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Rye Field Challenger II TES MBT


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13 hours ago, Curt B said:

@British Army Platforms:  Maybe you have more Chally photos that you haven't posted yet?  Even if not, what you HAVE posted already has been great, and again, I'm thrilled to be able to see them! 

 

Just today, I received my RFM Challenger 2 kit, the 'regular' kit, in addition to the RFM Challenger TES kit that I already have.  Wow, both look to be impressive!  I wanted to tell you how impressed I was with your Berlin camo paint job you did on what I think was an Academy kit?  The paint was extremely well done!  In fact, I was so impressed with your work, I have decided to do my newly arrived RFM regular Chally 2 in the Berlin scheme.  I am really wrestling with how I'm going to do the anti slip, though.  Because the Chally 2 texture, on the real tank, is so uniform, I think I'm going to try my hand at textured paint, which many folks have used and posted over on Armorama, albeit quite some time ago.  It will require a significant amount of masking, though, but I guess that's the price one must pay for semi-realism.  I also got an Accurate Armour resin combat dozer blade for the Berlin camo Chally, though the cost of the dozer blade was almost as much as the RFM kit!  Hope it will be worth it in the end!    

Unfortunately those pictures are the only ones I have come in contact with re TES, you can certainly find others on google images and with deeper digging, more images on certain forums etc. 

 

Fantastic, the RFM models are certainly the best. My Berlin Brigade Camo Challenger was made using the Trumpeter Kit. Thankfully that came with a dozer blade! I will argue however that the quality of the RFM is far superior to the trumpeter, and therefore getting a dozer blade for your RFM is going to create a very high quality model, it will be great! 

 

I somewhat documented my hand with Anti-Slip and the camo/masking (page 5) here:

You will also find there my first challenger build - the standard version by RFM, and my latest chally, the TES version which I recently started. 

 

However, to save you from scouring all the posts in that topic, the best advice I can give for the anti-slip and camo are as follows:

 

Mig 1/35 yellow anti slip paste worked amazingly for me and I will be using it on the TES. You can mask of areas to avoid the texture, apply the texture then remove it once dried, or what I found best for harder areas to mask, such as the many service caps on the hull, was to apply with a brush, even out the texture with a sponge (this gets the uniform coverage you are concerned about), and then whilst still wet, remove it from the unwanted areas with a cotton bud or even a finger. It should be applied in the areas shown below:

95823de7a7173340b0911625fc0b2b4c.jpg

3912895b3b73fb3d0fcfd18af11f7977.jpg

69da617192cae11dc4dd728e63138c31.jpg

DSCN0841.jpg

 

For the paint scheme, white is a bloody pain! So Try to order your paint application to cater for this. Even practice masking and painting the 3 layers on spare parts first. The key advice is that if you cut masking tape to mask off areas, only let the original edge (cut by machine in the factory) be on the edge masking off an area. That is to say, any sides produced via cutting the tape, should not be used as and edge of a masking area - I hope that makes sense. This means that you'll have a straighter camo and a more secure masked area. Preventing less paint creeping and creating a much crisper camo. The masking takes a LONG time, so when you have finished a whole part ready to do the next coat of paint, go over EVERY edge of masking and really push it into the surface, using a cotton bud, to make sure it wont allow any paint to run or creep in unwanted places. Especially the case on textured surfaces. This is worth doing as over the several hours it took to mask one section, the first masked areas began to peel off very very slightly. 

 

I hope that all makes sense and is useful for you! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@British Army Platforms:  Everything you posted was helpful, and sorry it took this long to post back and say thanks!

 

I took your advice and bought 2 tubes each of the Mig 35th and 72nd scale anti slip, and used the 35 on the turret of my new RFM 'regular' Challenger 2 (not the Megatron).  I was super thrilled that it came out so well, and despite having purchased just about every other anti slip product on the market (and I've had some of them so long that some have already dried out and I've had to throw them out already, none have been as easy to use, nor as nicely consistent, as this stuff!  I applied the stuff with a tiny sponge held by tweezers, and I had masked off the panels with 1.5mm Aizo masking tape, almost the perfect size for the 1/35 scale Chally 2 current panels.  Thanks so much for the recommendation!  I have not yet done the hull top, but I've masked off much of it with liquid mask in preparation for doing it.

 

The only negative I see, and is probably would be the case with all anti slip products, is that the turret numbers, molded into the front top panel, is obscured with it.  I guess that may be the case on the real thing, but I don't know.  I DO know that I'll be using this product on my Megatron and my 2 remaining yet to be built Tamiya Challenger 2 Desertized models, when I get around to building those.  I can't say thanks enough for the info that got me to use this stuff!!!

Edited by Curt B
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On 4/12/2021 at 3:00 PM, British Army Platforms said:

Unfortunately those pictures are the only ones I have come in contact with re TES, you can certainly find others on google images and with deeper digging, more images on certain forums etc. 

 

Fantastic, the RFM models are certainly the best. My Berlin Brigade Camo Challenger was made using the Trumpeter Kit. Thankfully that came with a dozer blade! I will argue however that the quality of the RFM is far superior to the trumpeter, and therefore getting a dozer blade for your RFM is going to create a very high quality model, it will be great! 

 

I somewhat documented my hand with Anti-Slip and the camo/masking (page 5) here:

You will also find there my first challenger build - the standard version by RFM, and my latest chally, the TES version which I recently started. 

