Showman's Artillery - FAT, Limber and 25pounder

[WYATT]

Well I seem that I jump from tanks to soft skins.

 

So this will be the build/WIP for the Tamiya 1/35 FAT(Field Artillery Tractor), Limber and 25 pounder, I have a few photos so will try and make more of a diary at every significant step as I will probably treat each part of this kit as a stand alone then weather it all in one as I intend to put this on a scenic base for the ETO, but we shall see

 

So as it stands I am about a day into this build ( I am taking my time lol for a change)

 

The chassis and axles, I do really really like the winch with the PTO, I added the cable (which in hindsight I should have twisted to make thicker)

The cable is made from thin silver necklace wire as it tends to stay where you put it

Chassis, axles,suspension and drive shafts on and the engine gearbox built (although when this is built you will see little of this i am still going to make it so that the bonnet opens so you can see the engine from above)

Engine and gearbox mounted and connected

body and internals built, front and rear bumpers on, I will have it so that the doors will be removable so that the inside can be seen, although there is not lots and lots of detail (there isn't much in the real one tbh)

The 25, this is probably the most annoying/time consuming part of the entire build the trail and the rotunda is just one of "those" builds

and built, minus the stowage and some canvas fun and games, the frame on the back is made from copper wire, there is a few photos out there in books showing things like this added by the troops.

so what I have added here is stowage/gubbins (from various kits and stuff that comes with the kit, I mean c'mon who doesn't like to raid the bits box!), the canvas covers are made from thick pocket tissues that are soaked in PVA and water, I added a breech cover and muzzle cover using this but added some strips of tamiya masking tape (6mm, folded in half to make it 3mm (sticky to sticky) then cut down the middle to make it 1.5mm) these make excellent "straps", also tied down the gubbins and added "rope" to the nudge bar at the front.

Looking over some reference (I have been going to military vehicle events since 9 (now 33) so have loads of photos to go at) and found that alot of the limbers have canvas covers on the limber so I added that over the stowage/gubbins on the limber.

And Into paint! undercoated with vallejo mecha black primer.

 

 

[Bullbasket]

If that's you taking your time, and you're just a day into the build, I'd love to see what happens if you were rushing it!

Any way, nice work so far.

 

John.

[WYATT]

5 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

If that's you taking your time, and you're just a day into the build, I'd love to see what happens if you were rushing it!

Any way, nice work so far.

 

John.

Tamiya kits just go together really well with little clean up, plus when you chuck on an audio book you just mull through and before you know its built 😁

[WYATT]

Well slight update, got some paint on, now this still comes apart as I need to do all the weathering and what not.

 

spent a couple hours on the chassis, once it was painted using valljeo paint I then made up my own colour of oil paint "grease" (bit of green, black, brown and a touch of orange gives you a nice greenie-black engine oil/grease colour when thinned looks alright)

 

main colour on and gubbins/stowage  painted, aswell as the insides, the canvas is painted in panzer aces canvas, i always think if you can replace the plastic canvas with either the tissue and pva or actual material it does look better and takes on the contours better (as an aside the tissue used in this build came out of a 24hr british rat pack  )

Mickey mouse camo on, is sparse and random as camo is camo and would have been painted ad-hoc anyway, I made some masks up to give the basic location and scale (the helix circle template helps ALOT) then I went in with the brush an added/expanded and tidied up the blotches.

Decals on and this series of photos they are still wet with micro sol, I give em 2-3 coats of it and it makes them blend in nicely, I haven't varnished before putting them on as the paint is smooth enough and there isn't really any major angles/curved surfaces to to adhere to so in my mind doesn't need it.

 

The limber with get done this week as I am on weird shifts so will get abit of time each day so spend on it, so i will get to varnish the FAT, finish the limber this week and then get the gun sorted this weekend, get them all varnished and then weather it together, once the limber and gun are done I will start work on the base for this!

 

Cheers

Jonathan  

[robw_uk]

have a soft spot for this setup, built the kit a few years ago.... like it in green too

[vytautas]

Hi, Jonathan, your build looks great. You are very good at making a tarp, it's like a real

 

Vytautas

[WYATT]

2 hours ago, vytautas said:

Hi, Jonathan, your build looks great. You are very good at making a tarp, it's like a real

 

Vytautas

Thanks

 

Trick is to not use the textured part of the tissue paper that way it looks abit more like fabric 

[WYATT]

So here's a update! a few hours of bench time on this (as I type the fan is on helping the varnish to dry)

 

So the limber is now complete and painted

Added the camo on to unify the limber with the Quad, added the decals from my spares (apart from the bridge plate which is in the kit)

 

The 25 pounder is just green, not cammed up or anything like that as it appears that the guns weren't cammed up, again added the decals from the spares to unify the models together as a unit, the muzzle and breech covers are something I have seen on the vehicle circuit/reenactment but I am sure they would have been used.

Parallel to this I am currently making a base for this as a display, the box is made to fit an A4 picture frame our of foam board, the bulk of the base is made from ready made filler, and the ground coverage is made from bearded dragon substrate (I have quite a few reptiles which I have had for years lol) I would never use it so, I have used some of it on this and glued it down using watered down gorilla wood glue and as i was feeling lazy......plasticote rattle can black primer lol  

[WYATT]

Fun post, weathering and base finish!

 

The base has had stat grass, airbrushed US Dark Green on the base all over inc over the stat grass, then using the same mix of pigments that was used on the vehicle, the walls around were then painted in a gloss black (note to self even though you have brush/shaken all the stat grass, using the airbrush was key in the cloud of stat grass that then erupted from the base lol  ).

 

Weathering on the model using oils, humbrol dust and rust washes and then using a mix of vallejo pigments to give it a good dust.

 

The completed model will be in RFI  

[APA]

Really enjoyed this thread 👆 you've done a great job. The Tractor is on my list. Great base as well 👍

 

Andrew 

[WYATT]

3 minutes ago, APA said:

Really enjoyed this thread 👆 you've done a great job. The Tractor is on my list. Great base as well 👍

 

Andrew 

 

Thanks

 

The quad on its own is a lovely kit but with the whole train it just makes it

[fatfingers]

Ey up Wyatt,

 

Great job on the model and display base. Got one of the FAT's   in the stash and intend to pair it to the Dragon 25pdr and limber.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Pig of the Week]

Very nice set !.. 👍

I knew a chap, years ago, who was involved with a re-enactment mob, they had custody of one of these and I had a chance to have a poke around and play with it briefly....they're bigger in real life than they look in model form !  ( I only had my childhood Dinky toy version for comparison ! )

[Radpoe Spitfire]

I have got a soft spot for this since I first built this  back in the 80's. Even then, it had been out as a kit for at least a decade.

 

This is looking very nice and I look forward to seeing the finished model.👍

 

One thing I have noticed and I'd love to know how they do it, but when you see Tamiya kits,  many the moldings seem to be as crisp as the day they were first released.