Takom Grant

[Hamden]

 

Nice to see this back you have made stunning progress, looking forward to more of the same!

 

    Stay safe    Roger

[Jasper dog]

8 hours ago, M3talpig said:

This is really wetting my appetite for the Takom Lee been wanting to do one for a while...and this thread isn't helping....i blame you for forcing my hand and so will the wife (pointing to your thread as i try to convince her it's in her best interest that i buy one) it's all your fault 

 

That's absolutely fine,  the Mrs blames me for most things anyway!

As they say "like water off a ducks back"..... Hope to return the favour!

 

To be honest it's a really good kit, haven't looked at the tracks yet which I've been warned about but otherwise can't complain. Watch out for the odd plastic, if removing the parts from the sprue with snips, they have a tendency to take a sliver of plastic with it from the part itself. 

 

Just between you and I I've another takom M3 in the stash that I can finishing o/d, mums the word!

 

Cheers 

Darryl 

 

[Jasper dog]

6 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice to see this back you have made stunning progress, looking forward to more of the same!

 

    Stay safe    Roger

Hi Roger, thanks.

 

Can't take much credit for it as it really does fall together once you've got the suspension units together. 

 

As I was throwing myself into it last Sunday I was only thinking,  I should have been down at Bovington this weekend....... I had my annual trip planned, a long weekend pass secured from the Mrs, accommodation in Wareham booked and maybe a pint or two imbibed....curses!

 

Best wishes and safe keeping 

Darryl 

[Hamden]

 

Yes with everything closed down it's upset a lot of plans world wide.

Perhaps you can get your weekend pass put on hold until things open up again, should have been Poole Vikings annual model show next Saturday as well!

 

Looking forward to seeing your Grant progress

 

     Stay safe         Roger

[Bullbasket]

Your Grant is coming along very well. At least with the Takom one, you don't have to add the missing rivets and change the VVSS units, as I had to with the Academy version.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

13 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Yes with everything closed down it's upset a lot of plans world wide.

Perhaps you can get your weekend pass put on hold until things open up again, should have been Poole Vikings annual model show next Saturday as well!

 

Looking forward to seeing your Grant progress

 

     Stay safe         Roger

Absolutely, all considered we've been very fortunate compared to lots of folk and if missing a weekend away, a day out or a little inconvenience is the price we pay I'll consider ourselves very lucky.

 

Cheers 

Darryl 

[Jasper dog]

Just now, Bullbasket said:

Your Grant is coming along very well. At least with the Takom one, you don't have to add the missing rivets and change the VVSS units, as I had to with the Academy version.

 

John.

Thanks John, to be honest I'm not that well up on them to know what is and isn't correct, just dont let on!

 

Having never seen an unmade Academy one I can't really compare, however the suspension units rather good if a bit long winded, never satisfied......

 

My only query has been a canvas cover around the 75mm, should it of had one or not?

The kit doesn't provide one and period photos show some with and some without.

 

Will need to try and find a suitable bod to go in the turret, cant quite call a tank finished without a chap in it somewhere. 

 

Cheers

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

5 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

My only query has been a canvas cover around the 75mm, should it of had one or not?

The kit doesn't provide one and period photos show some with and some without.

And that's your answer right there. Some did, and some didn't, so it's a case of going by photographic evidence.

The Academy kit is quite good, but it was pointed out by those who know that they had missed off a few rivets from the side. Easily rectified. But the first kits came out with a set of vvss units which were (noticeably) about 1.5mm too high. They quickly put the error right and subsequent kits had the correct height units. They also mad available to anyone who had bought the first ones, the correct units. Nice to see that some manufacturers take not of what people say.

 

John.

[robw_uk]

 have been tempted by this kit a few times (or the full interior one). Maybe after seeing a build have to invest once I have the ones I am working on done.... 

[clive_t]

This is turning into a great model.

 

I did a shroud on mine, from layers of tissue paper soaked in diluted PVA. Once dry, it was pretty sturdy and quite receptive to paint.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, I'd say that the amount of effort I put into detailing the interior was for the most part wasted,  even with every access hatch wide open. Sadly the driver's position, being the furthest point away from any such hatch (and which my father would have occupied in reality), is more or less completely obscured. 

