Its coming along nicely.  Good job on the paint.

Hello!

On the other forum it was pointed out to me, that the scratches on the turret side were just too extreme, so I smoothed them out a little - it needed some repainting after that:

I have also chipped the mufflers and started some further weathering, also painted the yellow rectangles that will become the ARVN "licence plates". As you can see the tracks are on, too - the photos will follow, soon:

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks a lot for your kind words, Chad!

You've really done great at imitating the red dirt in Vietnam! 

Hello MR TOM,

Thanks a lot for your comment!

That's not quite how I meant it, though... This red brown is supposed to be iron oxide, all right - but I wanted it to look like the red Vietnam earth deposited in the crevices of the hull... It's a bit like with a joke and having to explain it...

Have a nice day!

Paweł

Pawel, your M-41 is looking very good.  I like how the primer is barely visible through the OD.  Can't wait to see your next update.

tjs

Hello everybody!

Thanks again for your comments.

I made a test using Vallejo directly on the track - while it felt that it could work, the paint was very fragile - first scratch with a fingernail took the paint right off.

I was looking for a suitable spray paint and I have found a transparent plastic primer used in automotive. I applied Humbrol on top of that and that holds better. Let's give it some time now...

And I have some time now, so I decided to start painting. Here's all the stuff that had to be painted:

As you can see some parts are already primed, and some Humbrol 113 is already on. The mufflers are painted my custom-mixed rust.

On the photo above there's preshading done with Humbrol 113. There's hairspray and salt on the mufflers - this is about the only opportunity for me to try some serious chipping on an OD - painted vehicle!

And finally a layed of OD - here I traditionally use Humbrol 66. With some future on top of that the color is almost exactly spot on:

OK, so there will be some more weathering, a was ad maybe some streaks.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel, you're using the AFV Club one-piece tracks, right? I used Vallejo acrylic on the ones I did about five years ago, no issues with reactions between the paint and plastic  yet, and the paint adheres well, still on.

Rob Gronovius

The paint I use is an earth brown made by Rustoleum and designed to be used to paint resin lawn furniture and window shutters. Basically designed to stick to vinyl andexposre to weather.

 

That sounds good, if you can start with earth brown it seems easier than my using dark grey as primer and then painting a second coat over it. If it's designed to stick to vinyl lawn furniture it should work fine on rubber tracks. 

Good luck Pawel, and yeah please let us know how it goes. 

Gamera, Rob - thanks again, great ideas, I'll look up my local hardware and automotive stores and I'm pretty sure I can find something similar here. I'll keep you posted, have a nice day!

Paweł

The paint I use is an earth brown made by Rustoleum and designed to be used to paint resin lawn furniture and window shutters. Basically designed to stick to vinyl andexposre to weather.

Pawel: I carefully wash the tracks in detergent and then spray them with rubber bumper paint. It should be available at an auto parts store. It should provide a primer to paint over with other paint types.

This is what I use, not sure what brands you might have in Poland.  

Thanks for the idea, Rob! I might still try it with the paints I have locally. Did you have any particular brand in mind? I actually thought about doing it with brown first, just using an airbrush, it's just that I heard about paint flaking off those rubber tracks, even had it start happening on the Sherman I have built some time ago - luckily I wrapped the tracks up before it got really bad. At that time then I used old Testors metalizer for base colour, I heard that it's supposed to stick, but that was problematic.

I think I'll give it a try unless somebody has another idea?

Have a nice day!

Paweł

If you were in the US, I'd tell you to head to Walmart and grab a brownish color of spray paint, zap both sides and use some dark and light gray paints to pick out some color on the details.

Old tank tracks sort of take on the color of dark metal like storm grates and manhole covers on city streets.

These tanks didn't see a long service life in the US Army. They never really got a chance to become old, worn out jalopies like some of our other medium tanks.

Stik, Gino, Rob - thanks a lot for your kind words, I'm glad you like my work.

Stik - what paint brands do you have in mind?

Any other ideas for painting those "rubber" tracks with?

Have a nice day!

Paweł 

stikpusher

Great update Pawel. You're really dressing up this old Bulldog! 

I agree. This kit is one of the classic kits of our youth, like the Monogram Patton.

I'll never not recommend this kit to someone looking to build their first tank model kit.

It just looks like a tank, big, green, with a white star.

Revell also did a snap tite Abrams kit that I've added to this list of recommended first tank kits.

That is looking really good.  Great job on it.

Great update Pawel. You're really dressing up this old Bulldog! 

As far as what paints to use on AFV CLub soft tracks, I'd say use a water based acrylic. I have not had good experiences with those tracks when I've painted them. They have tended to "self destruct" once paint goes on them.

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

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

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

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.

Looking good Pawel I like what you've done. 

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.

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.

Looks good!

I made mine as a post Korean War vehicle.

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.

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