1st Tank model - any tips?

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Well, after years of building aircraft, I’ve decided to visit the dark side and build a tank model. I’ve gotten the Academy M3 “bolted Hull” model after it sounded interesting in a review in FSM.

As this is my 1st time with armor, any general tips? I never realized HOW MANY parts there are in one of these things! For example, Is it better to airbrush all the outside parts BEFORE assembling - such as all the wheels, etc?

Anybody else that has built this model have any hints or things to watch out for before I get started?

Thanks in advance!

John Schlechty

2

Welcome to the dark side [}:)]

I generally build asemblies that will be easy to paint and put together without trouble.

3

Hey John! What I usually do is build as much of the vehicle itself as I can before painting. I assemble and paint the wheels and tracks seperately and add them after the vehicle has been painted. Same for the any attachments like tools, machine guns, rucksacks, etc. After that, I’ll give it a good shot of gloss coat, let that dry and then place the decals. Then comes a pin wash followed by drybrushing and then a shot of dull coat.

4

One thing with armor is… Tanks are hard to overweather. Building aircraft for years you know that there are certain areas that get dirty or beaten more than others. Tanks are the same way. They get dirtier on the areas that are closest to the ground. They get beaten up th most wherever they’d get the most foot traffic, just like an aircraft. One thing that is different about tanks is that they have some areas that are toughter than others, for example; the hull is much toughter than the fenders. If you’ve been building aircraft for a while, you should have little or no trouble with armor. Same rules apply if you do your research. If you have anymore specific questions, the gentilemen and ladies on this forum will be happy to answer them for you.

Semper Fi,

Chris

5

Thanks for the tips guys! I’ve started on it - I never would have guesses that there are so many parts just for the wheel assemblies alone! No wonder it says there are 411 parts for this kit - 300 of them must be in the wheels . . .

I have the Squadron book on the M3 tanks on the way, so I’m hoping that will answer most of my “what color should XX be?” type questions.

Thanks again!

6

just bang it together and enjoy …the painting and weathering is the best bit mine seem to just grow arms and legs.

mark