Global Scale Modeller

So when I started the homeland GB I "wasn't really an armour person" and now I might be catching the bug

So having looked at all sorts of cool stuff for this GB and strongly considering a Black Hawk Down type diorama or a Tomcat or A10 I eventually went for this absolute monster.

Main Box (I do so <3 Tamiya )



top and bottom, I had not quite taken in how big this kit would be, it's huge! - I'm gonna need a bigger pot of paint!





5 main sprues (will taken more pictures when my bench is clear to start this)



Clear bits and other exciting looking stuff...




so really pleased with the box contents, if just based on the extra bits and the instructions you compare this 35 quid kit with the 50 quid Dragon I just built, this wins hands down IMHO. Excited!!

I have a bunch of other bits to come, spent more on bits than the kit, eek! but they are winging there way from all over so will take pictures when they come, should be ready to start this next week

I have been building a Zero following the Aces High Magazine using the excellent tips in there, so strongly considering building this using the black and white method as I have the AFV book that covers it, we shall see. I have learnt such a lot building the zero that way (following someone elses guide), it makes me slow down and think.

Off to check youtube as I am sure someone on this awesome forum must have posted some vids for building modern stuff

H Ali
Thats a great kit too pick
Can't see your pics though might need to check the way your loading the pics up
Hope the build goes well
Tim

Timplastic wrote:H Ali
Thats a great kit too pick
Can't see your pics though might need to check the way your loading the pics up
Hope the build goes well
Tim

hmm cheers. Google must have changed something

Can't see the pics too.
I have a keen on these tanks. Build one at the BB last year.
Have fun !!!

Need to figure out what google broke ... in the meantime PE has arrived

Photobucket

Coen wrote:Photobucket

recovering my ten year old account right now

can everyone see the pics now ??

Yep can see them know looks a great kit mate best of luck mate.

Looking forward to this. I have built two of these kits now and its a joy to build, a very easy straightforward build, with great details right out the box. Only major thing that is missing is the anti-slip on the upper hull and turret, but that's missing off quite a lot of modern AFV kits.

Another kit that I'd love to build! Can't see you having any problems with this baby! Good luck buddy, looking forward to seeing her finished

chief5437 wrote:Another kit that I'd love to build! Can't see you having any problems with this baby! Good luck buddy, looking forward to seeing her finished

thanks chief

last bit arrived from Poland today so no more excuses

these lights are cool I think (need to be for the cost )



so we are all set.....

Those lenses look good, never seen them before. Can I ask where you got them?

chief5437 wrote:Those lenses look good, never seen them before. Can I ask where you got them?

From here bud :

http://www.skpmodel.eu

Aliktren wrote:

chief5437 wrote:Those lenses look good, never seen them before. Can I ask where you got them?

From here bud :

http://www.skpmodel.eu

Cheers mate!

That are some nice goodies
Please let is kbow if those lenses are any good
I think those can be some nice additions to a build
Good luck with the build

Cool! This has been on my wishlist for awhile. Good luck with the build

SO got much good modeelinbg time in this weekend.

This was a dry fit of the main parts and some childish opportunities to make tank noises

The build will heretofor be known as the "Longmire" build as most of the construction got done whilst gorging on 4 seasons of the show on Netflix (great show, plus Katie Sackoff)



then I spent a good amount of time checking out the PE - lots of small parts but I am going to use of much of it as I can, if I boing boing it up, at least I tried and then boing boing'ed it up rather than not trying at all.








still digging these, they are awesome...




I have a couple of these boxes from my original chinese airbrushes, airbrushes are long gone but these boxes are really useful for keeping delicate or painted stuff in during a build without getting them dusty.




Instructions are up to the usual tamiya standard (only seen one slight error so far)



nice additional painting info....




the sprues, the sprues are awesome, nicely laid out and numbered, and the lack of flash is truly amazing, have found literally zero so far, so sanding has been only seam lines and sprue remenants, which is awesome in my book, I hate sanding.





so thats it, spent quite a while just looking at everything before doing any work ....

So spent a looooong time working on this model at the weekend which was awesome, my first ever tank, it's pretty complex but quite enjoyable to build I must say.

