Hello chaps, not much armour about at the minute, so to balance it up....A couple of weeks or so ago, I was given this Tamiya 1/35 Chieftain Mk 1/2/3/5 (take your pick!) by number 2 son for my birthday, so I wanted to do something special to it by way of a thank you...... Don't tell him about the flaws in the model, he won't know any more than I did!
I found this amazing paint job on 'tinternet, I didn't even know it existed. I just had to have a stab at it! It was first tried out by the Western Powers in 1982 during the Cold War and was in general use after that year. The painting was done 'In the field', is very sharp edged and not very fussily applied either! It is very much like the 'Dazzle' scheme found on WW1 warships (There's a challenge for the WW1 build) and was found to be very effective!?
For a suitable backdrop I had a look on the web for images of 'The Berlin Wall' and from various pictures on there I scratch built a section of that dreadful structure from a single piece of polystyrene sheet, as is the cobbled road and pavement. The detail is done with my scalpel,and a blunt pencil. The runny mortar joints were done using a bit of card and a sloppy mix of polyfilla and allowed to run down where it liked, then the whole wall was painted with cheapo children's watercolours. The barbed wire on the top of the wall is the copper wire from a bit of electric cable.
The tank is all brush painted completely free hand ( no masking tape) with Vallejo Model Colour acrylics and the details with Humbrol Enamels.
Having seen close up the tanks at Cosford, no more will I worry about the paint finish and general appearance on these monsters. Talk about rough...
Due to it only rumbling around streets and the like, I have kept the weathering to a minimum, just giving the skirts bottoms a dusty, rained on sort of look, likewise with the tracks and I did a bit of work on the exhausts. I then gave the whole model a light dusting with a bit of grey dry powder tile adhesive...Then blew on it!
As this was a pure tank painting exercise, I have omitted the crew.
I make no excuses for the numerous pictures 'cos I'm well chuffed with the result. It was by far the most difficult and complicated model painting I have ever attempted....even harder than Major Wick's Bf109 stipple, and I just want to show everyone! Sorry if that's over the top but "Aam shmokin'!!!.....
I have a few pictures of the painting stages if anyone would like a more detailed description of how I managed it. If so, I will do a quick separate 'mini' thread to compliment this one.
So here is the finished tank for your viewing. I hope you like it.....FREEDOM FOR BERLIN!
Cheer all,
Ron
), John