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Kiwi M41 Walker Bulldog - Tamiya 1/35 : Finished!


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After a bit of research (Wikipedia) I decided to do something more on the modern end and use the Walker Bulldog from my stash. New Zealand acquired 10 in 1960 and they were used up till the early 1980s.

 

The kit is the old Tamiya kit, which has roots back to 1964, so almost as old as the NZ service of the vehicle and pre-dates me!

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This will be the second time I've built this kit, the first was in my youth and it was the first 1/35 armour kit I built and I remember it going together quickly and impressively, lets see what 30 years of rose tinted glasses does!

Even back then I questioned the box art - why they decided to picture the back of the tank, with the gun barrel sat on the (open) travel lock I'll never know.

 

The kit itself is pretty basic, given the age - the suspension pre-moulded to the lower hull and lots of holes for Tamiya's dubious attempts to motorise the kits in the past. (I wonder if they ever worked?) 

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Still that should mean it goes together quickly!

The 2 sets of instructions are one in Japanese and one in English, but otherwise identical.

The only aftermarket stuff I'm planning to use will be an AFV mantlet cover (the kit instructions tell you to scratch build one from a polythene bag!)

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Hopefully that will fit without too much fettling.

I'm not planning on using any other after-market stuff, it's still a relatively cheap kit - metal link tracks would be over twice the cost of the kit!

For markings I've found a few references - there's some walkaround photos of one of the tanks here - at it's retirement home (Australian Tank Museum), though apparently it may have been repainted.

I found some useful info here about modifications, markings and a camo pattern, including a few photos - I'll be attempting this rather than an all over olive drab or deep bronze green.

 

Given it's a pretty niche subject there aren't any after-market decals available but I have some ink-jet printer decal paper so will have a go with that - luckily being a tank the markings are small, few and far between, only issue could be the white number 2, but I can either paint that and add the decal over the top or I have a sheet of just white decal film somewhere in my bits, I can cut a small bit out as an underneath layer - obviously my home printer doesn't come with white as an ink colour!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I thought I'd make a start on this, hopefully I can get it to priming and painting as the same time as my Desert Storm GB.

There's not a massive amount of parts - but I managed to screw up putting the first one in!

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This first partition piece should have gone more towards the front in the next 'slot' but with the clip facing this way but luckily I managed to realise in time (well that it was orientated the wrong way for the current location and spun it around before the glue dried. I suppose in the original motorised version there would have been two of these clips so you can open and close the hull to change the batteries - the clips go through the top of the hull in the turret here...

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The hull has lots of holes - probably for switches and other stuff back in the day, I decided to start filling them, mainly as it's annoying seeing light shining out of the bottom of the tank model! I stuck some plasticard over the holes from inside to start.

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Then I backfilled the holes from the other side with some 1mm plasticard strips, which is slightly thinner than the body...

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I'll need to add some filler later but I've run out for the moment!

spacer.pngI just need to make sure to leave some space for the little prong above that helps line up the top and also fill the undersides of those mudguards / stowage boxes!

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So the tedious work of building up all the wheels was done, not difficult just a lot of sanding to ensure all the edges are similarly textured, rather than just the bits where they were cut from the sprue.

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The nice thing with these old Tamiya kits is that the wheels all contain poly-caps so they can be attached/detached useful to keep them in place and remove when needed for painting. Although when I removed one of the sprocket wheels it pulled the axle/connection piece off - luckily cleanly - so I reattached it and strengthened the connection with a some epoxy glue - given all the other axles are moulded onto the lower chassis this will take the brunt of any overly tight tracks!

 

The turret and barrel were built up, though the barrel isn't yet attached so I can get the mantlet dust cover on later.

The turret upper and lower parts are a very good fit, given the age of the kit.

I started the modifications - trimming back the fenders, I was a bit fearful about how to do this cleanly but in the end just attacked them with some flush edge cutters - I did make a couple of overly large chops and stressed the plastic a bit, but applied some extra-thin cement, hopefully as a solvent it should help anneal the material.

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So my filler order arrived and I set to work...

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After inserting the exhausts through the bottom of the fenders I filled the main openings with some plasticard cut to size, then added some filler.

Filler rubbed back then upper and lower hulls were attached - there were a few small gaps to fill after that, though it was a bit of a pain getting a nice clean rubbed back surface near the edge - but I can always make the lumps look like mud!

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The eagle eyed may notice an exhaust off a 1/24 Escort kit in the above photo, I'm hoping on using this to fashion into the auxiliary power generator exhaust later.

The aftermarket mantlet cover was attached along with the barrel - this is made of some flexible material (the same type as the rubber tracks) and was a tight fit, getting it on and glued into place was a fraught experience as I had to use thick epoxy (don't think super-glue would cut it or styrene glue would work). Hopefully it's not in too bad a location, I would have preferred it more centered around the gunners sight cover but it's about as good as it will get, it's made for a different kit so it is what it is. I unfortunately managed to snap off two of the little fixing tags (not visible on the image below) but hopefully I can glue them back on later.

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So that's where it's at - will need to start adding the detail pieces and do some tidy up before paint.

One thing that I haven't got a clue about how to do - there are supposed to be strengthening ribs on the sides of the storage bins (as depicted on the box art) but I've no idea what I could make it from - the same width as those on the top so it's pretty thin? Maybe some stretched sprue?

