Wow, brush painted!?! I have a M60 I want to build in the MERDC scheme and thought about brush painting the small sand and black patches. I have some Vallejo paint in black, I'll have to see about picking up some sand and giving it a whirl! 

RBaer: That's the kit I was pricing...and you got it for $10 ?!?!?!  I told my son it would better to wait until the next contest vendor room and your reply CONFIRMS it!!!

Thanks for the info on the AM goodies...he's an OOB level builder, he'll be excited to just have the kit.  Thanks for taking the time to help me out. 

SMJ: It's kit number 35242, and I picked it up at a show for $10. It's a realy sweet heart of a kit too. I bought the Eduard etch set for it, also pretty affordable, under $20, and it's got a lot of useful parts in it, most notable being the screens for the turret baskets, for which Tamiya supplies their usual rather coarse nylon mesh. The kits engine cooling outlet covers are actually very well done, but the Eduard replacement parts are really nice too. It would be possible to do a totally OOB build on this kit, and leave off the turret baskets, as they weren't always fitted.

G, thanks. I'm following the painting guide in the Tamiya instructions, and using Vallejo paints for the camo colors, thinned slightly with good ol' tap water.. They go down really well with a brush, and so far aren't leaving any surface imperfections if you use slow strokes, and cover well too. The black is one coat, brown two.

Camo looks really good! 

RBaer

(Hi, my name is Russ and I use rattle cans) 

Hi Russ.

Any chance I could get the Tamiya kit # or a box art pic?  My son REALLY wants an A5 but the ones I've seen are $50+ on ebay/LHS but I think that's for the newer version.  If there's an old one available that would be great!  He's still a novice so the old Tamiya kits are perfect.

I'll have to show him your thread...nice work so far!

Some progress:

Basic camo on, next a coat of clear, then I can do a little detail painting and begin weathering.

Me too.

She looks good! Love to see you finish her and the T-62. 

So, two months since I touched this one. Wow.

In a fit of something or other, I cleaned up my cave, and once I had some bench space, I had room to take a pic of the Leo, with its new coat of green, not the tree frog color I first applied. I'm quite a bit happier with this as a base coat, so maybe now I can get moving again.

And just for kicks, I now have my entire stash of "virgin" kits out of my work area, in a separate cabinet the office next to me no longer wanted:

I feel much better now.

Its very nice to see some color on this beauty, Russ. Can't wait to see how this one turns out!  :)

Wow, talk about a "dropped project".....   I had a little time the other morining, and thought about working on the T-62, and then thought again. So instead, I grabbed this thing and shot some green, Tamiya IJA green. It sure is green, but I'm fairly confident a good wash will fix that.

Hmmm.....  new look?

I got a little bored last night, so I folded the rear mud flaps like all the pics I have or have seen....    and  I also have a fair pic of the smoke launchers with the caps and chains. Assembly is done, just need to head to the store for paint.

Karl-Heinz almost has a tank ready......

Thanks!

I've been watching the Tacom and Meng Leo builds, all look like really nice kits. I've been pondering the Meng Leo2A4 myself.

Thanks, mate!  

Good on ya, Russ. (Picked up that phrase from an Aussie friend, lol!)

Some more bits stuck on:

About all that's left now are the caps on the smoke dischargers and the antennae, then I do believe it's time for paint.

Thanks guys.

Yep, nothing beats real wire for a wire (rod) part.

I've been out of town and busy at work, but hope to get back on this cat soon.

Looking very good! Those grills are exactly what PE is good for.

The wire handles are a definite improvement and love those PE engine fan screens.

Yeah, there's definitely a good and bad side to PE.

I finished the engine deck last night, and the PE took about two hours. Yuck. And I skipped a lot of it. I thought the tool clamps looked just fine in the kit, and all this stuff is covered up by the turret overhang anyway. I used the parts for the saw and the shovel brackets at the scoop-end, but that was all I had the *** for.

Working..........on..............PE......................takes...............so.............much,,,,,,,,,,TI I I I I I I ME!!

Nice work with those wire grabs...I can honestly say that that's more than I would have done. :)

Mike, Pawel: Thanks. Wire's the only way to go here for sure.

Oh yeah - I'd use wire here, too - not only does it look better and stands up to more abuse, but it's also a nice economical (don't want to write cheap!) solution - doesn't cost much money or too much time compared to PE. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

I think you made a wise decision with those handles. They will lend more realism to the finish later. Not like you need any help with that lol.

I was moving along at a pretty good clip until I decided to use the brass.....  and then I looked at the Tamiya "grab-blades" and decided they had to come off, and Eduard supplied flat pieces, so about three hours later I have all the hull grab handles replaced with wire. I haven't even looked at the turret yet.....

Gents, thanks.

Karl, it's a tough shot, but I haven't found that little bit in ANY pics, so it's not going on for now.

Speaking of brass, I did some work on the engine deck last night, cooling air intake screens were time consuming, but went on okay. My only issue was due to me breaking one of the covers as I removed the center, which was actually pretty nice in the kit, but the etch looked really good. I'm staying with the kit exhaust covers, as the Eduard parts just look wrong, and once again the kit representation is good. A little creative painting should suffice here......

I put heavy black paper under the big screens so I wouldn't get any light up from underneath. I saw one build a while ago where the builder scratched the rather unusual fans, but they were invisible once the screen were on, so I felt just fine using black paper here.

Also done last night was the brass on the rear, rest of the driver's hatch parts, filling the slots in the tow cable ends in preparation for drilling them out to accept wire and some bits up front.

Pics:

Ah my apologies, I was thinking this was another of Tamiya's classic kits. I've always liked the look of the Leopard II, if I wasn't so piled up with stuff now I'd be tempted to pick one up.

She's looking good! I still hate PE, nice to see how well the Eduard set fits.

Sorry Russ, I guess I misunderstood your question, Hope you got the info you needed? Looks good to me so far!