1/35 M70A2 Krueger MBT, Desert Storm, 1991

[Jakko]

Of course, when you think said you’re done, you remember there’s more to add:



Aside from the firing mechanism, which I made by just gluing a piece of some or another leftover kit part to the underside of the mounting with more stretched sprue up to the trigger lever, I had forgotten I also needed to add electrical wiring. So that required a distributor-type thing (also on the real gun, but not in the location where I put mine) and copper wire for cables. The thick one running off to the bottom of the mount is supposed to represent the power supply cable, and is the same as the others except wrapped in very thin wire. It won’t go anywhere, just run out of sight Then there’s the rectangular funnel-like things at the bottoms of the chutes, which are just more plastic strip filed and scraped into shape.



This is both parts of the turret. To the lower part, I added a power cable too, running to behind where the upper part attaches so it also won’t actually go anywhere but look like it does. The struts are plastic strip, with a triangular frame at the bottom, and the ammo box glued straight to those. I’ll leave the parts separate until after painting, so I can just stick the lids onto the turret and spray it with the rest of the model. The upper mounting needs to be black while the turret is to be green (on the inside anyway). Only after all that will I add the ammo belt and the lower half of the spent casings chute.

Here is the lower part in the main turret:

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Well, like Scottie, I also think it is superb
Jim

 

[Jakko]

I’m calling the build done, so it’s on to the painting. Here’s an overview of the model in its unpainted state first, though:



The wheels are missing because they’re still on the sprue.

I then gave all the pieces except the tracks and wheels a coat of Games Workshop Corax White primer from an aerosol can:



This turned up a few small defects that I need to fix before I can starting properly painting, so that will probably have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[scottie3158]

I’m calling the build done, so it’s on to the painting. Here’s an overview of the model in its unpainted state first, though:

View attachment 355493View attachment 355494View attachment 355495View attachment 355496View attachment 355497

The wheels are missing because they’re still on the sprue.

I then gave all the pieces except the tracks and wheels a coat of Games Workshop Corax White primer from an aerosol can:

View attachment 355498

This turned up a few small defects that I need to fix before I can starting properly painting, so that will probably have to wait until tomorrow.

Jakko, looking good.

 

[Jakko]

I put on a coat of forest green yesterday evening, the first time I tried using Mig paint (no. 065). It seems to spray well enough, though I’m not all that impressed with it.




As you can see, I sprayed the sides and underside of the hull, the backs of the wheels and side skirts, the inside of the remote turret and a few more bits. Basically, everything that would be out of reach of the spray gun when overpainting the real tank, plus the outer sides of a few of the wheels so they can represent replacements.

Also, I sprayed the inside of the well for the remote turret white, as it has that colour on the KPz 70 prototype I used photos of to detail the turret. However, it looks like this paint has made the fit so tight that i almost couldn't get the turret off the model anymore. I’ll have to scrape it out before fitting it for real after painting.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
That is a great, super detailed model. Glad to see the painting started.
It is so annoying when a perfect fit becomes a tight fit after a couple of coats of paint.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

And here it is with a coat of Mission Models MMP-038 US Desert Tan Modern 2 FS 33446:

 

[Jakko]

I finally got round to doing more work on this one, starting with adding some shading around the detail:



I’ve only done the front of the hull, and so still need to do everything behind the turret ring, the suspension, the turret and the mine plough. The technique I used was to wet the area with white spirit using a big brush, then flowing thinned enamel paint into the edges with a fine brush. The paint I used for this was somewhat elderly:



Humbrol No. 72 Matt Khaki Drill, a tin from probably the 1970s but new enough that it has a number and not a letter-number code (for the real old-timers, this colour used to be HM8 ).