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Nice work so far. Many years ago i was in NZ and the train i was on went through Waiouru (think i've spelt it right) where there is a Military Museum with a NZ M41 and i was most miffed that i couldn't get off to have a look! 

 

Look forward to seeing this one progress 👍

 

Regards,

 

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

It's been hard to get some time to do some building, but where I have it's been steady progress.

No major dramas, the fit is pretty good on this old kit and some nice welding detail, I was worried about snapping the grab handles that fit on the turret when taking them off the sprue but no issues - can't remember how I ever managed to get them attached as a kid - I had better eye-sight but thicker blobby glue back then (seem to remember stuff that came in a tiny metal toothpaste like tube).

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I added the communication cable reel from the Scimitar kit I'm building (hard line comms that can be linked between tanks), and super-glued back on a couple of the clips from the mantlet cover I'd snapped off when trying to drag/hold it in place whilst the epoxy glue dried.

I've seen some sources saying the machine gun should be mounted slightly differently on the Kiwi tanks but didn't feel confident moving it (would have required me to cut the moulded square mounting point off flush first).

I added an extra stowage bar between the headlights - it's a bit on the thick side and I think realistically there should have been two bars but several hours of trying to cut some plasticard thin enough and straight this is as good as it's going to get!

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I also repurposed a 1/24 Ford Escort exhaust for the aux generator exhaust, unfortunately I didn't have any appropriately sized exhaust tip so the best I could find looks like a bit of a bean-can boy racer one - guess I need to grab some thin tubing/strips for scratch building next time I order some modelling supplies! Maybe this is the sports model of the tank :)

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Other than that I've given it a coat of primer - first time using Alclad's brown primer, I have to say it's a nice khaki shade once on.

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4 hours ago, Scargsy said:

I also repurposed a 1/24 Ford Escort exhaust for the aux generator exhaust, unfortunately I didn't have any appropriately sized exhaust tip so the best I could find looks like a bit of a bean-can boy racer one - guess I need to grab some thin tubing/strips for scratch building next time I order some modelling supplies! Maybe this is the sports model of the tank :)

One your Avatar would have enjoyed.

 

AW

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thought I should post an update...

So I started with a light coat of yellowish tone (whilst painting my Scimitar, I had the airbrush out and the paints) - note the finger marks where I flipped it to paint the other side!

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The camouflage is supposedly based on the US MERDC (Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center) 'Red Desert' scheme. I started with a coat of Vallejo's 'US Earth Yellow' which apparently is a match but it just looks pretty orange! Note the Kiwi tank probably isn't painted in the US paint exactly (apparently it's a modified scheme) and I'm unsure if the Vallejo stuff is anywhere close to that to begin with.

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From what scant photos and info I could find it looks far more yellow, I mixed up something I felt more appropriate and hit it again.

Probably then ended up a little too far on the 'light' end of the scale but hopefully I can work with this - some oil filters should help pull her back more towards a yellowy colour later. Applying the camo pattern is a bit of a pain - I didn't feel I could handle the pain of trying to mask around all the tiny bits so pulled out the brushes and set to work...

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Note I need to go over it again, and the colours aren't really showing well in the image. What's annoying is there's little in the way of good reference photos for an entire vehicle, there's plenty of info on MERDC schemes but the Kiwi images don't seem to have followed the patterns exactly (i.e. MERDC is approx something like 45% of the 2 base colours then 5% for each of the accent ones).

After a touchup / second coat I'll try then using some brownish/yellow washes I think to try tone back the colours.

 

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  • 1 month later...

So after a bit of a break I've managed to get it finished before the (extended) deadline...

I used some decal paper to print out the decals, luckily there aren't too many - a few coats of clear on top to seal the ink-jet print before cutting them out and applying.

For the "2" decals I needed to add some white decal sheet underneath (since my home ink-jet printer doesn't do white! Luckily it kind of helps make the red/yellow stand out too (though I could have cut them to a better size!

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After applying them I gave the model a coat of Tamiya flat clear from a rattle can, then a brown oil wash.

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Ready to take on the giant Chihuahuas of New Zealand,,, (well I'm a modeller, of course I'd have a 1/12 scale dog!)

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  • Scargsy changed the title to Kiwi M41 Walker Bulldog - Tamiya 1/35 : Finished!
2 hours ago, Scargsy said:

Ready to take on the giant Chihuahuas of New Zealand

Very Nice :thumbsup:

 

Don't recall Giant Chihuahuas here, but given that we have a lot of

bushland that really hasn't been properly explored in the South Island,

that wouldn't be unsurprising along with Giant Moa's and the Giant Haast Eagle

and a herd of Moose (introduced in the 1930's) the Moa's/Eagles all very real :D

 

Seriously though, very nice, I recall my Uncle (Mum's Brother) who served with the New Zealand

Army in the 1970's mentioning being on Exercise with these down at Waiouru (pronounce phonetically

Why - ooh -Roo) - There is a Walker Bulldog on display at the Army  Museum in Waiouru

 

Walker Bulldog

 

Thanks for sharing your model build with us

 

Regards

 

Alan

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  • 5 months later...

Great job, and the cam scheme is just right.

 

I crewed these tanks in the 70's as CC while in the NZ Army. For the radio equipment we used the C-42 and B... - not sure about the "B" classification-  this required the 41 to have the British Army vehicle base  antenna mount (rubberized).

 

 

If I remember correctly the 50 is in the correct position however, some of our vehicle also had the 50 AA mount to the rear of the loaders hatch.

 

 

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