DC Comics 1/72 - The Haunted Tank (M3 Stuart)

[strobez]

So here's the other active project I have on the go related to DC Comics WWII heroes... and one of my favourites - The Haunted Tank.

What a great concept. Lt. Jeb Stuart, commander of an M3 Stuart tank... haunted by the ghost of JEB Stuart. have many adventures in the European theatre during WWII. Getting the M3 tank was relatively easy - and I didn't have to twist my own arm very much to grab another of the 1/72 scale Hasegawa boxes.  Getting a ghost of JEB Stuart? That was a bit trickier. I settled on a set of 1/32 scale US Civil War figures. At first I had a thought to recast the horse and rider using a clear resin, but that proved to be a bridge too far - too many bubbles, to many mould errors, too sticky.

In the end, I decided to just paint the original figures white.  Still a bit of a challenge though because the plastic is very hard to work with. It's a kind of vinyl that doesn't respond well to sanding (makes it fuzzy) and even harder to paint. Oh well, if it was easy, anyone could do it.



I really love these old Hasegawa (Minicraft) boxes.



Not a ton of sprues... more rubber tank treads.



Relatively easy to put together.



1/72 M3 Stuart tank... 1/32 General JEB Stuart...



I only need one general and one horse for this project...



Size comparison looks about perfect.



Yeah... this is gonna work! I can feel it!



Hmmm... which horse....?



Let's get all the wheels sorted out.



Starting to come together now.



Wheels assembled, painted and glued in place.



Not sure what that sausage was supposed to be, but JEB needs a better sword...



Two-part mould completed... let's see if this works!



Yeah... no. This was a bit too tricky to attempt. Too many bubbles, missing limbs, shifting moulds... darn. Back to Plan A I guess.



Meanwhile, back at the tank. Drilled out the barrel and added the last fiddly bits.



Last few bits painted.  I think the ghost needs a few more coats of white paint though...

[tigercat]

I'm pretty sure I've seen glow in the dark paint somewhere.

It's Revell

[strobez]

Now THAT is a great idea.

[strobez]

Hmmm... it seems this whole THREAD is haunted as it has mysteriously ended up locked. Maybe it was the ghost of JEB Stuart... spooky.

Anyway, it should be unlocked now.  Hopefully rickshaw will post his comment to me about using varnish on the soft plastic figures before painting. It seems like a very useful comment for more than just me.

[tigercat]

Have been doing some research and have discovered something called a Jigsaw Tsnk  . Will we be seeing one ?

[strobez]

Have been doing some research and have discovered something called a Jigsaw Tsnk  . Will we be seeing one ?

There's a plan... The Jigsaw tank is the ultimate WHIF, put together in the tank graveyard after the M3 Stuart is destroyed.  It's basically an M-41 turret on a T-34 chassis.

[tigercat]

I love it when a plan comes together

[Mossie]

Interesting. 
Culture Hustle do some excellent glow in the dark pigments which you add to an acrylic base.  You can add it to resin as well if you want to have another try at casting.
https://culturehustle.com/products/lit-the-worlds-glowiest-glow-pigment-100-pure-lit-powder-by-stuart-semple

[rickshaw]

As per your request.  Based on experience, gained many, many years ago when I was a wargamer, I used to dip my soft-plastic Airfix figures in a cellulose varnish before paining, to provide a better surface for the paint to adhere to.  I still have some of those figures and they still are painted.  The paint adheres much better with a surface which it can stick to.   I used to dip them whole into the varnish and then let it drain off and dry.  Over 40 years later the paint still is sticking quite well.   

[chrisonord]

Humbrol used to do tinlets of glow in the dark paint  it was quite some time ago, I  used on sea fishing rod tips. It might still be available.
Chris

[strobez]

Just a quick update. I went and got some airbrush-able "glow in the dark" paint.  So far, based on the test drop, nothing is glowing... so... further exploration will be required.