 

[Jakko]

Heh, only a bit over two years before I got back to this. Must be a new record for me (in terms of how short this was ). The other day, I began by highlighting the centres of the various panels by spraying a pale tan into them, mixed from a light sand colour and white:



I’ve been dissatisfied with the Mig Forest Green I used on the hull and some other bits ever since I put it on a few years ago. It’s too light and too bright, I think, to use as US Forest Green, FS 34079, which it does seem to want to be. I did some digging today and learned that Humbrol 116 is apparently a decent match for the real colour, and I happen to have a tin of it. So, I decided to brush-paint the green parts that are or may be visible on the finished model with it. See the difference:

 

[Jakko]

Once the green had dried, I applied an overall wash of a dark tan colour over the tank. Two years ago, I originally began lining in the detail using Humbrol 72, but it’s a technique I don’t particularly like because it’s so laborious and hard to feather the shadows into the rest of the paintwork. This time round, after the highlighted panels I decided to mix up a similar colour from three parts Vallejo US Field Drab and two parts Hataka MRG Stone, liberally thinned with water and applied as a wash over the whole model:



Unfortunately, with such washes you need to be careful of build-up along lower edges, and I wasn’t careful enough:



That will need to be fixed, of course. First, though, I decided to drybrush the whole model with a pale sand colour, Army Painter Skeleton Bone, to create highlights:



While I had that out, I very heavily drybrushed — almost wet-brushed — the affected area, and that luckily got rid of most of the stain:



The following step was to drybrush the model again, but more lightly, for further highlights. For this I used an old and long discontinued paint, Rackham Noesis White, which is a sandy off-white:



In the flesh it’s a bit more obvious than it looks in the photo. And I just remembered I forgot to do the side skirts with the second drybrush …

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
I don't remember this although looking back I've posted on the thread
Looks good. The paint job/weathering is coming on nicely. Acrylic, water based washes always risk tide marks and pooling even with a wetting agent. Actually what is left of the stain looks quite acceptable.
Jim

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,

Coming on nicely where you have dry brushed the tide mark, it adds to the natural patina.

 

[Jakko]

Thanks. The remains of the stain look enough like actual dirt or other staining that I’m not going to try and obliterate it entirely. If the heavy drybrushing hadn't worked I think I would have repainted it instead, though without the sprayed highlight.

 

[Jakko]

Markings applied from a set by Echelon, intended for the M1A1 Abrams and applied in pretty much the same locations as they were on that in the real world:



Because they were rather glossy, I brushed some matt varnish over them once they had dried.

The markings on the ammo cans on the rear of the turret are from the Tamiya M1A1 kit that I got the mine plough and gun barrel from. I don’t know if the real tank whose markings I used, had these, but I like the look of them and I think it makes it clearer that there was only a three-man crew.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Right or wrong those ammo can decals are a nice touch. Looking great, almost done.
Jim

 

[Jakko]

The beauty of a model like this is that you can’t really get it wrong, of course I beg to differ about the “almost done”, though … there’s still a good amount of work in terms of detail painting, chipped paint, stowage and crew to do.

 

[Jim R]

Ah well maybe not "almost done" but better than "you're off to a good start".
Jim

 

[Jakko]

The tracks alone were a good deal of work I had already sprayed them Tamiya NATO Black (a very dark grey) and then gave them a coat of Indian ink to deepen the rubber colour. Next, I began to wonder how to paint the metal parts — pictures of M1 Abrams tanks in Saudi Arabia showed all-black (painted) tracks, but also rusted ones. Looking closer at photos, it appears to me that the black tracks were mostly in the build-up phase of the war, before they started to wear. The rusted ones similarly appeared to be mainly before the war, and once it was over — then I began to notice that in pictures taken during the actual fighting, the metal parts of M1 tracks were often bare, shiny metal. Probably because of the sand they drove through a lot at that time, polishing the tracks.

With that in mind, I first painted the metal bits medium grey, but not covering absolutely all the black:



Notice that I only painted the bits that will be on view, or almost so. No point in painting areas you can’t see, if you ask me.

Over that went a medium shade of metal colour, Games Workshop Boltgun Metal, again not perfectly covering what went before:



The third step to making the tracks look like bare metal, was to add a liberal coating of Army Painter Strong Tone. This is a fairly dark transparent colour, very similar to Tamiya Smoke but thinner and it dries matt rather than glossy. This photo shows the difference between a side of the track painted with it and one without:



And the whole tracks:



That done, I drybrushed the rubber parts of the tracks twice, once with dark grey and then more lightly with a lighter shade of dark grey:

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Tracks are looking good.

 

[adt70hk]

Looking very good Jakko. Well done.

Andrew