Oooo! NEAT!! [/following]

Following and subscribed. 

I haven't seen a BLOG of this kit yet so this will be interesting 

Gamera

Main hull parts, hole I believe is the lower escape hatch and not a battery/motor mounting hole:

How does the I-Sheets describe this?

Thanks guys!

SprueOne: The instructions just give a part number. It does have bolts in it and is underneath the ammo storage under the floor (so if you wanted to escape though it you've have to move a bunch of shells) so now I'm guessing it's to access the transmission from underneath. No big deal, it's just when I first saw it, 'hey they're still putting battery/motor mounting holes in there!?!'

Anyway I picked up some Silly Putty for the masking. The instructions show mosty single colour schemes which would make more sense this late in the war but I kinda like the three-colour one. More eye-catching and I like painting them if the Silly Putty works:

Pulled out my figures too, not sure what I'll use though:

Wow, cool; I saw this kit on ebay and thought about getting it. It's defintely a cool looking tank!

Thanks Karl! 

Actually if you want to buy one, try Hobbylink Japan, their prices for Finemolds are about half to 2/3rds what everyone else's are. 

Gamera you have a nice grouping of figures to choose from, could easily turn into a larger dio and it's too bad we dont see much in the way of Japanese armor. They had more pieces than I ever thought. Nice choice.

Terry

Thanks Terry, not sure what I'll do yet. I'll probably put an infantryman or tanker beside the vehicle to show the size of the thing. I'd like to do street scene of a bombed and wrecked Japanese city but not sure really how to pull it off. 

I've subscribed to this thread, Gamera, and will be following with great interest!  I "had" the Chi-Ri for a short period of time in World of Tanks and it was interesting.  Do you think FineMolds produced this because of WOT?

Thanks Qcarr! Actually this kit came out a couple years before WoT brought out the Japanese line. Dragon's T28 and M6 I wonder about though since they did come out after WoT made them much better known.

Is the Chi-Ri the one with tri-fold doors on the rear of the cupola?

Terry

jibber

Is the Chi-Ri the one with tri-fold doors on the rear of the cupola?

Terry

 

There's nothing like that on the cupola or turret on this model. There's a three part door on the rear of the hull to access the engine though. 

Well, here's where I'm at now:

The kit comes with a complete 37mm gun for the hull front but no other interior details like seats etc. I think I'm going to mock up a simple interior just so it's not a big empty hole. I'm still working on the 75mm which again is a complete gun with the breach and interior parts replicated. Btw still not sure why they put a 37mm in hull when you've got a 75mm in the turret, sounds like a M3 Lee/Grant in reverse to me:

Well, not much work on the hull but I did finish up the road wheels and have only three return rollers to clean up now. 

I finished the tracks on one side and am working on the other. I was a bit duboius at first but love these now. You sandwich two parts together for each link, they capture the pins of the next link between them. If you're careful and keep the cement off the pins you're rewarded with workable flexible tracks! 

Not sure if you can tell from the photo but the piece the left is cemented to the other piece already in place on the end: 

I'm not sure what you mean with the left part but looks like this is moving along.

"...like a M3 Lee/Grant in reverse to me:"

right, yeah, I don't know either

Thanks Sprue One, guess I wasn't clear.

Kinda hard to tell in the photos, I couldn't get the phone to focus any closer but the part on the end of the track is the bottom part, the left part sandwiches over it to trap the pins in the link before this one. If you don't get cement on the link the tracks are workable.

I meant M3 Lee/Grant in reverse since it had a 37mm gun in the turret and the 75mm in the hull. The Type 5 has a 75mm in the turret and a 37mm in the hull. Why you'd want a back-up 37mm is beyond me, one guy on the internet thought it might be for use on soft targets. Still I'd think using the room to store more 75mm ammo would make more sense.

Hectic weekend but the 75mm gun is done, waiting for the wash on it to dry before I try to post any photos.

Oh, ok, I see the tracks part now. Looks tedious but worth the effort.  

The M3 Lee/Grant in reverse comment, I understood. I just meant that I don't know the reason why either. 

Ah ok, my apologies ;)

Here's the cupola, FM gives you a sprue of clear parts for the periscopes. I masked off the glass areas with a little white glue last night and cemented it to the turret. 

And here's the muffler, the instructions tell you to paint it burnt metal but I'm guessing rusty metal would make more sense?

Maybe just the pipes are rusty color but the boxy, armored looking parts might be 'burnt metal'.

I don't really know but just a speculation.

SprueOne: Thanks! I looked at photos of other tanks and I'm guesstimating that burnt metal would be a new vehicle and they'd rust out with time. That's my guess anyway, if not I guess I can always pull it off and repaint it. 

Well, I've gotten most of the interior finished. Looking at the photos looks like I need to hit her with another matte coat before I close her up.

Here's the 75mm and 37mm guns:

The 37mm gun in place in the hull front. There is a seam there but it's on the bottom and won't be seen:

I scratchbuild some seats just to have something in there. There's not much visible in the tiny hatches but at least there's something in there now:

This build was sent to mock me, lol, I have this kit in the stash and sprung for the turned aluminum barrel set, now this thread comes along........

I hope I can give my build half the justice youre doing to yours 

Hey thanks USMC6094, I did consider springing for the metal barrels but HLJ was out of stock and I didn't want to wait so I just went ahead with the plastic one. Looks ok to me so far, hope I don't find a big flat spot when I prime her.

I'm slowly getting stuff set up for the small dio:

I picked up this Kurogane, a Japanese analog to a Jeep or Kubelwagen.

I intend to set mine up as a staff car, I like the look beside the tank as it's tinyness makes the tank look more massive to me.

Most of the figures I'm using. The two left are Verlinden resin and the two left are the FineMolds plastic ones. Bish explained to me that most of the Verlinden figures tend to run bigger, somewhere around 1/32nd so you end up with these six foot plus / two metre Japanese.

I like that Kurogane! I might pick one up and Ratrod it or something 

OMG! If you do this post it Sprue One, I'd love to see it!

It had a tiny two cylinder engine, I think our lawn mower has more horse-power. Putting a big engine and maybe a blower on it would be pretty awesome!

The kit does come with the engine too, so you can pose it with the hood up. You get a top up or top down option. Only thing I really don't like is the doors are molded shut and you'd have to cut them to have them open. 

BTW: I did find a site with a bunch of photos while trying to find out how much horse-power the car had.

http://www.primeportal.net/trucks/yuri_pasholok/type_95_scout_car/

Yeah, I totally will. . .  if and when I start that project

Thanks for posting the link.

Yeah same here on the M36E8, just way too much stuff on the plate. Takes me a few seconds to come up with ideas and then monthes to get something built- big bottleneck there...