Pawel

Meanwhile I would like to ask you for help - does anybody know any cool paint scheme for this tank? I could paint it OD with white stars, and I'm also thinking about doing it as an ARVN tank, but if anybody could point me to some camo scheme or winter exercise scheme, I would probably go this way.

So - thanks in advance for your help, and please stay tuned for updates.

Have a nice day

Paweł

 

I built this one back in '70. It was the motorized version but was lost in action in the great BB Gun Wars of 1972.

The beauty of modeling the M41 is that it was extensively sold to other countries so the camo patterns available are almost endless. 

There is a particularly interesting New Zeeland pattern I have considered for the kit in my stash.

There are loads of pictures just search M41 New Zeeland. 

It is a good starter kit, but, as you said, needs lots of work to bring it up to current standards.  At a minimum, I would add the stiffening strips on the sides of the tool boxes.  A few small add-ons, but a big improvement.

As to paint schemes, pretty much all US versions were overall OD.  I have seen them w/a "whitewash" winter camo scheme and a large green triangle for exercises (can't find a pic now).

Taiwan used them until recently and had them in a variation of NATO camo.  

Taiwan Is Giving Up Its M41A3 Walker Bulldog Tanks After More Than Six Decades Of Service (thedrive.com)

The final years in Alaskan US Army service was where they were painted white.  There is one at the Fairbanks NG Armory with 2 others at the Fort Greeley ranges where obviously one couldn't get close to examine them.

It's also a good kit to try stuff on. I was ready to paint an ROK M47 but didn't want to do something "new" on it so I pulled the Tamiya M41 out of the back of the case that I'd built a while ago and used it to try brush-painting the camo over green. Plus, I have $9 invested in the kit and AFV Club tracks, and it was fun:

IMG_3779 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Saudi Arabia also had some in a two-tone sand/green camo.

Cool kit!  

This is a fun kit, built by many younger modelers for many years. It looks like the quintesstial American Army tank, green paint and white star.

I hope you have fun with it. I bought one at Hobby Lobby for less than $10 last year.

Yup, it's a fun, simple kit. I built mine as ARVN back in the early 90's

Cool!Didn't they use them In Full Metal Jacket?

Hello everybody!

Thanks a lot for your comments!

Good info on those New Zealand, Taiwan and Saudi tanks, I'll think about that.

Russ - how about that MERDC - is that how Koreans painted it? As for the economics I think I can beat you with 0$ so far - I got the tank as a gift and the tracks were leftovers!

And I also have some photos for you. Like Gino wrote I added the ribs at the sides, replaced some grabhandles with wire and I also replaced the headlight guards with sheet metal:

On the turret there's also still some work to do - I plan to replace the jerry cans with something more shapely, for example:

On the hull I have a better pioneer tool rack and I also have to add the exhaust for the APU (missing completely from the kit).

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Eugene Rowe

Cool!Didn't they use them In Full Metal Jacket?

 

Don't forget to add the hull lifting eyes on the glacis plate near the headlights.

I thought so!

The Marine Corps M41 in Full Metal Jacket was just for the movie, right?  I don't recall the Marines ever actually using the M41.  Is that correct?

To the best of my knowledge, the M41 never saw any combat in any theater. It was used solely between conflicts. I believe I have a book on it and that is where I found this out while building mine.

BK

BrandonK

To the best of my knowledge, the M41 never saw any combat in any theater. It was used solely between conflicts. I believe I have a book on it and that is where I found this out while building mine.

BK

 

...By the U.S.

They saw a fair bit of combat (with very mixed success rates) by the ARVN and a couple of other countries. 

Eugene Rowe

Cool!Didn't they use them In Full Metal Jacket?

 

They were also the American tanks in Patton. Ironicly enough the German tanks in the movie were... Pattons!

They were also used in loads of other shows and movies. Often foreign films since so many countries had them.

https://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Cadillac&model=M41+%27Walker+Bulldog%27&page=1

BrandonK

To the best of my knowledge, the M41 never saw any combat in any theater. It was used solely between conflicts. I believe I have a book on it and that is where I found this out while building mine.