Meanwhile, I got the tank itself more or less done.



I painted up all the extra little bits and gave the whole thing a coat of Future. A bit shiny, but the weathering should take care of it.



And voila. Weathering was accomplished by using Tamiya's pane line wash (as usual). One thing I discovered, Tamiya enamel paints don't seem to be (widely) available in Canada. One guy at the hobby shop said "Tamiya makes enamels?" so that doesn't lead me to believe they've every really been available, so it doesn't look like a temporary set back. I may have to seek out an online supplier.  I liked using the enamels for brushing on a few details. The Future coating makes it easy to correct small mistakes.  After some hustling, I was able to get my hands on a strange-sized bottle of X-20 thinner, so at least I can clean up the excess panel line wash (which begs the question... why aren't these two items sold side-by-side).  I'll just have to chalk it up to yet another difference between hobby shops in Korea vs. in Canada.

I also had a bit of an adventure with the rubber tank treads.  The instructions call for the tab at the end to be heated and (presumably) squished together to form a bond.  I tried doing that with a pair of tweezers and a candle and only succeeded in melting through both ends quite quickly... less is more I guess. I also found it difficult to wrap the treads around the intended loop. The fit was hard to do and I ended up snapping a wheel off in the process.  In the end I settled for a bit of white glue to keep the treads on the wheels.

I should also give a shout out to Doc's Decal Solution - a homebrew that was given to me by a modeller in Seoul just before I left. It did a great job getting ancient white star decals to sit down nicely. I might have to contact him again and see if there's some way to get some more.

[PR19_Kit]

IIRC those 'glow in the dark' paints have to be 'loaded' with light first, so you need to leave them sitting in a well lighted area for a while, and then when it's dark they'll glow properly.

Might be worth a try Greg.

[strobez]

I thought I left it to "charge up" enough. I'm wondering if it will work well with LED lights rather than the older incandescent ones... 

[Mossie]

UV torches work best, I just got one for my girls glow in the dark planet set she has hanging from the ceiling.  Works better than a normal torch.

[Old Wombat]

Modern "glow-in-the-dark" paints use a UV activated "stored energy" to produce the glow.

Phosphorescent paint is commonly called "glow-in-the-dark" paint. It is made from phosphors such as silver-activated zinc sulfide or doped strontium aluminate, and typically glows a pale green to greenish-blue color. The mechanism for producing light is similar to that of fluorescent* paint, but the emission of visible light persists long after it has been exposed to light. Phosphorescent paints have a sustained glow which lasts for up to 12 hours after exposure to light, fading over time.

Old school luminous paints used radio-active elements.

Radioluminescent paint is a self-luminous paint that consists of a small amount of a radioactive isotope (radionuclide) mixed with a radioluminescent phosphor chemical. The radioisotope continually decays, emitting radiation particles which strike molecules of the phosphor, exciting them to emit visible light. The isotopes selected are typically strong emitters of beta radiation, preferred since this radiation will not penetrate an enclosure. Radioluminescent paints will glow without exposure to light until the radioactive isotope has decayed (or the phosphor degrades), which may be many years. Because of safety concerns and tighter regulation, consumer products such as clocks and watches now increasingly use phosphorescent rather than radioluminescent substances. Radioluminescent paint may still be preferred in specialist applications, such as diving watches.



*: The fluorescent chemicals in fluorescent paint absorb the invisible UV radiation, then emit the energy as longer wavelength visible light of a particular color. Human eyes perceive this light as the unusual 'glow' of fluorescence. The painted surface also reflects any ordinary visible light striking it, which tends to wash out the dim fluorescent glow. So viewing fluorescent paint requires a longwave UV light which does not emit much visible light. This is called a black light. It has a dark blue filter material on the bulb which lets the invisible UV pass but blocks the visible light the bulb produces, allowing only a little purple light through. Fluorescent paints are best viewed in a darkened room.


Data from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_paint