YEE HAW!! A Chi-Ha (Tamiya Type 97)

[flyboy2610]

For this GB I have selected a Tamiya 1/35 Type 97 Japanese medium tank from WWII.

This kit was first produced back in 1975, so some fitment issues are to be expected I guess. Tamiya does a very good job with their kits, however, so I'm not expecting any major problems.

The box:

 

There are not a vast amount of parts in this kit. Upper and lower hull, turret, rubber band tracks, and 3 sprues of plastic parts, one of which is dedicated to the wheels. And of course instructions and decals.

 

I plan to build this as an OOB kit, no aftermarket parts. I haven't decided on whether or not to use the figures, but I'm leaning towards using them. (I really stink at painting figures! I can barely draw a stick figure, for that matter!) The only workable tracks I could find for this kit were almost $80 a pair! That's not happening!

I started working on the lower hull, and have already come across a dilemma. The first and sixth roads wheel on each side have their own coil spring. The coil spring is attached to the hull with a bracket on each end of the coil spring. Only 1 bracket is molded into the spring, and the instructions say nothing about the other bracket. There is a slot molded into the back of the coil spring where another part should go, but no indication is given as to what that part is. Studying the instruction drawing and the sprue, I'm pretty sure that part #9 goes into the back of the spring.

 

As you can see here no mention of it is made on the instructions.

 

So before I make a big boo-boo, I thought I'd check with those of you who have built this kit as to whether I'm right or not. Thanks in advance!

Now, if you'll excuse me I have a few errands I need to attend to. I hate it when life gets in the way of modeling!

 

[Col.]

Tamiya's reputation for simple and effective kits should work in your favour for this one Good to see an AFV subject in the GB.

[flyboy2610]

I got the upper and lower hulls assembled to the point where I'm ready to prime them. I'll also prime the wheels and turret parts.

 

As I suspected, part #9 is the bracket for the other end of the suspension coil springs. How nice of Tamiya to make that clear in the directions! 🙄

 

I'll set up the spray booth tomorrow and do the priming. My local hobby shop's website said they had Vallejo IJF khaki in stock. That was a wasted trip! Ordered some online, it should be here in a few days.

[Geo1966]

Nice to see this one again. I remember making it as a youth, think i struggled with the camo 🙄

 

George

[modelling minion]

I have found these to be a strangely appealing tank ever since building the old Airfix one many years ago so I'm interested to see how this one turns out, its looking good so far.

[flyboy2610]

4 hours ago, Geo1966 said:

Nice to see this one again. I remember making it as a youth, think i struggled with the camo 🙄

 

George

I didn't have a problem with that.

I never painted my models! 😁

3 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I have found these to be a strangely appealing tank ever since building the old Airfix one many years ago so I'm interested to see how this one turns out, its looking good so far.

Thanks, mm! I haven't had any real issues yet!

[flyboy2610]

The parts have been primed with last of the Model Master gray acrylic primer I had. ☹️

 

Now I wait for the paints I ordered on eBay yesterday to show up. I ordered them yesterday at 1:09 PM, they left California at 4:48 this morning. The seller is burbankshouseofhobbies on eBay. This makes the 4th order I've paced with them, and they have always shipped within 1 day of my order. Highly recommend them if anyone is looking for an online hobby store.

[flyboy2610]

The epileptic baboon made another attempt at pre-shading.

 

Once the parts have dried for about an hour a base coat of Vallejo Model Air IJA Khaki Brown 71.287 will be applied.

Depending on the model subject I will either assemble most of the model and then paint it, or paint it and then assemble it. For aircraft I find it better to assemble then paint. For armor, or model with lots of nooks and crannies, I find it easier to paint and then assemble. When I built my Tamiya 1/35 T34/76 I assembled most of the parts and then tried to paint it. I found myself having to go back over a lot of places that I had missed. When I built my Monogram 1/35 M48A2 I painted and then assembled. I found that worked much better. So I don't have a set order of doing things. It depends on the subject.

I did find a set of workable tracks for this model made by Vision Models. A word of advice: don't buy them! I can't speak to any of the their other tracks for other tanks, but the set they make for this tank are not worth the price, or any price for that matter. They come as plastic links molded 8 to a sprue. You get 25 sprues for a total of 200 links. They assemble very easily, and that's part of the problem: they come apart just as easily, if not easier!

 

That was a waste of $36! I could try using a micro drill and drilling through an assembled link pair, the adding a thin wire and using CA to secure it to one end, much like Friul tracks. Trying to drill out 200 itsy bitsy holes is not my idea of fun, however!

Going to the Friul website  https://friulmodel.hu/ I found that they do indeed make a set for this tank. The only issue I have with their tracks is that you have to cut a roll of wire into individual lengths. This can destroy a set of cutters in no time! I had ordered a set of metal tracks that came with wire pins already cut to length for a 1/32 Monogram Panzer IV ( an upcoming project) from Acemodel-1 on eBay (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ssn=acemodel-1), basically because they were the only 1/32 tracks I could find for that kit.  I went to their eBay store and discovered that they make a set for this tank as well. I now have a set being slow-boated from the PRC.

So that's where this project is at the moment. It should be a bit more 'colorful' by the end of the day!

[Col.]

Is there plenty more work you can do to this project while awaiting the Acemodel-1 tracks or will that bring you to a natural pause soon?

[flyboy2610]

40 minutes ago, Col. said:

Is there plenty more work you can do to this project while awaiting the Acemodel-1 tracks or will that bring you to a natural pause soon?

