Tamiya 3.5 Ton Truck and Flak Gun

[tcoat]

On another forum the challenge was put out to build a model without getting all tied up with things such as seam filling, perfect alignment, photoetch and added detailing. This will be a completely OOB build to meet those criteria. I do however reserve the right to give it a nice paint job.







I had no big plans for this kit and the only reason I bought it was it looked interesting and was dirt cheap so it is perfect for this.







Going to build using only this.





Gun done. One hour 12 minutes. Only reached for sanding stick and tweezers about 100 times.












Chassis done. I almost feel like I am cheating! The truck is an ICM kit packaged by Tamiya. First ICM kit I have ever built and I WILL be getting more. Bit fiddly with loads of small parts but engineered really well and detail is off the charts. In the spirt of the exercise everything will get glued together in large sub assemblies and then painted. Chassis was 2 hours 18 minutes

[Leon]

Looking good!

[mustang1989]

That is indeed a TON of parts going into this one Tony. One thing that caught my attention was that Tamiya is boxing ICM kits. Interesting.

[Tobi]

Interesting project. OOB extreme.

[tcoat]

Cab done. Top and rear will go on after interior detail painting.







I am pretty sure that the glue bombs of the past were more due to a lack of tweezers for precision placement. The glue around the pedals is from trying to place very tiny parts with just my finger. It is extra thin cement so will disappear under paint but normally it would not happen at all.

[tcoat]

Box done. That was an adventure!







Nice ejector marks but the whole idea was to not worry about such things so there they stay.

[tcoat]

Almost forgot to post paint pictures!



Had something go dreadfully wrong with my panzer grey Tamiya acrylic. Normally would have stopped but since the whole premise of this build is minimalist and what ever happens happens I just carried on as if I was 8 again. We will see what happens with it in the weathering process.



Looks worse in the pictures than it really is.




You can see where I started to do the tinted Future wash before I remembered to take pictures

[tcoat]

Gun painted in dark yellow. Since the grey was no good and this whole build was intended to be done with what was on hand I figured this was the way to go. Just means I have modeled an older truck with a newer gun. No doubt these transitional things were pretty common. At least that is what I am going with.



The paint is so close to the plastic colour it is hard to tell it was painted at all

[ogrejohn]

Looking good!

[tcoat]

Tinted Future on everything. Subtle but makes details show.













Selective brown wash. There is a difference I promise.











And the crew in Future and wash. They will magically transform with a flat coat.

[armornutii]

Now that is one AWESOME " turd". Well done Tcoat.

[tcoat]

Mar 20, 2023 19:25:04 GMT -5 armornutii said:

Now that is one AWESOME " turd". Well done Tcoat.

During this build I managed without sprue snips
I struggled with small parts with no tweezers.
I almost gave in when I had spots I knew I could have made "better" with two swipes of a sanding stick.
I soldiered on with bad paint know I could live with it.
I stuck to my guns and used nothing but a knife and one paintbrush through the whole thing.

But...
I will NEVER try to do decals without tweezers again! EVER!!! I woke up screaming in the night last night due to the experience and there were only 3 decals!

[jeaton01]

That's cheating, it's a Tamiya kit. Now go back in your corner with a Special Hobby kit!

But it looks good, tweezers or no.

[mustang1989]

Now this is a concept in modeling that I haven't seen before. I'm liking all that I see but hear what you're saying about decals and tweezers. lol. Screaming in the night.....lmao!!

Looking forward to the figure transformation after the flat coat.

[Tobi]

Next time try to paint the model without an airbrush!
That's one of my personal challenges I plan to do in the future. Though I decided to cheat with spray cans. 

[mustang1989]

Mar 21, 2023 1:55:00 GMT -5 Tobi said:

Next time try to paint the model without an airbrush!
That's one of my personal challenges I plan to do in the future. Though I decided to cheat with spray cans. 

I think I'd have to do the same thing. lol 

[Tobi]

It's my plan to demonstrate that you can achieve an appealing model even without the expensive airbrush equipment.
For Wehrmacht for example, even soft edge camo is possible by using brushes and pastels, sealed with clear coat from a can (no way around that, I'm afraid).
We'll see when and how I'm able to tackle this project.

[tcoat]

Mar 20, 2023 21:00:51 GMT -5 jeaton01 said:

That's cheating, it's a Tamiya kit. Now go back in your corner with a Special Hobby kit!

But it looks good, tweezers or no.

That was how I felt at first as well but then once I got going reality set in.

The AA gun is Tamiya from the 1980s so it was in the transition era from models going from toys to more scale replicas. There are several things about it that many a modern day modeler would like to improve on. Things such as the total lack of detail on the bottom of the carriage, the one scale inch thick shell feed tray, the unhinged armour on the right side, the lack of threads on the adjustable ground pads, the globular optical sights, and so on would send some into fits of depression. Many would indeed call this gun a "turd" nowadays when built right out of the box.

