1/35 Takom Type 69-II

[doogsatx/]

Started this one a while back, but it got sidelined by the Dauntless. Time to bring it back!

Overall, it builds up reasonably well - not as precise as Meng or the latest and greatest from Trumpeter, but totally workable.



Rather than the kit's extremely lame non-workable indy links, I opted to go with Masterclub's new metal tracks (with resin track pins). Just one problem - cleanup city.



But once they're cleaned up, they're awesome.



That's about where I left things. Coming back around, it's been all about adding the basket armor and slogging through some scratchbuilding.



The example I'm aiming at has two prominent features that need scratchwork. First is the front lightbox. The curved, corrugated piece that's standard on these must have been knocked off or something, so a new, boxy steel one was fitted. The other feature is what I'm calling the smokebox - an extension fitted onto the exhaust with plumbing pipe running up to the front of the tank. I believe to throw smokescreens.

[Leon]

Nice scratch work there Doogs!

[doogsatx/]

Fun with the 90-degree elbows last night. After some aborted attempts, I ended up heating some styrene rod over a candle, then smash-bending it against the edge of a shelving unit. Then cutting to length and drilling out the ends. Very tedious but seemed to get the job done.

[tobias5555]

Very cool work so far

[doogsatx/]

Fumbling toward primer. Spent a good part of last night getting the IR light sorted (what a pain), but also took some time to add some flanged ends to the pipe elbows. Weapon of choice - 0.4mm Aizu tape. I figure that schedule 40 elbows aren't exactly the paragon of smoothness anyway, so the bit of texture from the tape will work out just right once paint goes down.

[doogsatx/]

Primer is down - next step is going to be figuring out all the different undertones I want to work in for chipping purposes. There are some rust and very dark metal tones, but also several varieties of gray as well.

[doogsatx/]

Had a bit of an aha moment yesterday - the Type 69-II was in all likelihood delivered to Iraq in a basic green. A Chinese version of Russian 4BO, basically. You can see this in tons of pictures of 69s where the sand/tan colors applied have chipped away to reveal that the green "camo" is in fact the base color.

So in addition to rust and some gray tones, I've decided to start with the base green. 4BO seems rather too yellow, so instead I grabbed a "close enough" SEA Dark Green.

[doogsatx/]

More basecoating underway - lots of fun tones to play with before I put down chipping fluid.

[doogsatx/]

"Underchipping" I guess you'd call this.

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

Lookin Good

[deafpanzer]

Man, it is really looking great!

[406 Silverado]

Off to a good start. Really like the painting effects. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

[jsteinman]

[wing_nut]

Looks like this one is still on hold. Would like to see it going again.