Thinking tanks

[Gondor]

To answer a couple of your questions Kit.

Tanks are usually powered by "power packs" these days which consist of a fully removable, all in one set up of engine and transmission which includes the grearbox. Just think of it as a Lancaster Merlin Power Egg or something simmilar.. The bulk of the parts is probably due to the real parts have gears and the like inside them.
The parts at the front that are fitted to the hull with the screw and nut are the front idelers which means they are unpowered as the drive for the tracks is at the back where the power pack is. The front ideler also has track tensioners which move them forwards or back to take up or create slack in the tracks which can and do over time lengthen through wear and tear so the tensioners keep them in tension so they don't bounce off the drive sprockets which pulls the tank over the part of the track that is in contact with the ground and the drive sprockets are attatched to the power pack!

Now those flimsy things sticking out the sides are used to hold the side armour/skirt away from the tracks and wheels and the tracks. These used to be called Bazoka Plates as they were supposed to stop Bazoka's from damageing the tanks track or wheels and probably dates from the 40's and 50's.

As for painting, it's a bit like all other modelling, up to the individual as to what is done and when.  Study the instructions and decide if your haveing any hatches open etc as this will help you decide what you can get away with not painting. The turret you will be able to paint seperatly from the hull which gives you nice big holes to put fingers into to hold the parts when your painting them. As you would do for some of your airlines, look at refference pictures and video to see how dirty the tank can look in different weather and enviroment as that will influence how you paint it as well.

Hope this helps

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I've just got to section 3 in the instructions by which time all the wheels are in place. To my utter amazement they all rotate! 

Does this mean it's designed so I can push it around the floor and its tracks will work, while I'm making 'Brrm Brrm' noises and 'BANG!' when I 'fire the gun?

I'd never have thought that would be something a firm like Tamiya would even contemplate, but I does recall that some of the very early Tamiya armour kits that I built in the 60s (mainly to produce real English instruction sheets....) had motors an battery packs as well.

The front idlers are the ones with the nuts and bolts so I guess I can adjust the tightness of the tracks once they're installed using those idlers.

Looking at pics of tanks in the Berlin Brigade scheme that I want to use on it, it looks like they kept the lower part of the tank, the hull, wheels and transmission etc. in the original NATO green scheme, so that should make life easier.

[jcf]

Polycaps to attach roadwheels via friction fit have been standard in Tamiya armour
kits for yoinks, along with some other brands, it makes it easy to attach the wheels
after the hull and the wheels have been painted. You just push them on.

I've found that they also aid in attaching 'rubber band' tracks as the ability of the
wheels, and sprockets/idlers, to move allows you too 'roll' the tracks on with less
stress on the 'axles' etc.

As to painting, most of the armour modellers I know assemble the entire model,
except for little external 'breaky off bits', spray the whole thing flat black, airbrush
or rattle-can, and then apply the topcoat colour(s).

[Gondor]

I sudgest that you don't try to run the tank along anything with or without the sound effects once the tracks are on as they will be rather tight and can break off parts of the running gear.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Phew, thanks goodness for that. I'd hate to think I was missing out some purpose of the model that Tamiya had designed into it. 

No 'Brrm Brrming' around here for sure.

Some of the more complex construction steps are a trifle obscure, and in a couple of places they'd indicated where a part goes without actually showing it on the pic. 

I'm slowly getting the hang of it though, it needs a different sort of thought process to building an aircraft, most of which I can do by instinct these days. 

[buzzbomb]

Looking at pics of tanks in the Berlin Brigade scheme that I want to use on it, it looks like they kept the lower part of the tank, the hull, wheels and transmission etc. in the original NATO green scheme, so that should make life easier.

If I may offer some advice if you are doing a Berlin Brigade type scheme
I have done a couple in that scheme, both the Chieftain and an FV432


I would recommend that you get all the big flatty type bits together, which is most of the build,  but not put on things like lights, tow cables, smoke dischargers.. basically anything that sticks out too far.
That type of scheme is a hard edge scheme so should ideally be masked. It is a progressive process as you mask over each area for the next colour.

What I tend to do is construct all the lights, smoke launchers etc as far as possible, stick them on tape on a card, then paint them as you paint each successive layer of paint, where appropriate.

I really do hope you have fun doing this kit
BTW, I have doing a Chally in Berlin Brigade type Urban camo on my list of wanna do's so really interested in this build
Under trial in 2017

[PR19_Kit]

You certainly may offer advice, I'm WELL out of my depth here! And thanks very much, I take your points about painting the flat bits without the 'stuff' mounted.

The Challie has LOTS of 'stuff' on the rear and that's already in place so I may have to do that with a different method, but I'll do the rest as you suggest.

