Takom Type 69-II with Ammo by Mig paint set

Background:

    I was poking around on the Ammo by Mig website, when I noticed they had paired some models with paint sets. It seemed like a good way to get everything for a project for a reasonable price. I really like the Ammo paints because they seem well formulated for my airbrush. I'm not very confident yet at mixing my own colors and thinning them appropriately, so this is takes away a lot of the hassle. I looked at a French auto-loader, but ultimately settled on this Chinese tank in Iraqi service. I've always been interested in the Gulf War as it's one of the first world events I really remember. 
 

 Construction

    Looking at the kit, the thing that made me nervous was the slat armor around the turret. I was a little worried it would be made of or include photo-etched parts. Those can add a lot of detail but I find them a bear to work with. There was a lot of nice PE on the kit, but fortunately the slats were plastic. They had deep slots cut into them so the pieces fit together naturally. As I assembled them, I put a little sticky-tack on the attachment points on the turret. This allowed me to assemble the armor and fiddle with it while the plastic weld was still soft to make sure it would fit correctly. Then, I could remove the slats and paint them separately. Otherwise, I figured they'd get knocked off when I manhandled the tank during the painting and weathering process. 


   

    I've found learned to leave a few parts loose during construction and painting to make the tank easier to handle. It's difficult on many tank models to fit and remove the turret. You often have to press down and turn with a significant amount of force and it's easy to break off grab handles and finer parts by accident. On this tank, I left both turret hatches hatches so I could stick my fingers in there to hold it for painting or to put it on or take it off the hull. 

    The tracks were single links and so it was a challenge to get them in place and keep them on the tank. I taped a thin strip of tape sticky-side up on my work station. I built a section of track on the tape. Then I hit the connection points with Tamiya's extra thin cement. I waited about a minute for the plastic to bond, but not set. I then cut the piece of tape free and wrapped it around the wheels. I left each track in sections so I could take it off for painting and weathering.



Painting and Weathering

    For painting, I followed a guide from the Modeling News that you can find here. 

    In general, I primed the metal parts of the tank with Mr. Surfacer mahogany. That makes a nice oxidized metal to reveal through scratches and chipping. I did the side-skirts in black as those were made of rubber on the real tank. I then coated the whole thing with AK heavy chipping. On top of that I sprayed the camouflage pattern using the paints in the set I bought with the tank. 

    I've never had a good experience with chipping. I probably need more practice. I've tried with both hairspray and professional chipping fluids. I find the paint never wants to come off and I wind up scrubbing and scrubbing. I might be applying paint too thickly over the chipping solution. I might also be waiting too long after applying. In any case, I did my best. I then sealed the model with a gloss varnish and applied the decals. I sealed it again with a matt varnish. I then applied the desert vehicles filter from Ammo by Mig and desert pigments. I found the pigment fixer made it look too clumpy, so I scraped some off and reapplied without for a nice dusty look. 





Conclusions

   The Takom kit went together really well. I still have a lot to learn about model construction. I broke off some smaller parts and the tank is missing its tow-cable because I lost the hooks. The tracks look a little better than the last single link set I built, but I could still use some work. This was the most PE I had ever used. It was a challenge, but it definitely helps the realism when you get it into place. Chipping remains a struggle. I think my next tanks will be "better maintained," so I can take a break. I really liked the Ammo filter. It pulled the camouflage scheme together and made it feel more unified and realistic. This was only my fourth tank. I learned a lot and I had fun. It helped get me through part of the Covid-19 quarantine.
 


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