I decided I wanted to build an armor kit, so I perused my stash and found this kit. It is a modern Tamiya kit, and goes together very well, as modern Tamiya kits tend to do.

There isn't much to say about construction. Although attaching all the small parts to the hull and turret was rather laborious, it wasn't too difficult. The most difficult part was attaching the eleven angle brackets on each fender. As a matter of fact, I lost one, so the left side only has ten. I struggled a bit trying to attach them, until I realized the trick: put the top in, then use your thumb to push horizontally on the bar, and the bottom will snap into place.

The paint scheme was about as simple as it gets. Except for the silver ring about the barrel, for which I used Testors Silver Lacquer from their auto line, the rest of the tank is US Olive Drab. I actually used a mix of three parts XF-62 Olive Drab to one part XF-60 Dark Yellow. I ran across this mix on a web page, but I did not save the link. I think it was recommended by Steve Zalonga. The tires were painted Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black. I think I will go with actual black next time, as there isn't that much constrast between the wheel and the tire. The tracks and machine guns were painted my gun metal mix of one part XF-1 Flat Back and one part XF-56 Metallic Grey.

There were only six decals - five white stars and a label for the ammo box on the machine gun on the turret. I brush painted Future over those areas and then applied the decals. After that, I sprayed the entire kit with Future to provide a consistent gloss. It took quite a bit of spraying to make the rest of the kit as shiny as the areas that had been brush painted. I tried two different flat coats, first a mixture of Future with Tamiya Flat Base, and then Right Step matte. The airbrush I use for clears clogged up, so painting the flat coat was difficult.

After the flat coat had been applied, I attached the clear parts on the headlights. There are six clear windows in the ring around the commander's hatch on the turret. Tamiya provides clear parts, but they glue from the inside, and I didn't want to have to mask them, so I left them off. I used Krystal Klear (from the same folks who make Microset and Microsol) to make those windows. I got a little outisde the windows but didn't turn out half bad. I didn't do any weathering. I had also given some thought to using the commander figure that comes with the kit, but chickened out.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.