Fine Molds Type 3 Chi-Nu, 1:35

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Jakko and love the Jig.

ATB.

Andrew

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Looks good. I like the track jig. I think some manufacturers supply a jig with their tracks? Probably a good idea.
Jim

[Guest]

These are the first Friuls I’ve ever built, and I’m not overly thrilled with them. That they don’t supply a jig is fine by me, I’m a modeller so I can make my own if I need one But the amount of cleanup was more than I expected, about as much work as for many plastic links, but more fiddly because of having to drill out the holes for the pins.

[Guest]

Slight update on the jig: I made two improvements that make it much easier to use. One is to put a pencil line on it to indicate how far to fill it with ten links so that I don’t need to count them — it’s long enough that it will probably hold twelve links at a squeeze, but I only want ten so I can easily count how much track I’ve made. The second is to cut a little wedge of the same balsa, so that after putting in ten links, I can wedge them all in and prevent them moving while I add the wire. This has made assembly far easier.

[Guest]

After the lacquer paint fiasco this one went rather on the back burner, but today, as I was spraying my M4A2 Sherman, I also put the camouflage onto the Chi-Nu:

[ATTACH]449265[/ATTACH][ATTACH]449266[/ATTACH]

Though I have the Mr. Paint set of Japanese colours, I wasn’t about to try those again, so instead, I opened the two remaining bottles, stirred them and then found paints in my collection that came close: Vallejo armour brown (for German AFVs) and olive drab (a bottle I found too pale and too green for American vehicles, despite having the same number as one with a much better colour in it). The pale line on the top of the turret is not intentional, but I hope to fix (or at least hide ) that later when I add lighter patches inside all three colours.

The camouflage pattern is as per the instructions, but because those only include front, left and rear views, the top and right side are partly based on what I could make out, and partly complete conjecture.

Oh, and I also managed to knock the right headlight off the tank

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Nice to see this with some paint. Looks good.
Jim

[Guest]

I really need to get this one finished, but my lack of enthusiasm for airbrushing in general combined with the lacquer paint troubles has kept it from getting more paint on it so far …

[Jack L]

Good to see this back on the go.

[scottie3158]

Jakko looking good.

[Guest]

Thanks I continued painting today, adding highlights to the three colours:

[ATTACH]449361[/ATTACH]

This was very much a struggle, though. Already as I was adding a bit more paint to my M4A2, the airbrush wasn’t cooperating too well, and by the time I had this one half done, I was having a very difficult time getting any paint out of it beyond spattering After that it only got worse, spraying not at all or to one side, but nothing usable despite pulling the needle out, removing the nozzle, cleaning both and the paint cup — several times. In the end I gave up, chucked the airbrush into the ultrasonic cleaner for fifteen minutes, cleaned it out by hand some more, and then tried spraying again. That time it worked fine, so I re-sprayed all the highlights (with slightly different colours) to hide the first attempt

[stillp]

What fluid did you use in the ultrasonic Jakko?
Pete

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
I reckon even the best maintained airbrush will need a good strip down and clean every now and then. I'm always amazed at how much gunk comes out in the ultrasonic bath from a supposedly clean airbrush.
Glad it's sorted and you've done a fine job.
Jim

[Guest]

What fluid did you use in the ultrasonic Jakko?

Water with a splash from a bottle of ultrasonic cleaner fluid I bought a few years ago. Not sure what’s in it, exactly, as I don’t have the bottle here with me in the living room, but IIRC it’s fairly high-pH

I reckon even the best maintained airbrush will need a good strip down and clean every now and then.

This one hadn’t had a bath at all since I bought it, so I think you’re right

[The Smythe Meister]

Hi Jakko,
Only just seen this, looking very nice indeed mate,I do like that "feather edge" type style,much more pleasing to o the eye than the hard edge approach imo,
Good stuff,
Andy

[Guest]

After the camouflage, I added an overall wash to add shading:

[ATTACH]449483[/ATTACH]

This was complicated by the different colours in the camouflage, because using the same colour of wash on green as on brown is probably going to cause unwanted colour shifts or odd effects. I used Mig wash for olive drab over the green and “parched grass” (the yellowish-greenish-brown base colour), straight from the bottle, but thinned-down (about 1:1) Army Painter soft tone on the brown. Important there with soft-edged camouflage, I think, is to make sure you apply the second before the first has had time to fully dry, so that they will run into each other a little where they meet. This will disguise the line between them, so it doesn’t end up as a hard edge.

When this had dried overnight, I drybrushed each of the camouflage patches with a lighter version of the colour to bring out highlights:

[ATTACH]449484[/ATTACH]

Oh, and to come back to the question of what I put into the ultrasonic cleaner:

[ATTACH]449485[/ATTACH]

This is the bottle I poured a little from into the cleaner’s tank before adding plain tap water. It says (at the top left of the label, partly out of sight here) that it’s “special cleaner for ultrasound”, and has pH 9.9, apparently when mixed as a 1% solution. It’s also only for professional use … so I guess I should put it away and never touch it again