Dragon 1/35 M48A3 Mod B

[alextheblue]

Picture the scene, it’s a dreary Monday evening and you’ve just arrived home from work after a nightmarish fight through rush-hour traffic. You’ve greeted the wife and kids and realising that you’ve got about an hour to kill before diner you slope off to the workbench. Rather than the eager anticipation that usually flutters through you, instead you feel flat and slightly lost. And then it dawns on you as you gaze around the detritus strewn on your workbench – there’s nothing to do!! In my case I was looking at the various sub-assemblies for the Intruder that I’m building for this very Vietnam SiG, knowing that there was no more that I could do until some much needed paints arrived. Oh well, a night off wouldn’t hurt and there’s still plenty of time before the deadline looms. I was just about to turn off the various day-light lamps and overhead lights, when that impish little devil-voice piped up – “hang-on a mo, you’ve always got that M48 that’s just arrived, and you said it yourself, there’s plenty of time!” I had originally ordered a Dragon M48A3 Mod B in 1/35th scale, but there was a slight delay due to re-stocking and that is why I had plumped for the Intruder instead. But now the fiendish idea of having a crack at both suddenly dawned on me. The rational side of me was telling me to stick to one project and give this 100% rather than spread myself thin and do a half-assed job to two models. After much deliberating I thought, “What the hell, half-assed is about as good as it gets for me, now where did I put the box!”

And here it is, the aforementioned M48A3 Mod B from Dragon in 1/35th scale, which is one of their Smart Kits.



I must say, whilst there is a lot of plastic in this kit, it’s not quite the crammed box-full that you usually get with Dragon – still enough to keep me busy though. It also comes with DS tracks. I’ve only built one other model with these, but I have to say, I actually quite liked them.



Various sprues of the usual assorted tank "bits".





Instructions and paint schemes




The usual array of wheels, return rollers and drive sprockets. Whilst, there's not a huge amount (well not compared to a Tiger or a Panther), each wheel comes in at least two parts and each part has 4 attachment points - lots of scraping, sanding and cleaning.


Running gear on lower hull.


Now, those of you that are familiar with Dragon instructions will know that once you've triple checked them - check 'em again! And even then doubt everything that you see! The instructions ask you to attach the return rollers to a mounting plate and then attach the whole assembly to the upper hull. The roller is attach to the plate via a small nub and I could see this snapping with even the smallest amount of force applied. So in a very uncommon display of common sense, I decided to deviate from the instructions and attach the plate to the hull first and then attach the rollers - worked a treat!



Before I knew it the two halves of the hull were together and the rear deck was all in place.




The rest of the running gear and suspension was next and there's some very nice detail here, which is very typical of Dragon kits - gotta love 'em!



Once all the required grab handles, hatches and assorted grommets were fitted it was onto the turret and the MG turret.




One of the fenders and stowage boxes all assembled.


Just to finish up, I decided to attach the finished fender and mount the turret in place.



Got to say, this has a been a joy to build and has fallen together really nice - again, very typically Dragon. As for my diner - let's just say the cat didn't go hungry and I've got some grovelling to the wife to do!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Art17847]

........... As for my diner - let's just say the cat didn't go hungry and I've got some grovelling to the wife to do!


LOL....now thats funny....nice kit and a great build so far....good luck with the rest of it

[alextheblue]

........... As for my diner - let's just say the cat didn't go hungry and I've got some grovelling to the wife to do!


LOL....now thats funny....nice kit and a great build so far....good luck with the rest of it

Thanks Art!

[alextheblue]

The build came together really quick on this one and it just fell together. There was only one bit that gave me any real problems and even then it was too bad. There are supposed to be two tow cables that attach to the rear of the turret and they tuck under the stowage basket. The tow cable itself is the picture-wire variety, but it's just a little bit too springy and no amount of bending, annealing or coaxing will get it to conform to the right shape. Each time you try to fix the attachment point to the side of the hull it just pings off. I ended up using CA glue, which did the trick, but I didn't dare try and fit the second one - plus there didn't seem to be quite enough room once the first one was fitted. Ah, well, I guess one just fell off!!



And now onto painting! Yahay!!! I know a lot of you have problems with Vallejo primer and have switched to AK. For me, the Vallejo works fine and I really couldn't get on with the AK (having said that I have only tried the black). The only bits that I've haven't fitted are the optics as I find it easier to fit these afterwards rather than try and mask them etc. But there is a "ring" of optics that sits underneath the gunners hatch and this really has to be fitted prior ro a final base coat, so it's on with some masking - not a favourite task of mine!



