RFM Chally 2 - A N00b's journey :)

[Mippie]

On 10/11/2020 at 07:05, Bullbasket said:

A small dab of super glue on the ends will keep them in place.

 

John.

Ta

On 10/11/2020 at 14:12, Texans said:

Looks good  so far  have a trumpeter challenger 2 with bar armor in stash but my head would explode with all that fine Intricate PE stuff. I take my hat off to anyone who can use it   
the kit looks awesome 

Yeah, screw doing that much PE...I have had to give up on some elements, especially the piece that ran to the front of the side skirt Dorechester plate....that one just didnt work, had no bend points and resulted in me nearly ruining one of the key parts of the model. Might end up looking a little odd because part of the skirt has nice detailing on top and the front half doesnt....but nothing I can do about it now

[Mippie]

Bit of an update - got the rest of the model built, only thing left now are the tracks.

I am very torn on whether I be brave and try and figure out some way of doing barracuda netting, or whether I leave it as not fully TES and just add some anti slip texture then paint....

Can't add any pictures, because one drive is being weird and not loading pics properly....

 

 

[ivan-o]

I hope you haven’t joined the lower and upper hull together! If you have it’s going to be fun getting the fruils joined when the last pin goes in.

[Mippie]

1 hour ago, ivan-o said:

I hope you haven’t joined the lower and upper hull together! If you have it’s going to be fun getting the fruils joined when the last pin goes in.

eeeerrrrrrrr.........😬

 

Just had a panic, but on the RFM challie there is no way not to have an overhang? Unless you mean the armoured skirts, in which case they are separate and haven't been glued yet

Edited November 17, 2020 by Mippie

[ivan-o]

You should be ok then😀 as long as you can get at the sprocket or idler you will be ok.

[Mippie]

58 minutes ago, ivan-o said:

You should be ok then😀 as long as you can get at the sprocket or idler you will be ok.

Ah yeah! I can get at those, I also didnt glue those so can pop em off and on if I need to

 

[BringUpThePIAT]

I’d love to build a OIF / Iraq 2003-onwards era Chally 2 to go with my Warrior. Sticking in on this thread. 
 

Just a word of encouragement, you’re doing great and the PE looks just fine. Keep at it. 
 

PS nothing wrong with 40k! 

[Texans]

1 hour ago, BringUpThePIAT said:

I’d love to build a OIF / Iraq 2003-onwards era Chally 2 to go with my Warrior. Sticking in on this thread. 
 

Just a word of encouragement, you’re doing great and the PE looks just fine. Keep at it. 
 

PS nothing wrong with 40k! 

For the 2003 op Iraqi freedom challenger 2 the level of paint flaking was  unreal. Some very green areas especially around turret access.   when first slat armor arrived it was green on desert color tanks for interesting contrast, some still had the canvas skirts remaining in places as well. 

[Mippie]

so more of an update, and I am regretting these metal tracks now....the clean up and hole drilling is turning into a nightmare....ive managed to snap two bits already so far, altho that is more likely cause of my hamfistedness.

So no updates I am afraid or new pics for the moment

[ivan-o]

Just goes to show!,just done a set for my chally 1 didn’t have to tidy them up or drill any of them out🤔

 

[Mippie]

54 minutes ago, ivan-o said:

Just goes to show!,just done a set for my chally 1 didn’t have to tidy them up or drill any of them out🤔

 

lucky sod..these are quite bad

[diases]

Been making up the Kit Tracks. To Be Honest, they are not too bad.

The links themselves just require the ends tidied up.

The connecting pieces I have cleaned up after assembly, as it makes them alot more sturdy.

I used Tamiya White top glue, with the finer brush from the green top stuff, and it worked well. All links move freely and a test fit of the first run looks really good

 

Cheers

Paul

[ERK]

Anymore progress with this, I  have one arriving soon  so i'm  following with interest.

 

Erk.

[British Army Platforms]

On 17/01/2021 at 18:51, ERK said:

Anymore progress with this, I  have one arriving soon  so i'm  following with interest.

 

Erk.

Yes would like to see how this one is going! 

[Mippie]

Hi All,

So, embarassingly, I made no progress on the tonk since November of last year. Work got mental, then I lost interest (I did say I was a hobby butterfly in the first post). However a couple of things have happened to kick me back into gear again. Firstly the tank has been staring at me accusingly since last year, secondly I got a dremel as a gift (so I have actually been able to finish drilling the track links) and finally I went to the SouthWest model show at Bovington a few weeks back, so I have now actuallly started making some track links.

 

Although, something I have no idea about is how many links will make up each side, the kit has 160, so I would assume somewhere around the 80 mark per side?

 

Edit: so for the experienced metal track gang, have you got any tips for connecting the final track link at the end? It feels like you need to be an octopus and be able to hold two sides of the tracks together whilst also fiddling and manipulating the little rod to connect the two ends.

 

Cheers,

Mipps

Edited September 18, 2021 by Mippie

[Mippie]

Small update - I got the tracks built and test fitted over the weekend.

