It was a bit inconsistent, so been on to little cars and ordered the H&S silverline 2in1 today.

Thanks for looking

Edited July 28, 2014 by Landi_uk

[waylander]

what primer did you use? your results look a lot better than my attempts at airbrushing primer. one thing i found is rather than toothpicks cut the ends off cottonbuds and mount the roadwheels on them when painting them thatway they dont spin round when you airbrush them, the polycaps on that model might be a different size though

[Landi_uk]

The primer was Vallejo surface primer (grey) and I sprayed without thinning. I bought the 200ml bottle and it's acrylic- polyurethane. The bottle setup is really good as you can just shake for a couple of mins, pour into airbrush and away you go. Had no problems with clogging. The hull bottom was done first using thinned primer but I wasn't happy with the outcome, so changed to unthinned for the rest.

The sticks are actually bamboo skewers with a tiny amount of blutak to stop spin. Toothpicks were just too narrow for the road wheels and only used for idler wheels, but thanks for the cotton bud tip I'll try that on the M1A2 wheels.

Ian

Edited July 28, 2014 by Landi_uk

[noddy927]

Landi looking good, re: paints. I use acrylics and find them really easy to work with, I also thin them with car screen wash ( much cheaper than thinner ) and never had issues. What you will find is with airbrushing it is a learning curve. As you use it more you get accustomed to how much to thin and air pressures etc. It is trial and error and you will make mistakes but learn from them and you will get some great results. Great build, I have one of these in the stash too. Good luck with the paint job, look forward to the conclusion.

Regards Pete

[Landi_uk]

So I got round to trying the new airbrush and what a difference to the Chinese one. Better action and seems to be more control. Just need to work out the flow vs distance, but I guess everyone has worked through that little conundrum.

I've base coated in the the tamiya green specified by the destructions last night, but it looks a little on the light side to me. I'm thinking about applying a light thinned coat of a darker green (is this a filter?) to tone down the green before spraying the black camo pattern. Would welcome any input on this, as I may just be being too critical. I painted the tyres this evening so thought I'd wait until then to post pics.

Amazing the way e camera picks out light patches that aren't visible to my naked eye, but perhaps that's just age and worsening eyesight :-)

This is the wheels with the tyres painted.

Thanks for looking and any feedback is welcome, particularly about the green used.

Ian