So after a bit of cleanup got step one underway.. no stopping me now....



part of the wheel arrangement is supported by these in box screws and nuts, fiddly to get in there but the fact that the plastic is designed to lock the nut is awesome...



wheels... so many wheels, lol.....




apologies for the potato quality - this is the rear mostly built up, lots of fiddly detailing here, hanging that thingy on the rack was fun



this bit....



there was still some fresh air visible through the back so I added some of my tamiya hot sauce (old bottle of glue with dissolved sprue in it) to the inside to just fill it in to make sure it looked ok.



irrecoverable removal of small parts ready for PE, *gulp*



PE fuel caps look cool..... fixed with canopy glue rather than superglue, I really dislike using superglue....



and then the field phone with all the stuff I sliced off replaced with PE, very fiddly, did not do perfect job, I blame the instructions... but looks ok IRL



neat PE handles over the fuel caps, spent 5 minutes hardly breathing lest I blew them away!!!



and then this, fitting flat parts ot a curved surface, thanks Eduard....

gluing, gluing.. forever gluing... man there are lots of bits on a tank

SO have only managed a few hours here and there and am hittign a bit of a head wind - I picked a giant kit for my first tank, lol. And figuring out which bits to sort of before or after the paint is probably needlessly giving me a headache,

So this week I got the majority of large parts off the sprues and fixed together. I completed some of the turrent work and then got very bogged down with windows as always, clear parts are my nemesis it seems.

Challenger 2 glassware has a pink appearance ot my eyes, both in the boxart and elsewhere :



so Tamiya dont do a pink, so this week has been about trying a few things, experimentation being .. something, probably the mother of all boing boing ups

so first I tried some nice pens the wife has to do birthday cards and stuff... colour was a bit stark and after 2 days it was still wipeable....



so then I tried the same pen dipped in Klear (didnt tell the wife about that bit!)



this didnt quite work either, it dried poorly and although it has a pink hue, it doesnt look quite right (thankfully tamiya provide spare plastic for this !)

so at the weekend I hit hobbycraft and got some purlple tinsel (for Halloween, really ?!?) and some reflective card and will be trying both of those this week.

SO I have a few little trays and pots that are now full like this :



so next job is to finalize the glassware, and then start on the wheels and wheel well before I add the side skirts (or maybe I add the side skirts at the end arghhhhh!)

this is fun, right ?

The easiest way that I've found so far and I've seen a lot of modern armour modellers use is to use pieces of mylar film from party favours.
Cut them to fit and glue them to the optics with white glue then seal them in with a strong gloss varnish.





You can also buy it by the sheet on ebay.

thanks Mike, yeah there isnt a party store near us though, but will be keepinmg my eye out

Ok, been feeling sick last few days and so made it back to the model today refreshed and determined!


SO transparent parts... here we go...

Starting with the litte round observation hatch, I had already treated this with the pink varnish so it looks a little pink...




so added some plastic from my haul from hobbycraft to the underneath, the part is prism shaped ...



sure enough the result is much stronger under the flash as the light reflects.....




then onto the next hatch.. this one ...



... this parts has some nice PE but suggests replacing the glass part with basically a hole, so I used some of the clear plastic from the kit to make a window.



this part was fiddly to fit and there is a nice big gap also so will need a revisit once the glue is dry tommorow....

I really like this kit, for me this kit was awesome. The anti-slip thing you did is epic. Word!

TheTroyster wrote:I really like this kit, for me this kit was awesome. The anti-slip thing you did is epic. Word!

thanks bud but I havent added any non slip so must be the kit, however, you are right, this is a fantastic kit and I am glad it's my first tank.


So this update will be entitled, how I learned to stop worrying and love PE

So firstly got all the glassware finished off to my satisfaction and then buried under a coat of maskol. I think it looks ok, hopefully the maskol coverage was ok, dont really like using it as it can go places you dont want, but should be close enough and if needed will need to come back with a small brush.



took quite a while to do this so this one picture encompasses a couple of hours I think as a little rework and fiddling was required.

next got the gun turret finished complete with photoetch hatch and cover, looks great I think with the additional detailing.



hey look it's nearly a tank



so that was last night and everything was left to properly dry until this afternoon when I started on the smoke dischargers.

The kit parts have to be heavily modified so could all have gone horribly wrong at this point and so was a nice anxious moment cutting away 50% of the kit part but I was careful and everything came out ok and there is no doubt these look a lot more like even the box art, much finer detailing...



the only bit of filler needed thus far to obscure the kit detail.... this was the recess where the kit part would have lodged, now not required



then left once again to cure.

This is looking to become a beautiful build....
and that PE upgrades is really doing justice to the kit...
good job!!!!

NAMBiohazard wrote:This is looking to become a beautiful build....
and that PE upgrades is really doing justice to the kit...
good job!!!!

Thanks very much

So I think I am at the end of the primary construction phase and plan to get everything primed next to check for issues.

So finally grew a pair and joined the body together ...



I love this kit, the fit for 99.9% of the parts has been totally flawless, once you get the two parts together you literally just need a little tamiya thin wicked in to complete the join...





the glue is still shiny in this shot. Oh and I shouldnt have added the headlight parts yet so they have since been removed need to add them back after the priming and next part of construction is done.


so I have gotten together all the parts and went back and forth through the instructions to check I havent missed anything or made any more mistakes, the only real decision now is to decide whether to add the PE lights and then mask them or add them later. So all ready for paint now I think.

