1944 Cadillac (M24 Chaffee) in 1/76 ***COMPLETE***

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

A little side-line project :

~Finally I’'ve started on my trip down memory lane
~Although if memory serves, I never built any of these before, although as a small boy I built all manner of things for the even smaller ''HO" scale (but no words about trains here)

**Here it is Michel !! & Chris !!..**Somehow I’‘d agreed to join a G.B.(elsewhere) and build one of these----though I won’‘t be away from my big Dio build long! It’‘s a few 1st’'s for me~~ 1st ''small scale" model—1st Group build, 1st Revell kit for me in over 30 years!

The Chaffee
A late player in WWII, but playing a vital part, the agile M24 was quite powerful for a light tank. Powered by two cadallac V-8 engines, and sporting three machineguns and a 75mm maingun, the Chaffee was a fine replacement for the badley outclassed M3 Stuart. Over 4000 Chaffee’‘s we’‘re produced by war’'s end.

I’'ve long planned to model this fine-looking piece of armor, the tiny 1/76 came as a later part of the plan. For me, the only way I think of these is in the worn-winter-whitewash…so expect it

Having no bearing on if this is "good’’ 1/76 scale kit, I’'ll just present it

Two little 4x6 sprues! Ut-oh

Plus some tiny tracks I wasn’'t too sure about…

34 parts for the sprockets & wheels ! Nice! (I think) 3 attachment points on each part to clean off the soft plastic ! (Not so nice-I think)

In no way am I going to do a step-by-step for this as I have zero experience with the braille scale. Sufice to say it all went together well enough and it felt better in my hand with each addition. I did need some putty front and back at the hull joints, and in the weird dimple on the rear-panel.

Sure enough the tracks we’'re horrible off the bat, but relizing the sandshield would cover the top of the run, I stretched them over the bottom of the wheels and used thin C/A to lock them to each wheel bottom. In a few short minutes–problem solved!

I hollowed-out all 4 gun-barrels with a new blade-tip, made aerial with a bit of streched-sprue from the kit. I shaved-down the overly-thick barrel on the .50 as much as I dared, and added the maingun’‘s muzzle-counterweight-band from a small strip of maskingtape–an essential detail present in all my reasearch photos. Yes, I had to research even for this casual little sideline project. Main reference sources for this build we’‘re Letterman’'s Publications " Late War U.S. Tanks by David Doyle & The Great Book of Tanks by David Miller


Thanks for your interest--please comment, good, bad or ugly
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Man, Indy, taht thing is tiny. Makes me feel like Godzilla!

Let’s see some paint.

3

Sounds like you’ve tamed this little terror into submission Adam, nice fix idea on the tracks. Look forward to seeing this one in its winter overcoat. [Y]

4

Can’t wait to see this one finished. When I build armor I usually build small scale. They are more fun to build and can make a good diorama.

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OK guys…

…so here’s some paint…

Basecoat & primer in one, from a Tamiya spraycan TS-28 Olive Green II—a little lighter & greener than the true colour in an attempt to account for the small scale shift. These sprays can work perfectly if applied in just the right way, and after curing a few days makes a tuff paint shell.

A clearcoat to seal at this point isn’t a bad idea, put I skipped this step for this, here I’ve quickly masked-off the running gear, as there’s no advantage to painting it white, and I’ve applied two even coats of Tresemme.(That’s hairspray for those of you still using sponges or other sea creatures to try to get an effect like this)[:P]

Around two hours later I airbrushed at fairly low pressure with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White, thinned with alcohol and tempered with a drop or two of XF-15 Flat Flesh.

I faded out from the centers of all the tiny panels, applying light coats and moving on. The tape mask was removed and I gave a freehand burst to each hub ( little of will be apearent after weathering).

I used a few different chipping techniques, using alcohol , and wetting very small areas at one time. These WhiteWash paintjobs are well known for getting very ragged.

After wetting a panel or two, I would blot with a small piece of paper towel(kitchen paper?) This will break up the large even areas(as will leaving the alcohol to sit—but that can melt all the paint away as well!) After that panel lines were scribed-in while the paint is soft, and the edges knicked up and made ragged in much the way you may have seen me do in my Dio blog for the Opel truck (which seems huge now [:(]


You can see some fibers in these zooms, like on the main gun leftover from the blotting proccess that I’ll need to remove prior to weathering.


Still needs weathering and I think it will look pretty nice after it has some scale-mud applied around his hindquarters & maybe a shot of dust over-all

~Before I get to all that though, I’ll pick out some of the little details with small brushes— my favorite part of any build !!

Painter

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Scale chipping at that size? My head hurts.

Great work, Indy, as usual.

Bill

7

Ok Adam it’s official now, you are nuts. But man does that look [cnsod] awesome considering the scale. [:D[[:D[

VERY nice buddy.

Rob

www.scratchmod.com

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The M24 Chaffee in 1 / 76 scale

Bill~ Well, close-enough to scale I guess, see what ya think now…
Rob~ Nuts…huh? Okie-doke [:#]

Likely be some more 1/76 (at some point) to keep this puppy company in my first small scale Dio(well I am suposed to be a Dio guy Shocked)

A very selective pin-wash was carefully done just where details really needed it( I’ve heard countless times how these small scale jobs can quickly get too dark. For the wash I used a Paynes Grey mixture of Floquil in white spirit. No drybrushing was used.

The model was oversprayed with dilute Tamiya XF-57 Buff, mixed with some Pollyscale clear & bit of Tamiya Flat base to give it a gentle layer of dust.

I tried to over-do the blue-grey of the parkerized .50, but it’s still barely visable.

The ‘roadsprayed mud’ along the whole bottom of the tank wash airbrushed with diluted XF-52 Flat Earth, lightened slightly for scale effect with Buff.

You may note I have foregone the ‘star’ decals entirely. My choice.

The background was a spare from my “Ardennes” Dio, Something like ‘Sap Green’ freehand airbrushed onto bristle paper mounted on foamcore. The temporary ‘base’ is just a chunk of thick foamboard barrowed off my current Dio build )

There it is … Indy’s 1st small scale build.

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That’s a cool little beast, Adam, I have to keep telling myself it’s 1/76, the weathering is spot on.

Bill

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Indy, this is one of the first kits I’ve ever built–I have a soft spot for it! I still have it in my old display case.

You did a real nice job! But put it on that cool base, man! Nostalgia gets points!!! lol!

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SCHA-WING!

WOW that’s nice.

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Thanks Very Much Gents !

. I usually show the reference at the start, but no matter–here’s what I was after

A well-known photo taken in '45 of a white-washed Chaffee. Also this one form the Doyle book


I still look to build this tank in 1/35 at some point–theres some marvelous details that did’nt make onto the small scale vesion–see the windscreen raised? Delux*! Also two things in the photos–note how the only thing in sight that’s shiny is on the treads–I couldn’t make heads or tails of the pattern on the mini tracks so I just left mine muddy.*
The other thing is notice you don’t see any markings on these tanks? I though it would look most accurate without the stars entirely.
BulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBulletsBullets

13

Man, first Boyd and his flea sized Sherman, and now your midget Chafee…I am really digging this brail scale stuff. Great job INDY!

Brian

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Thanks for that Brian—it’s definately worth giving a try