Quote from: Old Wombat on August 26, 2019, 02:59:42 AM

Not sure about the yellow stripes - I never understood them. Maybe lots of little pink spots? After all, doesn't every battle in Japan occur in Spring with the cherry blossoms dropping their petals to be blown in the wind?

The box art of one of the IBG kits I was looking at had the particular Japanese medium tank surrounded by cherry blossom trees 

Pre-decal/transfer gloss coat going on.

Hopefully get the very few decals done tonight after work. Then gloss coat again before weathering.

The tracks are a b@r$tard, typical Tamiya rubber band jobbies. Too tight (designed for the motorised toy version), so I have to work out how to get the slack on them for the loose return run on the Panther.


(PS: I discovered, with a little research, that the Japanese stopped putting the yellow stripes on their tanks in late-1942/early-1943, which is about when the Kuroi-hyō entered full production. Therefore, no yellow on this beastie.)

In order to simulate the hang on the upper run of track, Guy, what I do is sew the upper run to either the lower run or around the wheel axles with black thread.  It usually works well and it allows you to adjust the amount of hang.   

Thanks, Brian!

I'll give that a bash, see how it goes, otherwise, I'll just leave a gap in the bottom run & cover it with "mud" or "water" in a diorama.

TC & basic weathering happening.

Neither's as good as I'd hoped but that comes down to my impatience & desire for a faster build. Still, generally not unhappy with how she's coming along.

I'll try to get some pic's tomorrow.

Camo came out great. Can't wait to see it on the dio.

Thanks, Ramba!

I'm struggling with the tracks, right now.



(Ye Gods, how I HATE Tamiya vinyl tracks! )

Any news here. In the meantime I have been thinking of a potential German tank import, too, but did not find a conclusion yet, since German tanks tended to become bigger and bigger - not the Japanese style, which was rather light and compact.

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on September 06, 2019, 02:59:03 AM
Any news here. In the meantime I have been thinking of a potential German tank import, too, but did not find a conclusion yet, since German tanks tended to become bigger and bigger - not the Japanese style, which was rather light and compact.

Good timing, Dizzy!

Just came aboard to upload some photo's.

The observant will notice that the tracks are missing & I haven't started the dio (well, that last bit's nothing new ). I've caved in & I'm about to order some styrene individual tracks which will drive me insane but anything's better than the Godzawful Tamiya offerings (6 types of glue - none worked on the tracks - & the styrene spare track links are pathetic).

Any way, here are the pic's:







Believe it or not, there's a driver in here somewhere!


To compensate, here's the TC (the driver is actually a better job but you'll just have to take my word for it).


Some front quarter shots:




This one shows some hits & misses in the weathering on the bow:


You may well notice the gloss showing through the slightly crackled flat finish: Impatience did that, I forgot that gloss takes longer to dry, as it has to out-gas through a less porous surface.

You may also notice the crazing of the green paint on the turret sides: That occurred when I gloss coated but I have no idea why, as the same paint was used over the entire hull & this is almost the only place it was effected like this.

So, there you have it. Hope you like it. All constructive comments welcome.


Cheers!

 

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on September 06, 2019, 02:59:03 AM
Any news here. In the meantime I have been thinking of a potential German tank import, too, but did not find a conclusion yet, since German tanks tended to become bigger and bigger - not the Japanese style, which was rather light and compact.

A one man tankette based on the rear of a Kettenkraftrad?

Guy, what I do with rubber tracks is use a stapler to first staple them together and place the staples on the top run of tracks where they will be hidden.  Then as already mentioned, sew the top run to the lower run.  No glues are necessary.  Indeed, glue is to be avoided!   

Looking good mate 

Thanks, gents!

Quote from: rickshaw on September 06, 2019, 05:43:05 AM
Guy, what I do with rubber tracks is use a stapler to first staple them together and place the staples on the top run of tracks where they will be hidden.  Then as already mentioned, sew the top run to the lower run.  No glues are necessary.  Indeed, glue is to be avoided!   

Yeah, unfortunately the upper run isn't going to be hidden behind skirts & the bottom run is pretty visible, too. I tried the thread system ... it didn't work.

The Panther has what seems to be a simple hanging track which, it turns out, is not as simple as it looks, they actually make special track-aligning forms just for Panther tracks.

Anyway, I had to buy something to replace the spare track links, so I may as well go the whole hog. Besides, the tracks I found aren't that expensive, so I'm quite happy with that.

Terrific job on the weathering. Looks perfect!

That's looking very good.