Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog 1:35

[PilotMM]

Well after much debate on what to do for clear and visiting the LHS I decided to put my car build on hold a little longer. While I was at the shop I saw this little guy looking lonely on the shelf and for only $12 I thought it should come home with me. After my 1:100 scale build I was itching to try something with a little more size. So this weekend I cracked open the box and got started.

My first thought was "wow this should go together quick." My next thought was "first time really using an airbrush... maybe not."

Anyways The parts count was relatively low and well detailed. I loved that they didn't mold everything into the turret and hull but at the same time it made for some thinking before building.
You all have seen the box so I won't bore you with that. I started with the lower hull as the instructions said and the first thing I noticed was that a lot of parts had some seams or flash. Not typical for new Tamiya kits I assumed. What was typical though was how easy it came off.
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At this point, I had spent about 3 hours cleaning sprue and assembling. Whoa, this was going to take longer than I anticipated.

I took a long break and came back that night to work on the upper turret. HOLY CRAP THE HANDHOLDS ARE TINY AND FIDDLY. After dropping one I thought I would try to make one from scratch using a finishing brad.
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It wasn't the right thickness, plus it didn't have the weld look at the attachment part. I spent the next few hours searching and searching the carpet monster. Right when I was ready to throw in the towel I found it on my hobby mat

Here is an example of some seam/flash I had to remove and smooth down.
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Not terrible but noticeable. It had to go.

The next day I got cracking on the turret assembly.
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So many little parts that I was happy were not molded on there were now causing me to go cross eyed. LOL.

I pressed on and here is where things really started to slow me down. I saw an old thread from last year where a gent put together his first model and it happened to be the Bulldog. He did a cracking job (SimpleScaleModels) and asked for some advice. DRUMS01 offered up some solid pointers and I realized that I was at a point where I could implement some of the things he mentioned. Namely I wanted to add the "x's" that are on the sponson boxes. He even offered up a suggestion on how to do it! What a guy. Anyways here is what it looked like before I made the X.
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Taking some sprue I heated it up and streached it as if I was making an antenna but instead of pulling it far I tried to get it to be about 1mm thick. I then used some TET and glued it down. Then started sanding.
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Crude but effective.

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Here is another example of the sprue.

This isn't my photo but its the look I was going for. It's not 1:1 but the idea is there.
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Finally everything was put together and ready for primer. I primed with Mr. Hobby Surface 1500 mixed 1:1 with MLT.
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That stuff goes down so nice. So after talking to another gent on ScaleMates he mentioned highlighting using yellow paint for OD. It softens the green a bit. I did this on all the upper surfaces to try it out.
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I gotta say, I was scratching my head at this one but once I started putting down the OD green there was a strange light bulb moment.

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This brings us up to today. Today I did some detail painting and started putting the clear coat down for weathering. The instructions call out that the bolts are yellow so I dabbed them with a toothpick.
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I already had some Rubber Black mixed up from my tracks and hand painted the road wheels with rubber black. It took a few coats but came out cleaner than if I would have tried airbrushing.

I had mixed some rubber black up because the tracks on the Bulldog are rubber down the center and metal for the rest. I painted the center of the tracks the rubber black color and then let it dry and masked it off so I could paint the rest of the tracks burnt iron.
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These got a coat of clear too because I plan on weathering them up some.

Here is a mini preview of what the tank will look like before weathering. This was for posterity
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I imagine I won't get back to the bench for painting/weathering until after Thursday. Check back for updates. Thanks for following along!
-M

[Gary30]

Great looking tanks these aren't they?

Your model is looking good so far, think I will have to add one of these to my stash.

[DoubleDigit12]

Looking good pilot, loving the highlighting!

Nice scratchbuilding, IMO these old Tamiya kits are a bit innacurate and underdetailed. However, they sure are fun builds.

The exact same thing with the handles has happened to me a few too many times. One roadwheel even turned up on my desk months after I lost it.

James

[PilotMM]

The exact same thing with the handles has happened to me a few too many times. One roadwheel even turned up on my desk months after I lost it.

James

Ha! Funny. It really is a fun kit even though it’s missing a few things. Depending on how well my weathering goes I might enter it in a local contest in April. I have to look up the entry requirements first but have a feeling this is going to turn out nice.


Thanks for the kind words so far guys
-M

[TheNordus]

Wonder what the heck they're on about with the yellow bolts on the wheels. You're doing pretty good with this one though, keep going!

[PilotMM]

Wonder what the heck they're on about with the yellow bolts on the wheels. You're doing pretty good with this one though, keep going!

Yeah, no clue what that was about as I could not find anything to represent that in photos but I enjoyed how it broke up the monotony of the wheels. *shurgs*

I made some progress over the end of the week and part of the weekend. Tracks are finished until they go on the tank. First layer of grime is down and decals are set. Next, I will put another gloss coat on it to dirty up the decals and then finish it off with a matte coat.