 

However, to save you from scouring all the posts in that topic, the best advice I can give for the anti-slip and camo are as follows:

 

Mig 1/35 yellow anti slip paste worked amazingly for me and I will be using it on the TES. You can mask of areas to avoid the texture, apply the texture then remove it once dried, or what I found best for harder areas to mask, such as the many service caps on the hull, was to apply with a brush, even out the texture with a sponge (this gets the uniform coverage you are concerned about), and then whilst still wet, remove it from the unwanted areas with a cotton bud or even a finger. It should be applied in the areas shown below:

95823de7a7173340b0911625fc0b2b4c.jpg

3912895b3b73fb3d0fcfd18af11f7977.jpg

69da617192cae11dc4dd728e63138c31.jpg

DSCN0841.jpg

 

For the paint scheme, white is a bloody pain! So Try to order your paint application to cater for this. Even practice masking and painting the 3 layers on spare parts first. The key advice is that if you cut masking tape to mask off areas, only let the original edge (cut by machine in the factory) be on the edge masking off an area. That is to say, any sides produced via cutting the tape, should not be used as and edge of a masking area - I hope that makes sense. This means that you'll have a straighter camo and a more secure masked area. Preventing less paint creeping and creating a much crisper camo. The masking takes a LONG time, so when you have finished a whole part ready to do the next coat of paint, go over EVERY edge of masking and really push it into the surface, using a cotton bud, to make sure it wont allow any paint to run or creep in unwanted places. Especially the case on textured surfaces. This is worth doing as over the several hours it took to mask one section, the first masked areas began to peel off very very slightly. 

 

I hope that all makes sense and is useful for you! 

 

On 4/24/2021 at 6:08 AM, Curt B said:

@British Army Platforms:  Everything you posted was helpful, and sorry it took this long to post back and say thanks!

 

I took your advice and bought 2 tubes each of the Mig 35th and 72nd scale anti slip, and used the 35 on the turret of my new RFM 'regular' Challenger 2 (not the Megatron).  I was super thrilled that it came out so well, and despite having purchased just about every other anti slip product on the market (and I've had some of them so long that some have already dried out and I've had to throw them out already, none have been as easy to use, nor as nicely consistent, as this stuff!  I applied the stuff with a tiny sponge held by tweezers, and I had masked off the panels with 1.5mm Aizo masking tape, almost the perfect size for the 1/35 scale Chally 2 current panels.  Thanks so much for the recommendation!  I have not yet done the hull top, but I've masked off much of it with liquid mask in preparation for doing it.

 

The only negative I see, and is probably would be the case with all anti slip products, is that the turret numbers, molded into the front top panel, is obscured with it.  I guess that may be the case on the real thing, but I don't know.  I DO know that I'll be using this product on my Megatron and my 2 remaining yet to be built Tamiya Challenger 2 Desertized models, when I get around to building those.  I can't say thanks enough for the info that got me to use this stuff!!!

 

I'm on with two Trumpeter CR2s with InAccurate Armour upgrades at the minute and have a couple of the Ryefield MBTs sat waiting to be built.  I've picked up the 1/35th and 1/48th Mig anti-slip having abandoned an attempt to use Hull Tex as all I succeeded in doing is clogging up the airbrush....

 

What's your view on the 35th vs the 48th Mig anti-slip?  My concern is the 1/35th looks a bit heavy, so I'd be interested in your respective views

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 24/04/2021 at 06:08, Curt B said:

@British Army Platforms:  Everything you posted was helpful, and sorry it took this long to post back and say thanks!

 

I took your advice and bought 2 tubes each of the Mig 35th and 72nd scale anti slip, and used the 35 on the turret of my new RFM 'regular' Challenger 2 (not the Megatron).  I was super thrilled that it came out so well, and despite having purchased just about every other anti slip product on the market (and I've had some of them so long that some have already dried out and I've had to throw them out already, none have been as easy to use, nor as nicely consistent, as this stuff!  I applied the stuff with a tiny sponge held by tweezers, and I had masked off the panels with 1.5mm Aizo masking tape, almost the perfect size for the 1/35 scale Chally 2 current panels.  Thanks so much for the recommendation!  I have not yet done the hull top, but I've masked off much of it with liquid mask in preparation for doing it.

 

The only negative I see, and is probably would be the case with all anti slip products, is that the turret numbers, molded into the front top panel, is obscured with it.  I guess that may be the case on the real thing, but I don't know.  I DO know that I'll be using this product on my Megatron and my 2 remaining yet to be built Tamiya Challenger 2 Desertized models, when I get around to building those.  I can't say thanks enough for the info that got me to use this stuff!!!

So glad that its done you favours. Best of luck with the forthcoming builds!

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On 28/04/2021 at 12:45, simmerit said:

 

 

I'm on with two Trumpeter CR2s with InAccurate Armour upgrades at the minute and have a couple of the Ryefield MBTs sat waiting to be built.  I've picked up the 1/35th and 1/48th Mig anti-slip having abandoned an attempt to use Hull Tex as all I succeeded in doing is clogging up the airbrush....

 

What's your view on the 35th vs the 48th Mig anti-slip?  My concern is the 1/35th looks a bit heavy, so I'd be interested in your respective views

I didn't find it too be too large. I felt the scale was apt and once painted represents the texture perfectly. Maybe try two test pieces using spare parts and spray them up too to help give you a visual comparison. 

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