How to do a quick build on a Tamiya tank?

I built that kit a couple years ago, and if I recall, it was one of the easiest I'd done in a while. Armor is great because you can glue almost everything together before painting. Then douse it in olive drab, let that dry, and weather the hell out of it. Easy peasy. 

--Chris

Pretty much what Chris just said. I've got that kit on my bench still. 

The .50cal needs to be replaced, as the kit part is in need of rebuilding, and the tracks could use replacing as we'll. 

other than that, it's okay right out of the box for a quick build.

But don't over weather it if you're going to use the stock decals. The American markings are from here in the states. It would have been well taken care of and not beaten up.

Perfect subject for a quickie, lol.

One curiousity about it. In particular for a first time tank model.

The cover art shows the vehicle from the REAR, with the turret traversed all the way around and facing the viewer, the commander looking that way etc. As such, the pattern on the tracks are backwards if the modeler is placing them on while looking at the FRONT of the tank. V's going up seen from the back, pointed down seen from the front.

When you paint the wheels OFF of the tank, spray them black. Then use a circular stencil like a circle template to spray the centers green.

Have you ever done a quick build before? For those I plan the sequence ahead. Start by painting any stuff that needs dry time, say for a second color to be masked and applied. That'd be the wheels. Other than that, this is pretty much a shake-the-box kit.

All this sounds very straight forward----

What about the tracks??

Thanks for the advice guys!

You can use the kit tracks. They fit pretty tightly so there's no slack, but they lack any surface details on the inside.

I prefer plastic individual links. You can make them look pretty realistic if you paint them up nice. 

Sprue brothers has some in stock. They ship pretty quickly as well.

I need to ask a more basic question---

what kind of paint do you use on those rubbery kit tracks? What paint would stick? Do you paint them off or on the tank?

That tank kit is easily built in a daylong session. If you go straight OOB and do not add anything to it. 

The vinyl tracks are easily painted with enamels. Just don't be tempted to roll it on the working tracks- any paint will flake off, acrylic or enamel. Most acrylic paints will also work on those tracks.

When painting the vinyl tracks I prefer using krylon ultra flat black. the "bonds with plastic" formula doesn't flake off.

Dry brush with steel, paint the track pads NATO black (or any super dark grey) and then use a dirt wash to complete them.

That'll give you the results you want for realistic tracks on a well maintained M-47.

Head over to the Weekend Group Build, in the Group Builds section of the forum.  Lostagain is building Tamiya's 1/48 JS-3 as we speak.  You're more than welcome to join us.