Everything primed and ready for base-coat.





Added some black Vallejo primer to add some shadows and contrast.



For the base coat I used Hobby Color Aqueous H304, which isn't usually my first choice for olive drab. But as all of the other US vehicles that I've built have been from WWII I wanted this beast to have a different look altogether. I love the finish that these paints give - some of the colours are a bit finicky with thinning, but once you've played around and got the mix right they spray really nice. For this particular colour I mixed it in a 3:2 ratio, 3 parts paint to 2 parts Ultimate thinner and this seemed to do the trick. I did start with a 50/50 mix and this was just a little too thin, even for the first mist coat.

This is with the first two coats down and I thought I would leave it to fully dry before making any decisions about whether or not to give it another coat. I'll probably spray in some high-lights first and then make a decision from there. Some parts of the turret still look a little too light in the pictures, but I'm thinking this might work once the washes and filters are on.






Loving this build so far, but you can never go too far wrong with a Dragon armour kit!

Thanks for taking a look!

[MarkVerploeg]

Wow that went fast
Looks like a nice kit
Are you planning on some stowage

[Tiger131]

Looking good...

[snappercity]

Looking good and a quick build..

[AlkaSeltzer]

Your M60 is bad azz looking! You built it so quickly and flawlessly looks like it should be box art

[Gb64c]

How do those Dragon tracks work? Do the road wheels turn or are they static. The kits looks great, and I want to do m 48 soon.

[alextheblue]

Wow that went fast
Looks like a nice kit
Are you planning on some stowage

Thanks Mark, it's a great kit and I would thoroughly recommend it!

I should really put some stowage on it, but i quite like seeing more of the tank itself - still undecided on this one!

[alextheblue]

Thanks Tiger, Snapper, AlkaSeltzer!

[alextheblue]

How do those Dragon tracks work? Do the road wheels turn or are they static. The kits looks great, and I want to do m 48 soon.

They're the DS tracks, so you can stick them together with normal cement, TET etc. As for the wheels, they are static as there's no poly caps with the Dragon kits unfortunately.

[Gb64c]

How do those Dragon tracks work? Do the road wheels turn or are they static. The kits looks great, and I want to do m 48 soon.

They're the DS tracks, so you can stick them together with normal cement, TET etc. As for the wheels, they are static as there's no poly caps with the Dragon kits unfortunately.

So hard plastic tracks you glue together, thanks

[alextheblue]

Managed to get a fair bit done on this one over the last few days and with the base coat down its time to move onto the tracks. As mentioned these are Dragons DS tracks and on first sight you think, oh crap, rubber-band tracks, but don't despair, these are a slightly different beast. The feel a bit more substantial than the usual vinyl tracks, but the real benefit is that you can join them together with normal poly cement, TET etc. So the stapler can stay in the drawer with the other stationery where it belongs! These were primed with Vallejo black surface primer then given a coat with Vallejo's track primer. The rubber pads where painted in with Vallejo's dark rubber (all from the Model Colour range) and to finish up the track teeth and outer edges were dry-brushed with a steel colour to high-light areas of wear and metal-on-metal action! These are by no means finished, but the rest of the weathering will take place once the tank is fully assembled. I prefer to do the weathering once the tank is complete as I always feels it gives a better continuity rather than completing parts and then assembling. Probably makes no real difference at the end of the day, its just the way i prefer to do it.



The tracks were then attached to the tank and the fit is very good. I left one of the road wheels off in order to make the process easier, but the tracks are a perfect length and just stretchy enough to install once all the road wheels are on if that's your preference.




I ummed and eered about whether or not to spray in some high-lights as the pre-shading had added some nice tonal variations to the colour. In the end I decided it would really need some high-lights in order to achieve the final effect that i was looking for. At this stage I'm not too interested in colour accuracy, I'm more trying to imagine what it will look like when its finished and whether all the various colours will tie-in. This bit is always a bit hit and miss and you can only really go by what you think will work. I used the original base colour of Mr Hobby Aqueous olive drab, H304 along with radome and white, again from the Mr Hobby range. I used roughly 10 drops of olive drab, two drops of radome and 3 drops of white. I feel that using white alone doesn't quite give the right tone and by adding the radome colour it gives a slight "yellowy" tinge.