I'll be able to finish everything but the tracks, so there's still plenty to do!

[flyboy2610]

The sudden flare-up of life craziness has temporarily abated, so I was finally able to start getting some paint on this tank. The color is Vallejo Model Air 71.287 IJA Khaki Brown. It seems a bit dark, but it is what it is I guess.

I got the upper and lower hulls painted, as well as the top of the turret. The turret base is still on the sprue, so that will be painted in the next go 'round. Hopefully tomorrow if I'm not too shagged out after 10 hours at work.

 

 

TTFN. (Ta-Ta for now!)

[modelling minion]

Painting looks very good so far.

[flyboy2610]

I've been busy with the airbrush and paint brush. I airbrushed everything that's going to be khaki brown, and hand painted the tires Vallejo Model Air 71.315 Tire Black. It's more of a gray-black than a pure black. The wheels that are still on the sprues still need the 'tread' area of the tires painted. My hand painting skills ain't what they used to was, that's for sure! A bit of black got onto the rim of the road wheels in more than one spot, but once installed and weathered they'll be fine. The teeth of the sprockets and the outer edge of the idler wheels got painted with VMA 71.065 Steel as the tracks would soon wear any paint or rust off of those areas.

 

Speaking of tracks, the ones I ordered on eBay still haven't shipped. It's been 8 days. The previous order I placed with them shipped promptly. I ordered a couple of items from Burbank's House of Hobbies in California via eBay yesterday. That order has already left the state. Patience, young Padawan.

[Col.]

Getting all the roadwheels done takes a lot of careful work with a steady hand. Nice to get them ready out of the way

[SoftScience]

My first model I had built by myself, way back around 1986/87! I will always have a soft spot for this kit. I recently built one again, and it has held up very well over the years. With your addition of the indy link tracks, this should be a crackerjack of a model. 

[flyboy2610]

17 hours ago, SoftScience said:

My first model I had built by myself, way back around 1986/87! I will always have a soft spot for this kit. I recently built one again, and it has held up very well over the years. With your addition of the indy link tracks, this should be a crackerjack of a model. 

Thank you! I've been working on it, just haven't had the gumption to post pics or updates. Been working long at work again.

[Col.]

2 hours ago, flyboy2610 said:

Thank you! I've been working on it, just haven't had the gumption to post pics or updates. Been working long at work again.

Are you planning to 'do an Enzo' and suddenly show us the finished model?

[flyboy2610]

12 hours ago, Col. said:

Are you planning to 'do an Enzo' and suddenly show us the finished model?

No, I'll get some pics of the current progress posted tomorrow.

[flyboy2610]

I got the wheels, turret, and hull painted. I still need to touch up the wheels where they were attached to the sprues. I decided to make this tank closed.

 

The idler wheels are glued in place, the drive sprocket are attached, but they have poly caps in them, so they can be removed.

 

The other side.

 

The fitment of the upper and lower hulls on the front end isn't the greatest.

 

The tab on the upper hull is in proper alignment with the plate on the bottom hull, however.

 

After the painting is done and the tracks are installed I'll glue the upper and lower hulls together. Then some putty and sanding will clean up that ill fitting joint.

My next step is going to be drawing the outline of the camouflage (or kam-o-flajjy, as Bugs Bunny used to pronounce it) with a fine point mechanical pencil. I'm going to hand paint the camouflage colors. The real tank was painted by hand in the field, so I'm going to hand paint the model. Missed spots and all! 😁

 

And now the site won't embed the links. I'll try and fix that later.(Edit 2:37 PM: All is much more gooder now!)

Edited August 24 by flyboy2610

[Col.]

All looks good for sure

[flyboy2610]

9 minutes ago, Col. said:

All looks good for sure

Thank you!

[modelling minion]

She looks great, looking forward to the rest of the camo scheme.

[flyboy2610]

6 hours ago, modelling minion said:

She looks great, looking forward to the rest of the camo scheme.

Thank you! The plan for today is touch up some of the more sparse areas of the IJA Dark Green (Vallejo Model Air 71.285) and then start on the red-brown. Vallejo doesn't seem to make an IJA red-brown, so I'm going to use VMA German red-brown, 71.271. The story is that Japan ran out, so they had some FedEx'ed over from Germany. That's my story and I'm stuck with it.

Edited August 25 by flyboy2610

[Col.]

2 hours ago, flyboy2610 said:

Vallejo doesn't seem to make an IJA red-brown, so I'm going to use VMA German red-brown, 710271. The story is that Japan ran out, so they had some FedEx'ed over from Germany. That's my story and I'm stuck with it.

I wonder how many of us, or indeed anyone, would notice the difference if you hadn't told us

[flyboy2610]

After spending some quality time with the hairy stick, this is where the tank is now:

 

The wheels and suspension arms are laid out in their relative positions to the tank. The camo colors extend down the sides of the hull to the bottom edge. The wheels and arms are painted for the camo colors on that spot on the tank. I don't know why the Japanese did that, but the Tamiya color guide clearly shows it, as does this video of a museum tank:

 

I'm going with a late war scheme, and by that time the yellow stripe was no longer being used. I still need to do some touch up with the tire black color.

Once the paint has thoroughly dried, I'll give the model a coat or two gloss clear, then apply the decals and panel liner. Once that's done, a couple coats of flat clear will seal everything and provide a good base for a dusting of light gray pastel chalk to tone down the colors, followed by another coat of flat clear to seal the chalk. Then some weathering.

Getting to the fun stage now!