Tamiya 1/35 M48 Patton

[J.P.]

My son got this kit for me about 3 years ago for Christmas and I'm really making an effort to finish it which is a little easier now that I have a dedicated modeling space to work in. I'm mostly an aircraft modeler and this is my first armor build in....well, I guess ever so I've gotten a chance to try some new techniques. I will say have been bitten by the armor bug, I have a Meng Panther Ausf A, Tamiya T55, P40 Italian medium tank and a Meng French PT 17 waiting in the wings, all in various stages of build. 😏

 

Anyway here's the start of the M48.

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This is where I got to as of October 2016.

 

So I've been working on it again the past couple of weeks/months and managed to get it to this point.

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I replaced the molded on hatch handle with a piece of wire.

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...and attempted to improve the mantlet cover with some Durham's Water putty. It's not perfect but I like it.

 

I have AFV club tracks for it. I'm a bit at a loss at this point as to what else to do for weathering. I'd like to depict a dusty machine, like one that was muddy and the rain has washed away most of the heavy mud and there's just "residue" left not so much caked on mud. I saw a You Tube video where they took pastels and added water and just kind of flowed it into the corners. The result was a very convincing effect, the You Tuber's name was Sergio Solo....he dose great work if you'd like to check it out. I'm not associated with him in anyway just admire his work.

Edited December 19, 2018 by J.P.

[Soeren]

Yellow highlights, that looks scary. But might be smart for olive drab. Looking good

[FrancisGL]

Coming along nicely. As they said before, yellow seems a bit strange, but it's going very well for a green ...

I also made one of these (published in the forum, although version of the USMC), and if I "dirtied it a little" with the typical reddish dirt of Vietnam. 

Cheers mate 

[J.P.]

3 hours ago, Soeren said:

Yellow highlights, that looks scary. But might be smart for olive drab. Looking good

 

2 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Coming along nicely. As they said before, yellow seems a bit strange, but it's going very well for a green ...

I also made one of these (published in the forum, although version of the USMC), and if I "dirtied it a little" with the typical reddish dirt of Vietnam. 

Cheers mate 

Thanks guys. Yeah, I figured yellow was good color to lighten green so why not try it as a pre-shade undercoat. The are these green utility boxes I see all around the neighborhood and they seem to take on a yellow tint when they fade...and they fade quite heavily. Also, I seem to remember a tip to use a yellow under coat somewhere.

Edited December 20, 2018 by J.P.

[Soeren]

All of us dunkelgrün needs use yellow Base costs regularly and olive drab can be produced by mixing black and yellow. So makes sense.

[J.P.]

So after struggling to get the right look of the dirt...that red clay of Vietnam, I got a mix that looks to my eye really good. Sadly I have no idea the exact mix of pastels I used, a little deep red some pale yellow, and I got a color that looked more like rust staining. So I added some dark brown and black and more pale yellow/tan which really dialed it in.

 

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I have a few small details still to do but for all intents and purposes, I'm calling this one done. I'll post in the ready for inspection section. Of course any comments or critiques are more than welcome.

[J.P.]

Anyone know how the spare tracks the were hung on the side of the turret were finished? I'm struggling with how to paint them. All rusted up? Painted O.D.with the black rubber showing through? Chip the O.D. with some rust showing through?

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

18 minutes ago, J.P. said:

Anyone know how the spare tracks the were hung on the side of the turret were finished? I'm struggling with how to paint them. All rusted up? Painted O.D.with the black rubber showing through? Chip the O.D. with some rust showing through?

 

Thanks for asking this question ? Im going to be building this kit for my Patton tank group build. I am following this build for tips. I like your yellow base color idea it helped the O.D. a lot. 

 

Dennis

[J.P.]

On 1/11/2019 at 10:38 AM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Thanks for asking this question ? Im going to be building this kit for my Patton tank group build. I am following this build for tips. I like your yellow base color idea it helped the O.D. a lot. 

 

Dennis

Thank you Dennis, glad I could help.

[Bullbasket]

On 11/01/2019 at 15:15, J.P. said:

Anyone know how the spare tracks the were hung on the side of the turret were finished? I'm struggling with how to paint them. All rusted up? Painted O.D.with the black rubber showing through? Chip the O.D. with some rust showing through?

 

If you google "M48 in Vietnam", it'll bring up loads of photos, some in colour.

 

John.

[Gav G]

On 12/19/2018 at 7:36 PM, J.P. said:

 the You Tuber's name was Sergio Solo....he dose great work if you'd like to check it out. I'm not associated with him in anyway just admire his work.

I subscribed to his channel a while back. He does some nice work including Star Wars, MAK and some 1:1 stuff too.

[FrancisGL]

On 11/01/2019 at 16:15, J.P. said:

Anyone know how the spare tracks the were hung on the side of the turret were finished? I'm struggling with how to paint them. All rusted up? Painted O.D.with the black rubber showing through? Chip the O.D. with some rust showing through?

 

I would say that in the second way you comment, at least I did it in mine (same kit, but the USMC).
For the land of Vietnam, I used the specifier manufactured by AK, with a reddish / orange hue.
 

I included some color photo of the M48, maybe you will be of help if you are interested.

 

Cheers mate 👍👍

Edited January 17, 2019 by FrancisGL