That pic of the Berlin Brigade Challies is in the Haynes book, together with a few more, and I have an official looking diagram of the scheme as used on the Chieftains that I remember from 1978, but I may use different colours as I'm working on a backstory that would make sense of them using that sort of scheme.

[Old Wombat]

Hi, Kit!

For what it's worth here's my advice (there are better than me out there - buzzbomb for example):


Leave the running gear (road wheels, idler wheels, drive wheels & tracks) off until after painting.

You can fit the skirts (they're the big armoured plates on the sides) for painting (I'd especially advise this if doing a multi-colour scheme) BUT don't glue them on until later.

Actually, unless you're doing a monochrome colour scheme, build & fit (that's not always the same as glue) as much of the model as you can together during the painting, with the gun barrel facing directly forward.

Then make sure you put the running gear on before gluing the skirts on.

Tank multi-colour schemes can take a bit more time to prepare for (lots of little creases & crevasses to mask through) paint but they're not really any more difficult than aircraft schemes.

Just take your time & work through each step, think ahead to the painting & ask yourself "Can I get to this for painting when everything is put together?" If not "Does it need to be painted?" If not, build over it. If it does, ask "What do I need to leave off to paint it or can I paint it after everything else is painted?"


Building tanks is as easy (& as complicated) as building aircraft, it's figuring out the order of execution that's the trick.

[Dizzyfugu]

Hi, Kit!

For what it's worth here's my advice (there are better than me out there - buzzbomb for example):


Leave the running gear (road wheels, idler wheels, drive wheels & tracks) off until after painting.

You can fit the skirts (they're the big armoured plates on the sides) for painting (I'd especially advise this if doing a multi-colour scheme) BUT don't glue them on until later.

Actually, unless you're doing a monochrome colour scheme, build & fit (that's not always the same as glue) as much of the model as you can together during the painting, with the gun barrel facing directly forward.

Then make sure you put the running gear on before gluing the skirts on.

Tank multi-colour schemes can take a bit more time to prepare for (lots of little creases & crevasses to mask through) paint but they're not really any more difficult than aircraft schemes.

Just take your time & work through each step, think ahead to the painting & ask yourself "Can I get to this for painting when everything is put together?" If not "Does it need to be painted?" If not, build over it. If it does, ask "What do I need to leave off to paint it or can I paint it after everything else is painted?"


Building tanks is as easy (& as complicated) as building aircraft, it's figuring out the order of execution that's the trick.

Second that. I found that building as many components (hull, turret, running gear parts) completely and painting/weathering them separately before final assembly (and a final overall weathering step, e.g. with pigments) is most effective for me. In 1:35 I'd just leave some small bits like crew equipment off and add them after basic painting - in 1:72 you can normally put anything on the model and paint it together. It's IMHO helpful to think and work from this final assembly stage backwards, otherwise you will run into painting problems.

[zenrat]

To add to the fun Kit, each road wheel has a rubber tyre which for accuracies sake you "should" paint black.

[Pellson]

Ooooh, that's soooo nice!!

That Fv432 - what scale, and if the Divine Scale (1/72-1/76), what kit?

[Dizzyfugu]

To add to the fun Kit, each road wheel has a rubber tyre which for accuracies sake you "should" paint black.

Yeah, that's why Panzer IVs are so much fun...

[PR19_Kit]

To add to the fun Kit, each road wheel has a rubber tyre which for accuracies sake you "should" paint black.

I know that already. My last employers, MTS Systems Inc. sold a tank tyre tester to the AVRE (Armoured Vehicles Research Establishment) at Chertsey and I used to look after it. Sometime in the early 80s AVRE realised they could use it for contract testing other tyres as well as solid tank tyres, so they bought an upgrade for the machine which a) added another drum and b) increased the speed of both test drums.

One of the American guys, Bob Arneson, came over and he and I installed it, taking a couple of weeks to do the job. When we came to commission it AVRE were very pleased but asked us to add some extra safety features, one of which was a drum over-speed trip. To do this we had to accurately calibrate the rim speed of the drum, +- 1 mph, and I held a Smiths 'slave wheel' speedo against the drum as it whizzed past my nose at around 100 mph. 

It wouldn't trip, so Bob said 'The hell with, we'll just wind it up and see when it DOES trip'. Eventually it gave up at around 145 mph, so Bob phoned back to Minneapolis to ask why it was so fast. It turned out they'd built it to go 160 MILES per hour, and not 160 KILOMETERS per hour!

We suggested to the AVRE that they 'leak' the news that they had a 160 mph tank tyre testing rig out into the wide world, and the Soviets would give up right away! 

Actually, a few years later, they did.....

[NARSES2]

Moved as requested.

[Gondor]

That's a great yarn Kit 

Gondor