 

In terms of figures, MiniArt do a decent enough set, which was included with the Academy kit I built. Having said that, I'd also advocate replacing the heads with some much better detailed ones from Hornet (available from Historex among others). That was something John @Bullbasket advised, and I am glad I did.

 

Looking forward to further progress

[flashlight]

Hi Darryl,

 

very good progress with the Grant! This is coming along nicely!

 

Have a nice day

Nick

[Jasper dog]

12 hours ago, robw_uk said:

 have been tempted by this kit a few times (or the full interior one). Maybe after seeing a build have to invest once I have the ones I am working on done.... 

Hi Rob, do takom do one with an interior?

I suspect the new (er) Miniart one might,along with doing a number of different versions.

 

However I can recommend this Meng one as a straight forward build.

 

Cheers

Darryl

Edited April 12, 2020 by Jasper dog

[Jasper dog]

12 hours ago, clive_t said:

This is turning into a great model.

 

I did a shroud on mine, from layers of tissue paper soaked in diluted PVA. Once dry, it was pretty sturdy and quite receptive to paint.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, I'd say that the amount of effort I put into detailing the interior was for the most part wasted,  even with every access hatch wide open. Sadly the driver's position, being the furthest point away from any such hatch (and which my father would have occupied in reality), is more or less completely obscured. 

 

In terms of figures, MiniArt do a decent enough set, which was included with the Academy kit I built. Having said that, I'd also advocate replacing the heads with some much better detailed ones from Hornet (available from Historex among others). That was something John @Bullbasket advised, and I am glad I did.

 

Looking forward to further progress

Hi Clive, if I'd a period photo of the one I'm doing showing the dust cover I'd have given it a shot but ho-hum.....

However it's nice to know how to do it. Cheers.

 

I think your comments re' the interior are probably the reason I've never been tempted by a full interior kit, call me lazy if you will but...

 

I'll have to look up the miniart figures, I've some Dragon 8th army ones but not really what I want. John's suggestion regarding the heads is good.

 

Thanks again Clive

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Jasper dog]

2 hours ago, flashlight said:

Hi Darryl,

 

very good progress with the Grant! This is coming along nicely!

 

Have a nice day

Nick

Hi Nick, thanks.

 

Haven't had much chance, or for that matter motivation, for the last few weeks but getting back into the swing of it, slowly. 

 

I found just getting stuck into it has helped and of course the quality of takoms product. 

 

Thanks and take care

Darryl 

[Jasper dog]

Progress; 

Once the Halfords rattle can grey primer had dried and a splash of Vallejo warm sand had covered the corners it was time to look into getting some camouflage onto this thing.

 

After deciding to do the classic (to me at least) sand and black scheme I mixed some AK Real Colour Blue-Black with some Tamiya acrylic thinner and a squirt of flow Improver...

 

Then spent two hours stripping and cleaning my poor abused airbrush of crud and gunk...

This is one of many lumps of yuck that I scrapped out of my poor airbrush without even spraying a jot.

 

Has anyone else any experience of spraying this stuff??

 

In the end resorting to substituting the AK colour for Tamiyas Rubber Black, I decided that once it was on and weathered it wouldn't look too much out of place.

 

The plan is to spray the black first then mask with a combination of tamiya masking tape and AK masking putty.

 

Here it is with the black masked and a top coat of Vallejo warm sand. Even though its difficult to tell I lightened the sand with numerous  drops of straight white.

 

Once dry the masking putty removed:

 

 

 

Doesn't look great so far, bit woolly around the camo edges but it'll fine.... (haste is not your friend in this game!).

 

Once the soft edges had been tidied:

 

and with the start of the unifying process......Tamiya buff massively thinned and sprayed onto the panel centres and then as a unifying filter.

 

Once this had dried, perhaps a day a coat or two of Halfords clear seals everything in before the decaling stage.....

 

Until next time.

