AFV Club 1/35 M41A3 Walker Bulldog

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much for your encouragement, Carlos. Sincerely. There must be close to thirty-five handles and grab holds to glue individually! I was painting the “drive wheels” and had enough left to give the large surface areas a light color treatment as well; some areas are nearly opaque, others less so, however now I am able to see and feel the textures—there is an area right behind the turret which depicts a massive weld bead very realistically; not too big or too small and even. I will post better photos but I was curious to see how the plastic surface reacted to paint, and I decided to use a light gray primer because that was what I had available... still the ODG lacquer is so... tasty!

[Stikpusher]

Yeah, Gunze OD paints, especially the older Aqueous type, give a very rich color appearance. If you black base, or do washes and dry brushed highlights, it really can give a most appealing look.

[speedgraflex]

Interesting how this is essentially monochrome. Would there be any variations in the factory finish color? I was actually going to try Mr. H’s ODG 1 as well just to see what it looks like by contrast... not to be a heretic as this is not final finish, simply to experiment.

[Stikpusher]

In US Army service, overall OD was standard. Possibly some whitewash for winter war games, plus usual markings. Here is a good color shot of a motor pool in Germany giving an idea of how they would look on a daily basis when not in the field.

[speedgraflex]

Thank you so much, Carlos! Man, that is a great photo! Reminds me of the Dropship from Aliens. “The exact shade of paint used on a variety of equipment in the film was based on the Humbrol colour 'Brown Bess,’ well known for its ambiguous appearance under lighting, with some examples appearing brown and others green when lit for filming.” (Propstore catalog blurb)

The small filming miniature.

[speedgraflex]

I just spent thirty minutes polishing a major seam line which should not be there but it is on the kit mantlet. Plus—in addition! Ahem! The sprue contact lugs for the part are on top, and very difficult to remove. In fact, I still am not sure I have removed these lugs and have left behind artifacts that I must polish out.

[Stikpusher]

Have a look here for more great photos... you may have to scroll down a bit...

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm? ... %20Div.htm

Brown Bess... that is one Humbrol color that I really miss. A nice dirty gray dark brown. No hint of red, and perfect for US rifle stocks.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much for the link, Carlos!

The trio of panels covering the engine compartment were very challenging for me. Near the end I was frazzled, and I quit. Fitting panels realistically is at least for me a real feat. *I wanted to clarify this—the quality of molding details is outstanding; the instructions are completely pictorial, and the mounting pins or shelves are... harder for me to suss intrinsically or intuitively (intuition being my operating system). I intuit that these coverings fit pretty well, but the louvered grating was quite a quandary to set in place—I was not sure of the piece butted the edge closest to the turret or closest to flap number one. I snapped one of the little lugs off the engine air grate (ah, nomenclature, yes!). Technical term: that d***n grate.

I could not find a candle, thanks to the recent power outages I have misplaced the box, but I did take a Bic lighter to a piece of sprue (akin to using a Flamethrower at scale) to make a stretched sprue nubbin to replace the snapped off piece....

One of my most important “Lessons from Carlos” concerns modeling reference, basically, “Use only actual reference (photos, blueprints) when modeling.”

[speedgraflex]

M41a3 MANTLET REFERENCE

[speedgraflex]

M41a3 TANK WHEEL

Never having built a tank wheel before I decided to take one from “soup to nuts,” as though this was a model in and of itself. I continued with outside research based on Carlos’s excellent link, and developed the following color palette:

• Primer: Mr. Surfacer 1000
  Color coat: Mr. Hobby Olive Drab 2
  OD2 weathering effect: AMMO [A.MIG-1203] Grime
  Rubber tire surface: Tru-Color Paint [TCP-009] Black
  Rubber tire effect 1: Mr. Sharpie Black Marker
  Rubber tire effect 2: Staedtler Graphite Dust

Tru-Color Paint comes from my Pops. When he died, I scrounged up all the bottles I could find in an old tackle box, and tasked a Box n’ Ship to send them safely from Florida to California. Real glad I did... maybe this is the company who took over for Floquil? I checked the internet and the company is still going strong with paint lines for aircraft, ships, armor and trains.