Nothing too extreme, just a few light patches on high point and exposed panels. I've not weather too many models, but the few few I tried consisted of two or three stages that made quite a drastic change with each application. The problem with this approach is that if you make a mistake its much harder to back-track to rectify it, but more importantly each stage is too easily distinguishable in my opinion and you can lose that overall fluidity that weathering should give. Now it was onto the decals and for an armour kit there was quite a few for this model. I must say, I've never had a problem with Dragon's decals in the past, but I had an absolute nightmare with these. The white stars were fine and went down very well, nice and thin, but not too thin. But ever other decal broke up and it ended being a bit of a jigsaw puzzle getting everything together. If you look closely you can see where I had some problems, so please don't look too closely!






Right, with that battle over, it's onto the weathering!! First process I'm going to use on this one is a pin wash using oil paint and white spirit. The trick is to mix the paint and white spirit to almost an ink-link consistency, so when you get some on your brush and dab it onto some kitchen roll/paper towel it spreads very quickly in a capillary like action.



Going slightly off topic for a moment, I wanted to quickly mention some brushed that I bought recently. I saw Lee's review on the Zoukei Mura range of brushes and they looked very good. They seemed to keep their point very well and they were reasonably priced so I order all 4 sizes.



I must say, for me personally, I'm not too impressed. The bristles seem a little too long for my own personal preference as I like to load a fair amount of paint onto the brush and as a result the very end of the tip bends almost into an "L" shape. The bristles are synthetic so you cant expect too much and as I say this is my own personal choice as I can see a lot of people using these brushes and getting on very well with them. Not a patch on the old Windsor & Newton Series 7 brushes, but these are three times the price in fairness - but, you do have to pay for quality.

Zoukei Mura


Windsor & Newton


I also use this pin-wash mix in order to "paint-in" some colour as oil paints leave a nice residue that can resemble dirt and grime. Again I like to try and build up these effects slowly in many layers.







And that's where I'm at so far. Still a long way to go with the weathering, but another week or so should see it all finished up. Whenever I think about the Vietnam war, I'm always reminded of images of hot sweaty jungles and dense green jungles dripping in humidity. And this is the look that I'm trying to get with this tank, almost as though it is sweating in the heat, all dirty and grimey! But with me, it's any excuse to over-weather a model!!

Thanks for taking a look!

[alextheblue]

With the paintwork all done it's time to add to some muck and dirt. I did add a small amount of chipping, but not too much as a lot of won't be seen once the mud is applied. So, out with the pigments. I added some earth effects enamels from AK to Vietnam earth pigments from MiG as I was a little worried that the pigments would be a tad too red on their own. I know the soil is very red in this part of the world, but I think at this scale it could end up looking a bit too overpowering.



Once applied it did look a bit too red in my opinion.




In a bid too darken it up a bit I applied some Ultimate dark dirt along with some more earth effects, as well as adding a very small amount of dust effects to add a touch of high-lights.



And its starting to look a little bit more like I had envisioned.






Ummmmmmmm..........starting to get there, but still not right, so time to add some more pigments, but without mixing them with enamels. Still using Vietnam earth, but going to add some brick dust and then add it with good old pigment fixer.










Now it has a few layers on I'm going to leave it to fully dry and then assess whether anything else needs tweaking. Although, I'm thinking that a diorama might be in order to really finish this one off. Will have to have a long think about that one as I'm also hoping to enter an Intruder A6-A into this GB and being my first plane, I'm going to need all the time I can get to complete that one! Still. I'm always up for a challenge!!

Thanks for taking a look!

[Yevgeny]

That is one sweet looking tank Great work.
Another kit to put on the "I want that too" list

[Tiger131]

loving the red mud look i found it hard to get the shade right but you've nailed it

[alextheblue]

That is one sweet looking tank Great work.
Another kit to put on the "I want that too" list

Thanks Yevgeny!

I only have one item on my "Want That" list - ALL of them!!!

[alextheblue]

loving the red mud look i found it hard to get the shade right but you've nailed it

Thanks Tiger!

Not 100% happy with it and thats why I thought a dio might just finish it off - failing that, it might just finish ME off!!

[AlkaSeltzer]

Your M48A3 Mod B is bad azz looking. When I am asked why your M48 looks so much better than mine I tell them you build a tank where I built a toaster to look like a tank. Keep up the good work.