I have a question about using pigments if anyone reads this before I finish. How do you get them to stay in place? Can they be sprayed with a matte coat? Should I just put them on there and be sure not to touch it? I want to dirty up the underside of the hull and around the wheels.

Anyways as for my tracks, I used some AK panel liner wash to coat the insides and the crevices. It is a muck-looking green. Then I used Vellajo dark and light sienna as well as a little rust over the inner spine. I like the way it came out.

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I threw it on the hull to see how it would look
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Next, I started some dirtying up of the tank. Again I used AK washes and Tamiya Panel line black. It looks weird over the gloss finish but I know it will look "normal" once it is matte coated.
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Weathering has been kind of a steep learning curve for me. I am just starting to see the results of putting an acrylic gloss down followed by an enamel wash. The first go-round (before this tank) I was trying to do acrylic over acrylic or enamel over enamel and getting frustrated when removing a wash would go right to the plastic. Now that that bit is sorted; and I finally picked up odorless mineral spirits I am having much-improved success.
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So weird seeing a shiny tank I will seal the decals and apply a wash over them so they look weathered like the rest of the tank.

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The last thing I worked on was my tank commander... This poor guy. I enjoy painting tiny details because its difficult and if you take your time it will look good but I gotta do something about his flesh-tone. I primed him in Mr. Hobby Surface 1500 and then got to work.
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The only flesh tone color I have is Mr. Hobby "Character flesh" and its... umm... Not right.
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He looks like he could have been part of The Adam's Family he is so fair. I am open to suggestions for this too.


So to recap, I started building models again since childhood in January and this is build number 3. I really like armor. I might have to build another before I go back to building cars.


Thanks for following along!
-M

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking good

[TheNordus]

Only way to really fix pigment is to use a pigment fixer. I find that if you spray varnish on pigments they tend to just vanish as the varnish dries. Some people use odourless thinner as a fixer but it doesn't really 'fix' anything and you can just brush all the pigment away once that dries.

[digger303]

Only way to really fix pigment is to use a pigment fixer. I find that if you spray varnish on pigments they tend to just vanish as the varnish dries. Some people use odourless thinner as a fixer but it doesn't really 'fix' anything and you can just brush all the pigment away once that dries.

Resin binders can be used as well, such as https://www.vms-supplies.com/alkyd-bind ... d-overview
Working time is extended as well.

[PilotMM]

Unfortunately, my LHS doesn't have any of the pigment fixers. I will have to order some next time I put in an online order. I really like supporting my LHS so I am a little disappointed.

To further my disappointment I made a small blunder on my tank. After weathering and putting on decals I decided to seal the tank with another coat of clear before putting more weathering down. Because I was out of clear I decided to *gasp* (I know you guys are going to give me crap for this) use Future Floor Polish. I had some and with small parts it works great but I have never tried putting it OVER oil-based enamels.

Here is the result.
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This is after my application of matte. I am hoping that in a day or so when the matte is hardened I can sand it back and smooth it out and then seal it again with Matte. It looks bad here on the turret but the rest looks ok.

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Even the side of the turret doesn't look terrible. That pebbly surface looks IMO similar to a tank surface.

Other than dust motes the hull looks great. It just needs some dry brushing.
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Thanks for following along. And yes.... More clear is on order too
-M

[digger303]

these things happen. Apart from that it looked good up to this point. Going to be hard to sand around all the little humps and bumps and every where..

[PilotMM]

these things happen. Apart from that it looked good up to this point. Going to be hard to sand around all the little humps and bumps and every where..

Live and learn right?

I am calling this one finished. I dry brushed it quite a lot to help cover up some of the mistakes. I think down the line I will try making a little base for this project. I plan on picking up another tank and trying again. I am glad I learned a valuable lesson but sad it had to be on this model.


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Here is what I learned:
Paint order is crucial.
Know whether your product is water based, oil based, or alcohol based.
I like building AFV as much as I enjoy building science fiction
Going forward I will just seal my decals instead of the whole tank after decals. I really think I had too many layers. Or better yet this order; primer, base paint, clear, decals, clear, washes & weathering then matte coat.

Thanks for following along!
-M

[digger303]

these things happen. Apart from that it looked good up to this point. Going to be hard to sand around all the little humps and bumps and every where..

Live and learn right?

I am calling this one finished. I dry brushed it quite a lot to help cover up some of the mistakes. I think down the line I will try making a little base for this project. I plan on picking up another tank and trying again. I am glad I learned a valuable lesson but sad it had to be on this model.


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Here is what I learned:
Paint order is crucial.
Know whether your product is water based, oil based, or alcohol based.
I like building AFV as much as I enjoy building science fiction
Going forward I will just seal my decals instead of the whole tank after decals. I really think I had too many layers. Or better yet this order; primer, base paint, clear, decals, clear, washes & weathering then matte coat.

Thanks for following along!
-M

And when mixing paint ...keep a record cause I have been caught out a few times. When you need to mix a bit more and can't remember how or what I mixed several days before.