Chaco War II tank

[frank2056]

I had a vague idea of various South American  hostilities, having  read Modern History  at some point in the previous millenium, but until this thread started  I had no idea of details.  I'm going off to find  out more. Anyone care to offer me a SHORT reading list?

The Wikipedia page is a pretty good start.

Also:

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/chaco.htm

http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n3/chaco.html

[NARSES2]

I always use my copy (I have two for some reason) of "The Encyclopedea of Milatary History" by Dupy and Dupy as a starter.

Liberators by Robert Harvey is a good starter for the Wars of Liberation :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liberators-Americas-Freedom-Struggle-Independence/dp/1841196231/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311345714&sr=1-1

[frank2056]

Thanks for all the camo suggestions so far. I looked up some pictures of the Chaco and used them to find good camo colors. A horizontal splotch of Earth brown with some dark green vertical squiggles works well:



There's an SUV parked behind the tank; I used it to scale and place the tank.

Same pattern, in more open terrain:



The lower hull will be dusty and weathered, so I'm not going to worry too much about that. Any idea on where I can find pictures of vehicles that have been scratched/scraped/dinged by trees and vegetation? I'm guessing that some of the mud/weathering will get scraped away, but I may have to add some dark red-black to spots where the paint has been scraped off the metal. Off to paint!

[rickshaw]

From my experience, when you do get down to bare metal, invariably it gets covered with mud, dust and other things very quickly.  Places where the crew tend to stand/tread are the ones which tend to have bare metal showing - because their boots will rub off mud/dust/etc, before covering it again with a fresh layer. 

[frank2056]

This is where the Chaco tank is at the moment, after painting and some weathering:



I tried a new technique for the mud on the lower hull. I mixed some Golden matte gel medium (it's an acrylic - Liquitex has the same type of material) with some cheap acrylic paint and dabbed it on. The gel dried in no time and really looks like caked mud... even though it's hard to see in these pictures.



The camo is sand splotches over green with some dark brown vertical squiggles, but the squiggle color was lost under the weathering. The bolts on the gun mantelet (and a few other spots) are from Archer Fine Transfers. The kit is missing bolts in some areas, probably due to mold limitations.



I also made a trailer with a fuel barrel; I'm not sure I'll keep it with this tank. If I do, most of the barrel will be covered with a tarp:



Working suspension:


Living dangerously:



And in the Chaco:

[GTX]

Looks good.

[Doc Yo]

 Very good! I'd heard about the Chaco war, ( and the horror that was the War of the Triple Alliance* ) and this is an interesting WHif on the
former, for sure. It reminds me of some of the Japanese tankettes.







*Amazing what you dig up reading up on 19th century Ironclads.

[frank2056]

It reminds me of some of the Japanese tankettes.

Thanks Craig. The tank bears a resemblance to the Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go

[Mossie]

The camo you've choosen looks great, suits the jungle terrain it'd come up across.