[alextheblue]

Your M48A3 Mod B is bad azz looking. When I am asked why your M48 looks so much better than mine I tell them you build a tank where I built a toaster to look like a tank. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the very kind words AS - been following your M48 build and you're doing some fine work there, the washes are really starting to make her pop, so I can't agree with you about mine looking better - yours looks top-notch to me!!

Thanks again bud!

[alextheblue]

I've put this to one side now as essentially it's finished, but it keeps glaring at me from the shelf and muttering, "surely you're not going to leave me like this!" And why do I keep thinking of a Welshman with an Irish heritage - Di O'Rama. But I don't have time for a diorama I plead, I've still got loads to do on the Intruder and that was supposed to be my main entry into this GB. It's no good, with each glance at the M48 I can feel my resolve weakening and the ideas are flooding into my consciousness at an alarming rate. After a quick scour on the electrictronic information super-highway, I saw some figures that caught my eye and they looked like they could be made up into a scurrilous band of brigands that wouldn't look out of place next to a dirty and abused M48.



Never had any dealings with resin before, but I've always really liked the detail you get with them. I have no idea how you're supposed to clean them up etc., but thats the great thing about ISM, there's not many subjects that somebody hasn't posted some useful information about. The one thing that I do know though is that I need to get a protective mask.

One bag full of goodies

There's lots of bits and accessories and there's even two sets of heads, one with and one without helmets.



Introducing Moe, Larry and Curly! Although don't you think the one on the right looks like Sir Trevor McDonald!! (for all you non-UK guys, he's a very much revered news-reader!).



After some careful cutting, scraping and sanding, the first two are almost ready for primer.



Don't mind him, he's 'armless!



Looking forward to getting some paint on these fellas once they're finished.

Thanks for taking a look!

[alextheblue]

I've been a little "distracted" with some other projects, but I have got a bit more done on this one, namely, got the figures fully assembled and got the base colours down.



They still look like three escapee oompa-loompas from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but I still need to paint in the high-lights etc. With the M48 now done, I'm struggling to muster up the motivation to crack on and get the diorama finished. Also, with the 6-Wheels or more SiG tempting me astray I'm really up against it - but, I'm still pretty confident I'll get it finished - somehow!

Thanks for taking a look!

[alextheblue]

Still need to finish painting the Three Amigos, but I couldn't help noticing that they could do with a bit of shade to stand in. After a bit of interweb-surfing, I tracked down a palm tree kit from Fields of Glory for a smidgen under £20 including delivery. The trunk is resin and looks to be quite nicely detailed, should paint up ok.



The leavers are paper and are pre-cut, so just need removing from a couple of tabs that hold them into a frame.




They are coloured well, but I'm worried they are a bit too shiny and maybe a bit to uniform in colour. The leaves do come in different sizes though, so I'm hoping this will break up the more standard colourization.

Got the first few branches, urm, leaves - what the heck do you call these things again!




For me the jury is out on this one - like the trunk, but I'm still thinking the leaves look a bit too shiny. I'll try a light mist of matt-coat once it's finished, but I'm worried about going to heavy as the leaves are only made of paper. Still, the Three Tenors look quite happy now they've got a bit of shade, so it would be a shame not to finish it up at least!!

[Deacon]

Love this thread and build mate.

[Yevgeny]

Cool palm tree and the figures are class!

[Tiger131]

those figures are superb you get what you paid for with them the bloke with the sunglasses is my favourite..

[alextheblue]

those figures are superb you get what you paid for with them the bloke with the sunglasses is my favourite..

Definitely - my first resin figures and I will definitely be buying some more!

[alextheblue]

Finally got the figures finished. Some of the details were fiddly to say the least and I'm not too sure that I achieved the right look for the playing card in the guys helmet (that sounds painful! ), but it doesn't look too bad to the naked eye.







It was only when I was looking at the pictures that I noticed that the muzzle and end-sight has broken off of the M16!! Not quite sure when or how that happened, but I'll have to remedy that somehow.

Now onto the rest of the dio.

Thanks for taking a look!

[UKguyInUSA]

Awesome build thread....both the Tank and the figures are fabulous. I look forward to the rest of this thread with bated breath.

[Hillbilly]

Nice paintwork on those figures I think you nailed the look perfectly!