Just great mate !

Fine work!!!

Excellent work with the optics too.
I still have that to do on mine. I always leave it till last.

rodrant wrote:Just great mate !

Coen wrote:Fine work!!!

Excellent work with the optics too.
I still have that to do on mine. I always leave it till last.

thanks both

So this update shall be entitled - the great leap forward!


My little son asked me the the other day why I'd spent a week painting my model grey and then painting it back the same colour it started out as... I did not have a good answer

so the before shot...



and after....




So after last time, I finished what I could in terms of PE and then went for the primer - used Badger, of course, with my 4mm needle on the H&S at abourt 25 psi - it took a long time and used a lot of paint! - must have taken me well over an hour to get the major parts done. I took to painting for about 20 mins and then running a quick blast of Ultimate AB cleaner through the brush which prevented any clogs and nasty events.

then got the wheels ready to go...



I used a circular template to mask as well as I could for doing the road wheels, it didnt work quite as well as I had hoped and I needed to come back with a brush as the size wasnt quite exact, but the results look ok, and bearing mind almost nothing is visible of the wheels once the extra side armour is on






not really sure what to do with the tracks, so gave them a coat of Mr colour burnishable so I can highlight the silver parts as a starter for 10, the tracks from what I have read are black rubber, I cant get a good idea of what they look like from piccies so if anyone has any wisdom to share....



and then painting painting painting, not sure if it;s usual to use so much paint but I used a lot - all good practice though.

still some finishing to do though, nice PE detailing though











not much left to do now in terms of bits....

Hi guys

So I had a bit of time to work on this over the week and mostly on Sunday and got quite a bit advanced. I dont get how you guys build armour so quickly, it seems to have taken forever to get the kit in one piece.

I posted on Facebook about my tracks, which I weathered with (pretty much every) Ultimate wash in what hopefully looks like a random pattern. Still not sure about whether to add much in the way of metallic weathering so will be at the end of I do .

Here are the pics......

Tracks weathered a bit ...



Turret mostly finished (few more things on the plan like painting the hatches but have not plucked up courage to do it yet ) - finished using a brush as everything that needed painting was tiny.



Remaining parts painted, I am not sure yet how to mask these to get the white down on the inside, a bridge to cross for this week.



the dust shields, in a few pictures of IRL tanks these looked a different colour from the rest of the tank so I masked them and painted them flat earth.




time to make use of my polish Photoetch lights....




they look good and IRL look really nice but I see in this picture I screwed it up a bit and one of the lights is not straight



and the front, I might dig these out and do them again, not happy.



finishing up finally ....





tracks on, most of this is invisible once complete as the side skirts have to be added.



and nearly there..

needs a tidy up in places but almost ready for gloss coat....



arrested development on in the background, good choice for this tank

Looking good mate

so still making a mess of this challenger

I decided to paint the hatches, which would have been estimably easier if I had done it before putting it on the tank, but hey ho

masked and sprayed nato black



masked and painted the vents



fitted the side armour





utterly screwed up fitting the white id panels to the front, way too much glue, FML, so will need cleaning up



rear panels





and then the final part... the rear cable reel, need touching up, havent made a great job and a bit crestfallen with the rear..... all room for improvement





not looking too bad in the round though....

This is looking fantastic.

Sweet build!!!
Great work so far.
I love the look of that kit with those fabric skirts.

Coen wrote:
so I have gotten together all the parts and went back and forth through the instructions to check I havent missed anything or made any more mistakes, the only real decision now is to decide whether to add the PE lights and then mask them or add them later. So all ready for paint now I think.
Re: Tamiya 1/35 British Challenger 2 (Desertised)
Post by NAMBiohazard » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:16 pm

This is looking to become a beautiful build....
and that PE upgrades is really doing justice to the kit...
good job!!!!

TheTroyster wrote:This is looking fantastic.

thanks guys, for the encouragement

Awesome!!!
This piece looks great

so this week has been varnish and decals, and just got it all done this morning so here are some pics, at this point I am pretty pleased with it now, I only spot a few things I would do differently next time or errors, which for me is a very low error ratio - it's a fantastic and forgiving kit.

used Alclad Aqua gloss for pre decals, and MIG Satin varnish for post decal finish, ready for weathering now. The only part I missed was that there are decals on the rear that need to go on BEFORE the vents, which sucks, may try and add them before final weathering but will need to chop them up.

















hand ups everyone who noticed a money spider must have got on her overnight and put a thin web everywhere, didnt notice until the satin went on this morning, a bit like morning dew - she needs a brush, hehe

Oh I love this kit
And you have made of a super kit an even better model

Dunhill2005 wrote:Oh I love this kit
And you have made of a super kit an even better model

Thanks

Looking really good this, I love those tail lights!