Tamiya Chieftain Mk. V 1/35
An old kit and a young kid come together fairly well to make this. I did very light reading on the kit and saw various people saying this kit is relatively in accurate. How it is inaccurate, I don't know, but I think the kit is quite nice. It probably doesn't hold up too great to the more recent Takom release, but I'm not a super history or accuracy buff.
This is my second tank, I have several previous models of planes and ships . Everything went together well, although fitting in the polycaps that hold the road wheels and return rollers in was a little difficult. Other minor things with the kits is that some details were probably a little thick, but considering this kit is over double my age it's somewhat expected. I do wish they provided more than one jerrycan or something else to put on the tank.
I feel I overdid the dirt on the sideskirts. As this is my second tank, I'm still trying to get the hang of the dry pigments. I'm hoping to buy either the Tamiya panel liner or oil paints to do a little streaking and just give a little more tonal variation. The camouflage also isn't quite correct as the British camouflage has sharp edges rather than the soft edges of an airbrush.
Other things like having an actual area to take pictures would be nice instead of me holding the model under the warm yellow light of my bedroom. Also the box that the Cheiftain is sitting on is the next model I'm working on, an equally old kit.
I'll probably put more pictures in later.
A fine build of a classic Tamiya armour kit, I think your weathering looks great.
Can't beat those Tamiya armor kits - no matter where ya take the pictures - 🙂
Well done, William! Take it from me, an old tanker (M48A5s, M60A1s, M60A3s, M1s, M1A1s, then M1A1HA) you did NOT put too much mud on this nicely done tank! I've been on field problems where it took 3-4 HOURS to clean off all the mud off my tank! (And we used 2" or 6 cm FIREHOSES with a LOT of H2O pressure!)
If anything, you need MORE mud splattered on the top of the hull with a little on the sides of the turret. That would be right and would go along with the amount of "mud" effect you used on the sides, front, and rear of your tank. And don't forget a LITTLE, but not much on the underside of the gun barrel in front of the hull. Louis Gardner would be a good supplier of information about tanks. He is an ex-tanker, too.
I was thinking I overdid it in the sense that the amount on the side skirts doesn’t match what’s on the hull and the turret. I was thinking of having lighter dirt and mud as I’m not too sure how mud splashes on to the hull and turret naturally. I’ve seen many pictures and have an idea but I also don’t know how I would go about recreating that. Good information though, and thank you for it.
You can't make a tank too dirty. This looks great.
Pay no attention to those who whine about it being inaccurate. It looks like a chieftain to me and to the majority of others I reckon.
A very nice build! A modeler's life is one experiment after another, and each model improves a bit on the one before.
A great build! the weathering looks fine.
Agreed. The mud looks great to me. And I agree with Greg, it’s all experimentation and if you like, it’s a good job.
Nice build mate, I like a dirty tank!
I just noticed this article. It looks good to me !
Like Jeff said... his comments were spot on.
I'm an old tanker too. Spent most of my time in M-60 A1's. Then I had a few months in M-1A1's. It was like going from a VW bus to a Ferrari.
The old M-60 was still a good tank. The ones I served in were pretty dependable. Like anything else if it's old it will break. It's how you care for it that determines how it operates.
I miss them. But not the cleaning part. We spent hours trying to get them cleaned and repaired after taking them out in the field.
Believe me, the inside gets just as dirty as the outside does.
A tankers life is not very clean ...
William, the weathering looks good to me! As does the tank.