BK

 

The Japanese used them in defense against Godzilla and other movie monsters. They probably used this very same tank kit.

Nice work Pawel, I like all of those great camo schemes for the different nationalities. 

BrandonK

To the best of my knowledge, the M41 never saw any combat in any theater. It was used solely between conflicts. I believe I have a book on it and that is where I found this out while building mine.

BK

 

The ARVN used it rather successfully against the NVA's T-54s/Type 59s in 1971 and 1972. As a light tank against an MBT, it should have had no chance, but they prevailed in many encounters.

I made mine as a post Korean War vehicle.

Looks good!

Pawel. my ROK scheme was purely fictional. I did it an an exercise only, just to see what it would look like with the camo colors brushed on over a sprayed-on green, my first time doing so.  I learned to thin the colors and use more than one coat to eliminated brush strokes.

I like the looks of yours so far, pretty much the same things I did to mine when I built it.

RBaer

Pawel. my ROK scheme was purely fictional. I did it an an exercise only, just to see what it would look like with the camo colors brushed on over a sprayed-on green, my first time doing so.  I learned to thin the colors and use more than one coat to eliminated brush strokes.

I like the looks of yours so far, pretty much the same things I did to mine when I built it.

 

It looks good to me and, who knows, perhaps a gate guard was painted like that once upon a time.

When I was a lieutenant in Germany, our company area had an M4A1E8 Sherman and the battalion headquarters had an M24 Chaffee in front. Both vehicles were painted in the standard MERDC scheme we used on our 151 Jeeps, M113s, M60A3s, etc.

Somewhere on facebook are photos of them. Probably our 5/77 Armor Steel Tigers page.

Looking good Pawel I like what you've done. 

Pawel,

You are making me look at my stalled M41 project!

Are you going to add the mantlet dust cover?  I was trying to figure out the best way to do it, since it has some framed openings.

Mine will be finished as an ARVN machine with striped camouflage.

Hello everybody! Thanks a lot for your comments!

Yup, showing this baby exactly as it appeared in FMJ is definitely an option here, but it's not what I personally have in mind, though...

Stik - thanks for the heads up, and I'm on it!

Tiger II - lookin' good! Nice and clean! And it isn't green neither, and that's a good thing.

Russ - gotcha, thanks a lot!

Rob - yeah, a gate guard could be an option here...

Real G - I thought about adding the mantlet cover from milliput, but my daughter stressed that it's very important for her that the gun barrel stays movable... I think I'll just add the brackets and wires, kinda like the mantlet cover burned or rotted away completely.

I've noticed that ARVN scheme, too, but I'd need at leat one photo of an actual vehicle painted like this to attempt it - does anybody know such a picture? How did the decal company come up with a scheme like this?

Right now after some thinking we're going to go with an ARVN tank - maybe not so colorful, but we'll put a lot of "stuff" on it to maki it more interesting.

And I have a little update for you:

As you can see I added the lifting rings Stik was talking about - it's 1mm copper wire with milliput welds. There's also a brass tool rack I had laying around in my spare parts box and the APU muffler I made out of solid styrene - it still needs some pipes and some brackets.

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Looks good Pawel! The brass parts really bring the vintage kit up to speed. 

Gamera - thanks a lot!

Took me a lot of time, but I think I got all the basic updates done now. Here's what they look like:

As you can see I also started working on stowage:

I have also put some work into upgrading the "Ma" - I replaced the Tamiya part with one from the cool Academy's "Tank Supplies" kit. I have also scratchbuilt a flash suppressor and the charging handle (there was even a hole for it already there). I have also found an ammo box tray among unused PE parts and replaced the barrel handle with wire:

Making this photo also paid off by letting me spot a knockout pin mark I missed...

So far I'm building this at no cost so to say - apart from the kit I got as a gift everything else is either scratchbuilt or comes from the spares box! Cool isn't it?

I think it's about time I started painting, so I wanted to ask you for advice - what paint could I use for the elastic AFV Club tracks, that wouldn't flake with time?

One more thing I'm contemplating is the crew - I'm not sure if I'll add them, the driver's and commander's hatches are stil operational, but the figs would have to be scratchbuilt...

Anyhow - thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł