M109A6 Paladin 1/35 [Italeri] OOB -Finished-

[APC227]

Good evening gentlemen!

Today i have something special for you because it is unspecial
I'm sure the Italeri Paladin is common to everyone because Italeri was the only manufacturer who offered a Paladin in 1/35 for a long time. Because of that, there are trillions of products from the aftermarket to detail up this tank.
So what i am trying to do this time is, building this ol' Italeri kit completely OOB and try to score the best result with it!

M109A6 Paladin

The heavy self-propelled artillery gun M-109 is the most reiable and most widely used vehicle of its category used by the U.S. forces and most Western countries. The U.S. Army, in order to keep this gun in service into the next century, is presently developing this new version. It has a more powerful engine and a new turret which is equipped with sophisticated turret control and firing systems equipment. The Paladin is also able to user laser and satellitr guided ammunition.



Technical Specifications

Crew: 6 Man
Weight: 23,5 t
Engine: Turbo-Diesel 8V71T 262 kW (356 PS)
Speed: 56 km/h
Range: 350 km
Length/Width/Height: 11,4m x 3,18m x 3,1 m
Armor: Welded aluminum
Caliber: 155mm

Model Kit Facts

Scale: 1/35
Skill: Easy
Parts: ~272
Length: 20.1cm
Material: Plastic
Steps: 12
Decals: Present
PE: Not present
Clear Parts: Not present
Extras: 2 Nets

The Kit

Boxart


How it is packaged


All parts we do have


Chaaaarge!

APC227

[KalebBeard]

Ze Paladin! This thing is gonna look just plain Cracking!

[APC227]

It is already cracking up my workplace

Building the Kit

I've started with the attaching of the lower hull - after i have read exemplary the warning advises of course. The lower hull is made up of 5 parts, and there are no big problems with attaching them. There is a little gap in the front however, which has to be filled in with putty.



Italeri says that you have to remove some details from the frontal part of the lower hull. Since boxart and prototype model still have these details, i looked up for photos from the real tank. What i saw is; all "reallife" Paladin tanks don't have these things in the front, so in that case we can trust Italeri. But i am wondering why they even have put in these thing.





After the lower hull i've started to build the wheels. We have 14 Wheels, 2 lead and 2 back wheels. Each wheel is made up of 3 parts, and there are no matching problems with them as well. What i don't like about the wheels are the details. The detailing is really cheap made, and i was thinking about to order some aftermarket wheels for the Paladin. But since i decided to build it completely out of box, i need to get through it.



After the wheels are finished, i attached the upper hull. I can recommend to glue on the wheels in the very end after everything is finished. This will make your painting and weathering way more comfortable afterwards.



That's it for now, thanks for your interest! More will follow tomorrow!

APC227

[APC227]

Update

After the wheels got stored for later, it was time for me to put on all the details for the lower hull. It wasn't that much, so this doesn't took me that long and i reached pretty fast the attaching of the turret. Once again, there are absolutely no matching problems with the detail parts aswell!

The turret itself is very easy detailed, but all parts are fitting well together. It contains about 14 parts, including barrel. The barrel was an another thing i wanted to replace, but well...OOB is OOB.









All i have to do now is to glue on all the details for the turret, and then we are ready for painting!
More will follow soon!

APC227

[schweinhund227]

Keep up the good work !

[gustavlekstal]

Great thread! Thanks for taking your time to give some info. Good luck on the continuous work!

[APC227]

Thank you so much guys!

Update

I found some errors! Well that's not a good thing after all but...at least i can warn you then
I found 2 mistakes in the instruction sheet: The first one says a number for a shovel which doesn't exist. It tells you you need number 104A, but at the sprue, we don't have a 104 - at least not in the right position. So we take the longer one here.





Second mistake is a wrong letter. It tells you 90E. Instead, it is 90C.



After we survived the errors, we had to bomb the turret with details parts. There is a lot of them! But still, excellent matching, but easy details. There were no problems with attaching the rest of the parts, so i don't have to mention anything here. The nets were very good as well! There is no big need of replacing them with PE parts in my opinion.







Here we do have all parts we don't need.



God damn it! That thing is huge! Now we are reaching the part which i don't like - painting/weathering. :c
I will take a short break before i start with the painting. Until then - stay focused folks!

APC227

[APC227]

Update

So i finally managed to continue with my work xD. I gave my model a black primer "Chaos Black" from citadel for first shading effects.



Like i said, the black primer was supposed to give first shading effects so i can leave the edges and details of the model a little black if i am going with the airbrush. But my airbrush decided to be an donkey to me, so i was forced to cover the entire model with the main color, without any color modulations or shading.



After that, i have painted all details with several colors from different companies. I airbrushed 2 medium codes of Alclad 2 klear kote gloss, applied the few decals, protected them with liquid decal film from microsale, and finished them off with another soft code of Alclad 2.
The decals are excellent, but very hard to handle because they are very small (the writings). So be careful with them!



Now it's time for the part where i always screw up my models...weathering. I'm not sure how i should proceed this time. Should i give the entire model a wash? Or just a pinwash? Should i do fading? Any tipps from you? Because i have never weathered a modern combat vehicle before

APC227

[gustavlekstal]

Think you could go heavy on everything except chipping and fading due the care of modern tanks. Anyway it looks great in it's sand colour. Good luck on the weathering! Hope you get it right this time!

[schweinhund227]

Nice work....

https://chivethebrigade.files.wordpress ... 920-11.jpg

just goes easy on chipping....
C.A.R.C. paint is extremely tough when applied to metal.
no so much on Rubber.

Keep up the good work... Looking awesome !

[brickfan8]

That's a cool tank

[APC227]

Thank you all!

Update

I used your picture as reference fellow 227, i did go easy on chipping, maybe lesser thank the original. I have bought an weathering set from AK especially for desert vehicles for my Paladin. I have started with a medium wash, followed by streaking grime and light mud effects. And for hell's sake, i just don't get how these damned streaking effects are working. I have tried them on so many vehicles, they always are too thinned when i apply them, and when i blur them out with my white spirit, they just completely dissaper, no matter how less white spirit i use.

I will throw all of my streakings products away if this keeps up.

But anyways, after this orgy i finished the model with multiple coats of "Ultra Matt" from AK, after applying the tracks. I did colored and weathered the tracks with the AK track set by following it's instructions. The final part were the US-Flags on the antennas.

The model kit is finished, but once again i did made a bad job with the weathering. The wash was too strong at some points, and the streaking effects failed completely. Also it took me like 4 coats off matt paint and it's still not really matt at all. But well, here it is:















Used Products

AK Interactive

Track & Wheel Set
Acrylic Thinner
Ultra Matt
Wash for US Modern Vehicles
OIF+OEF Streaking effects
White Spirit
AK 122

Revell

Painta Cleaner
Airbrush Cleaner
Contacta Professional
Decal Soft
Colors: 09, 99, 78, 34

Citadel

Chaos Black (Spray)
Chaos Black
Castellan Green
Ceramite White

Others

Mig Track Wash
Alclad 2 Klear Kote Gloss
Microsale Liquid Decal Film
MKB Ätzteilkleber

Conclusion

I've had a lot of fun with this model kit - talking about building. As i said in the beginning it is very easy to build, the details are good but there is a lot room for improvement from the aftermarket. There are no fitting issues. The only thing i don't like about this kit are the vinyl tracks. The are very hard and strong, and you will get some serious problems with applying them (if you want to hang them down). Also there are no antennas, and no reference in the instruction sheet for them.
If you don't screw with weathering, you will get a nice looking model kit! Even out of box!

I rate this kit 4/5. And i can highly recomment this kit for beginners!

End

I hope you enjoyed my building report and i hope you liked my model kit! I am always very harsh to myself and i don't like what i did here, especially because of my weathering.
If you wish, there is a wallpaper picture of my tank.
You can find it here: http://apc227.deviantart.com/art/M109A6 ... -535487121

Thank you everyone so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and i hope i will see you again in the text time!... If i find some motivation again after that.

APC227

[schweinhund227]

Looks good to me....

Streaking isn't hard.... and must be very subtle to work...
you start heavy yes.... but the blending is what makes it work...
especially on a pale vehicle like yours !

the Clear Coat will enable you to finesse it to perfection...
never apply a streaking effect on raw paint... it might diffuse the effect and make it hard to control !
the clear coat allows you to control it and a variety of thin paint brushes might help you

Keep the White spirit to a minimum.... and clean your brushes often....

Don't throw away any of that stuff... just experiment more with it and
I would highly recommend you buy the AK videos
can't beat it ! Very interesting stuff to watch and learn from.

http://pxhst.co/avaxhome/7a/8e/00168e7a_medium.jpeg

wish you all the best and keep up the good work !

That Paladin rocks !

[Gav0909]

Yeah what Norm said. Streaking effects are generally pretty subtle, and should always be applied over a gloss surface. I find the best way to just add a dot of the streaking product at the highest point you want the streak, so the edge of an armour plate, a bolt head etc. Also have a think about where dirt would collect, then run in the rain (this is effectively what you are mimiking). So dirt/dust will gather in grooves on flat surfaces, around bolt heads etc. Add a dot of your streaking grime there, then let it dry for a bit. Take your moistened brush (not overloaded with thinner, just moist) and draw the dot downwards, only downwards. And draw it as far as you want the streak to go. Let that dry a bit, and if its still too stark, go over it again with the thinner.

Here is an example of some subtle streaking from bolt heads on my own Paladin.



Don't give up, its all about practise and experimenting. The Paladin looks good mate, don't stress about it. You did a good job there with what isn't really the best kit around. So thumbs up!

[arkbuilder2012]

Nice!! Really looks the part.