The truck is not Tamiya at all. It is ICM and the total opposite of the gun. It is a highly detailed model but has compromises to get there. Many parts that would be one piece in most kits, even today, are made up of 3 or four almost  microscopic components. The truck box supports and frame look really nice when together but getting them there with their many, many pieces is an adventure. None of this would be a big deal if I had all of my tools to work with but something as simple as cutting a very tiny and delicate window winder off the sprue and then placing it into glue with nothing but a dullish exacto knife and your fingers becomes an exercise in futility. I now know why my kits as a kid were covered in glue. It wasn't so much that I used a lot of it but sliding parts around with your fingers results in a glue bomb of massive proportions. The smaller the parts are the more glue that ends up everywhere especially when there is just so many of them. 

Now, this sounds like I am complaining but I assure you I am not! Since I had no special attachment nor plans for this kit I let my inner 8 year old loose for the build. I literally chopped pieces off and stuck them on with only the clean up I could do with the knife. They mostly fit nicely but if you look really closely you will see that the hydraulic cylinders on the gun have huge gaps and the truck bed sides are not perfectly seated (among many other little things). If I hadn't insisted on painting the figures the whole thing would have been done in about 14 hours over the weekend which is about what 8 year old me would have taken for a kit with that many parts. If I had given it the whole works I probably would have taken that long just to finish the gun alone. Overall this was an absolute blast to do and even though I often build OOB for a casual weekend  intermission from big projects the restrictions I placed on myself for this build upped the ante to a new level.  

[tcoat]

Mar 21, 2023 1:55:00 GMT -5 Tobi said:

Next time try to paint the model without an airbrush!
That's one of my personal challenges I plan to do in the future. Though I decided to cheat with spray cans. 

The airbrush was my one concession to modern building tools. I did however restrict myself to whatever paints I had on hand. The "German" grey Tamiya acrylic I had stored away was obviously bad (it is probably at least 10 years old) but in the spirit of the exercise I poured in the lacquer thinner until I could at least get it through the airbrush and sprayed it straight onto the plastic. I don't really know how it managed to get those lumps through but it did! It only got one coat as I ran out and since it was so thinned yet chunky at the same time the adhesion is probably the worst I have ever had. The dried paint would chip off if I laid the model on the edge of anything harder than a kleenex. The result is that very bumpy finish that 8 year old me would have been happy with but at 10 years old the model would have been regulated to the BB gun range as a derelict target. I probably would have been better off brush painting it really. 

I do actually still brush paint many things. Most cockpits, engines, chassis and vehicle interiors I do are actually all brush painted. I just use the airbrush for large surfaces due to the time it takes to brush paint them properly. 

[tcoat]

Mar 20, 2023 21:34:38 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

Now this is a concept in modeling that I haven't seen before. I'm liking all that I see but hear what you're saying about decals and tweezers. lol. Screaming in the night.....lmao!!

Looking forward to the figure transformation after the flat coat.

Crew with flat coat and badges painted.

Guy in front right appears to have found some mushrooms on the side of the road and now thinks the universe is in his hand. This does amuse his buddy beside him though.

[armornutii]

Magic shrooms LOL, the guy behind him is giving the thumbs up while the last feller is saying " I can't believe I'm with you schmucks".

[mustang1989]

That flat coat really did the trick Tony. Interesting and most effective method. These small figures look GREAT!! 

[tcoat]

Mar 22, 2023 19:05:06 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

That flat coat really did the trick Tony. Interesting and most effective method. These small figures look GREAT!! 

I  like figures for scale and to add life and story but am not a figure painter. I apply my "what can you really see from scale distance away" rue to them In 1/35 scale the view would be from 30feet. What can you really see on a person from 30 feet away? The face and cloths will consist mostly of shadows not white eyes, red lips and individual buttons or straps. The tinted future gives that shadow effect without stark contrasts. 

[tcoat]

All done.



Total working time 22 hours 19 minutes.



Tools consisted of a dull exacto knife, a worn out medium brush, and two toothpicks (I broke one).



Although it does look pretty good all things considered it would certainly be considered a "turd" by my normal standards.



The gun could have used some thinning on several parts, hydraulic lines and filler on some seams.



The truck's paint is horrid, several parts are slightly warped and there is shiny super glue left uncoated on many small parts. Worst of all is that the front wheels have the stance of an 18 year old's Honda Civic!



I really enjoyed this basic build!

[mustang1989]

All things considered, this one didn't turn out half bad Tony. There are the things that you pointed out about shiny glue showing and parts needing to be thinned. As for the negative camber on the front wheel/ tire assemblies you could honestly chalk that up to wear and tear on the front suspension in the rough terrain. All in all, with the tools you had to work with, it turned out well and I learned a few things along the way.

[tcoat]

Mar 24, 2023 17:11:26 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

All things considered, this one didn't turn out half bad Tony. There are the things that you pointed out about shiny glue showing and parts needing to be thinned. As for the negative camber on the front wheel/ tire assemblies you could honestly chalk that up to wear and tear on the front suspension in the rough terrain. All in all, with the tools you had to work with, it turned out well and I learned a few things along the way.

I am half tempted to enter it in the IPMS show this Sunday just to see if any of the judges have a stroke!

[Tobi]

Go for Gold! 

[Whiterook]

This is an interesting subject… I love seeing kits I had no idea existed. Great work sticking with it!!!

[kyledehart5]

I love this idea and what a great result you achieved. Too cool.

[moparmadness]

Ooh I like this one!