JGSF Type 61

[EasyEight96]

With my tiger 1 at the painting stage here's my modern armour entry.


What's in the box you say well here it is.















now onto some history lesson:

The Type 61 (61式戦車?) was a main battle tank (MBT) developed and used by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Development started in 1955 and the vehicle was first deployed in April 1961. The type number follows the year of deployment. A total of 560 Type 61s were manufactured between 1961 to 1975, when production ceased. It served with the JGSF until year 2000. The Type 61 is conventionally laid out, with a central turret and the engine located at the rear of the hull. The tank has a crew of four, a commander, driver, gunner and loader. The hull is welded steel, with a cast steel turret. The maximum armour thickness is quoted as 64 millimeters. The driver sits at the front right of the hull, with a hatch immediately above him, and three vision periscopes covering the forward arc. To the drivers left is the transmission, which can be accessed for servicing by removing a large panel on the front of the hull. The commander and gunner sit in the turret on the right side, with the commander provided with a large domed cupola with a hatch on the rear of it. The cupola has four vision blocks, which are angled upward, and a one meter base stereoscopic rangefinder with x7 magnification. A 12.7 mm machine gun was normally mounted on the cupola for anti-aircraft use.

The gunner does not have a hatch and is seated forward of the commander. The gunner has a x6 magnification periscope, as well as a x6 magnification sight. The main gun was the Type 61 90 millimeter calibre rifled gun with a horizontal sliding breach block. The gun is fitted with a t-shaped muzzle brake, which diverts firing gases sideways, and reduces the amount of dust kicked up by firing. A coaxial 7.62 millimeter machine gun is mounted next to the gun.

The loader is provided with a small hatch, which has a small flap in it for ejecting spent shell cases by hand. Storage is provided for 18 rounds in the bustle at the rear of the tank, with additional rounds being distributed in various positions inside the tank.

A tool storage box was normally mounted externally on the rear of the bustle, and three smoke grenade launchers were mounted on each side of the turret. Two large radio antenna were also attached to the rear of the bustle.

The tank was powered by a 570 horsepower Mitsubishi HM21 WT V12 turbocharged diesel mounted at the rear of the hull and exhausting through pipes on either side of the rear of the hull. The engine is coupled to a Mitsubishi manual transmission system. The track is driven from the front, and has six rubber road wheels on each side along with three return rollers. The suspension is a torsion bar system with the first, second and sixth road wheel fitted with hydraulic shock absorbers.

The main gun is unstabilized, so firing on the move was impractical, and the vehicle is not fitted with an NBC protection system or deep wading equipment.

[EasyEight96]

Update

So I started the kit last night and spend up to 3 hours sanding and assembling stuff as it's a very simple kit so the progress is fast. I continued for an hour more today finishing up the hull and it's done. I then started priming the type 61 using vallejo's black primer as my paint job on the tiger 1 has to be halt due to some miscalculations.









thats all for now

[robertw]

Looking good!

[DBMiller]

Moving right along! Which of those nice markings are you going to use?

[EasyEight96]

Thanks guys. I'm not too sure on which one to choose yet Miller.
So this morning I started the base colour using xf-52 flat earth and I left it to dry and I'll start painting the camo tomorrow

[EasyEight96]

Camo is now up and the wheels are done. Will do some touch up the camo paint and will paint the rubber tyres

[EasyEight96]

Big update

For the few days I was on a run to finish this tank...

Wheels were all hand painted using vallejo's panzer aces new rubber ( must thin it down a bit for easier painting ) and assembled once dried.








I then painted the canvas using Tamiya XF-49. I thinned it with X-20A so I can paint it coat after coats and this is the result




The next morning I started painting the tools using Vallejo's panzer aces new wood , the periscopes panzer aces periscope colour and the machine gun X-10 gun metal.




Tracks were primed first followed by x-56 metallic grey


Tools all attached up and painted the smoke discharger using xf-1 flat black.


Headlights painted using x-1 black and x-2 white


Tow cables painted up


Yesterday I gave the tank a dark wash using Mig's Dark Wash





I then left it for 30 minutes and came back to wipe off the excess oh boy it took a long time and a lot of tissues and cotton buds


and the results were wonderful toning down the paint job and gave some details on some parts


I then left it to settled again for an hour while I when down to watch MASH for two episodes. I then started my decalling process








Next up I started the weathering process I want to give it a worn look so I started use tamiya's soot to do the job. I used the brushes in the photo to weathered it. Lightly damp the brush with water and wipe off the excess water then rub it on the soot. Once that I then rub over the tank area that should have the worn .



I the applied AK Interactive light rust on the areas that should have some rust as by 1975 the tanks should have the wear and tear look as it's been in service seen 1961( I add a bit of water to mix it ) use a thin brush to do this kind of job.





I tone a little bit down with soot again to achieved this

[EasyEight96]

THE FINAL REVEAL!!

So after a week of progress it's finally done! This is my second airbrushed tank and my second modern armour completed. More Photos in the final reveal section

[JediBoer]

Wow! Awesome job! Love the way it turned out!

[ltsmash]

Wow! Very impressive results for only your second airbrushed tank and second modern armor subject. Very nice job.

[EasyEight96]

Thank you guys

[AlkaSeltzer]

Bad Azz!

[UKguyInUSA]

That's a fabulous job for only your second airbrushing and Armor build attempt!