 

next up, painting the beast! Random question, for the tracks most images I see are of the links painted and seeming to retain the paint quite well, so not really getting the worn metal look that you see on eariler AFV's. I assume that is because of the rubber pads keeping the metal links mostly off the ground right? So for the Challie they should likely be black as a base colour and then carrying whatever weather or mud/dust effects I use corect?

 

Cheers,
Mipps

 

[ivan-o]

You shouldn’t be far out with your reasoning however remember where the track runs around the wheels the paint will wear off.

Fitting the track can be a pain If you haven’t joined the top of the hull to the bottom yet what I normally do is fit the track but leave off either the front or rear wheel and then fit that after the track is in place.

HTH 

Ivan

[Mippie]

Ah yeah - good point on the wear being inside due to the metal on metal.

 

Unfortunately I am not a smart man, and dutifully followed the instructions, where step 3 was connecting the upper and lower hull lol. However I didnt glue to wheels in, so I think I can probably leave one or two wheels off to give me a bit of wiggle room.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 9/20/2021 at 9:47 AM, Mippie said:

So for the Challie they should likely be black as a base colour

 

Try dark grey. Black is too black for worn rubber.

[neilspen]

I have one of these in the stash. Reading your thread has been really informative. A very tidy build for your first attempt. You mentioned about doing the camo, when I get round to building mine, I plan to use camo net from Tetra Model works, cut the pieces to follow each profile and stick it to some foil, before glueing to the model, hopefully that makes sense. Cheers Neil

[Mippie]

2 hours ago, neilspen said:

I have one of these in the stash. Reading your thread has been really informative. A very tidy build for your first attempt. You mentioned about doing the camo, when I get round to building mine, I plan to use camo net from Tetra Model works, cut the pieces to follow each profile and stick it to some foil, before glueing to the model, hopefully that makes sense. Cheers Neil

Thanks, thats a really interesting idea! I have been having a real crisis when it comes to the thermal pads and top barracuda netting. I feel I need to do it but have no real idea how to achieve. I like the idea of the foil as a base. The thing that has been stumping me is that I don't really know how thick the thermal pad is, so it's hard to make a guess at the material to use. Ive got an AK camo net lined up, so might have a play with that idea.

 

In other news, I started with doing some painting on the armour skirts to try and get my eye in. However I immediately screwed up when trying to do some pre-shading and accidentally applied way too much white, which then caused me to over-react on the first paint colour and basically wipe out the preshade ....sigh.....it also means that if i hold the pieces at the right angle I can see the problem which really triggers me...I am sure nobody else would be able to see it, but still....I'll chuck some pics up in a couple of days (before the end of the weekend) when I have some progress to share on the armour skirts.

[viper-30]

I used milliput rolled out and on a Land Rover I used green stuff with etched nets I’ll dig out some pictures.

[ivan-o]

9 hours ago, Mippie said:

Thanks, thats a really interesting idea! I have been having a real crisis when it comes to the thermal pads and top barracuda netting. I feel I need to do it but have no real idea how to achieve. I like the idea of the foil as a base. The thing that has been stumping me is that I don't really know how thick the thermal pad is, so it's hard to make a guess at the material to use. Ive got an AK camo net lined up, so might have a play with that idea.

 

In other news, I started with doing some painting on the armour skirts to try and get my eye in. However I immediately screwed up when trying to do some pre-shading and accidentally applied way too much white, which then caused me to over-react on the first paint colour and basically wipe out the preshade ....sigh.....it also means that if i hold the pieces at the right angle I can see the problem which really triggers me...I am sure nobody else would be able to see it, but still....I'll chuck some pics up in a couple of days (before the end of the weekend) when I have some progress to share on the armour skirts.

keep at it mate👍 You know what they say everyday is a school day!

[Mippie]

1 hour ago, viper-30 said:

I used milliput rolled out and on a Land Rover I used green stuff with etched nets I’ll dig out some pictures.

 

Oh, now that is interesting! The thing I am struggling with (cause im a smoothbrain), is picking a time period to model the tank on. Because I am starting to get into the realms of a frankenstein vehicle haha. I am painting the skirts like the pic in my original post, but that first tank (on the highway), isn't in the same TES configuration as the later pics lol. Which is why I am getting confused haha, as the latest mats look quite thick (see the Challie 2 at tankfest).

 

1 hour ago, ivan-o said:

keep at it mate👍 You know what they say everyday is a school day!

Cheers - I have to keep reminding myself I am painting it for me and to learn processes, not for competition or judging. Although I have always been a bit OCD about mini painting, which is why I think ive never actaully managed to paint an entire army in other systems, because I treat every model as characters instead of mooks 🤣

[Mippie]

Again, small update - made a start on the addition armour skirts. Got the base colours on, and attempted a bit of shading and highlighting. One of the quirks of my phone camera is that it has washed out the shading and highlights on the tan, but over exposed the same on the green. In reality the green highlight is more muted that it looks in the pictures, however I probably went a bit bright with it in anycase (even after a few glazes to try and bring it back down a bit).

Next up, painting some chipping and damage. Any advice here will be much appreciated as I have never painted chips before, instead relying historically on sponge chipping, but I am not sure that will necessarily work for this piece.

 

Cheers,

Mipps