Stay safe, keep your distance and happy modelling 

Darryl 

[Jasper dog]

Did I mention decals;

7th Armoured Div, 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars,  Squadron C. 1942

 

 

 

 

 

Decals behaved faultlessly, if perhaps a little reluctant to fold to the shape of the front mudguards/fenders. A good application of microsol did the job.

 

Once set a further application of clear will seal in prior to weathering etc.

 

Cheers

Darryl

[M3talpig]

14 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

Once set a further application of clear will seal in prior to weathering etc.

My favourite part of any build ...the point where it takes on it's own life and starts to look the way you see it in your minds eye

Looking great so far.

[Stef N.]

That is coming along brilliantly. The black and sand camo works a treat.👍

 

As to your airbrushing problem I did read on another thread that some brand's flow improvers are incompatible with other brand's paints. Not sure how accurate this is but worth checking.

 

All the best.

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Looks great with its war paint on, nice work not far to go now!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

[Bullbasket]

Good job Darryl. I've had to clean my airbrush many times thanks to various makers materials being incompatible with others. Some of them even clog it without any mixing with others.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

8 hours ago, M3talpig said:

My favourite part of any build ...the point where it takes on it's own life and starts to look the way you see it in your minds eye

Looking great so far.

Thanks, get another gloss coat on and off we go......

 

And I assumed I was the only one up at nearly 1am playing with this stuff!  

 

1 hour ago, Stef N. said:

That is coming along brilliantly. The black and sand camo works a treat.👍

 

As to your airbrushing problem I did read on another thread that some brand's flow improvers are incompatible with other brand's paints. Not sure how accurate this is but worth checking.

 

All the best.

 

 

Thanks Stef, I'll give the AK real colour blue-black another go but without the flow Improver,  don't always use it anyway. Just so infuriating when you've set a couple of hours aside to do some painting and its swallowed up stripping and cleaning.  I've never seen something clog up so fast, or thoroughly. 

 

48 minutes ago, Hamden said:

 

Looks great with its war paint on, nice work not far to go now!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

Thanks Roger, could just be me but the final stages always take far longer than anticipated.  Obviously it's not a race and quite enjoyable but it always used to be, once the decals on the finish line was in sight.

 

36 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Good job Darryl. I've had to clean my airbrush many times thanks to various makers materials being incompatible with others. Some of them even clog it without any mixing with others.

 

John.

Probably right John, just irritating.

Live and learn......

 

Thanks chaps,  really appreciate having you along.

Stay safe

Darryl 

[M3talpig]

45 minutes ago, Jasper dog said:

And I assumed I was the only one up at nearly 1am playing with this stuff! 

If you're anything like me the closer you get to the painting and weathering stage the more it pushes you along ...always been the most exciting point in a model build for me and when i get close to that point i have an urge to just keep going.......time to break out the coffee pot mate and get some caffeine in ya for the long hours.

[flashlight]

Hi Darryl, this is coming along nicely! The camo pattern looks great!

 

Have a nice day

Nick

[Bandit1250]

I've been following this one quietly for a while. Really good build.  I've one of these in the stash and will be using the experience and tips from your build when I get around to mine. Looking forward to seeing this one in RFI.

[Jasper dog]

11 hours ago, M3talpig said:

If you're anything like me the closer you get to the painting and weathering stage the more it pushes you along ...always been the most exciting point in a model build for me and when i get close to that point i have an urge to just keep going.......time to break out the coffee pot mate and get some caffeine in ya for the long hours.

Progress is delayed by managing to acquire the required masonry paint, wood stain and varnish for repainting the house. (Think it's called an own goal!)  

Bank holidays wouldn't be right without a little DIY.....

 

6 hours ago, flashlight said:

Hi Darryl, this is coming along nicely! The camo pattern looks great!

 

Have a nice day

Nick

 

3 hours ago, Bandit1250 said:

I've been following this one quietly for a while. Really good build.  I've one of these in the stash and will be using the experience and tips from your build when I get around to mine. Looking forward to seeing this one in RFI.

Thanks chaps appreciate your input, as ever!

 

Looking forward to cracking on with this, something dry, dusty and sun bleached is what springs to mind... or is that too obvious.

 

Cheers 

Darryl