First Armor build ever. A primer to learn from before I break out the big Tamiya kits. I usually build aircraft, but this is an attempt to broaden out. Interesting.
Specifics: 1/72 Dragon OIF Bradley. Sand was Gunze - I will never use this stuff again. I feel like I made a ton of mistakes that I wouldn’t have done on an aircraft. The itty bitty size made for some real challenges as you can see by the horrible job on the vision blocks. I may mess with these more - I don’t know. I DO know I am not happy with the way they turned out. This 1/72 armor is way too small!
Ah well - feedback, good and bad, welcome as always.
Welcome to the forum. The Bradley looks good. I recommend painting the vision blocks black then painting over the black with Tamiya clear red. At least that is what I do on 1/35th scale vehicles. I haven’t had good results when I try to build 1/72nd vehicles. The vision blocks are too small in that scale for me to paint.
Hi Mike and I think you are being too hard on yourself. That is a fine first effort. I know what you mean about being outside your elements. I feel the same about a wingie I’m putting together. I forsee more armor in your future. Thanks for sharing.
Nice job Mike. 1/72 or braille scale as some call it here is always challenging. For your first time, I think you have nothing too feel bad about. You did a great job, and your modelling experience shows. Semper Fi, mike
Howdy Mike. All in all, not a bad intro into armor. I built the same kit myself, and with the zillion or so little armor plates that fit onto the turret, the kit is a lot harder than it seems like it ought to be. If you have some Tamiya 1/35 kits waiting in the wings you’ll probably find them a bit easier to deal with.
What problems did I have with Gunze?? Let me count them! (Note: I have fallen in love with PollyScale, so there is my bias right up front.) I used acrylic.
Coverage - I did not prime and prayed directly on plastic. I have been told this is a no-no, but I didn’t know that at the time. It covered like I was spraying white.
Set time - Even if I left it for 3 days, I would still find fingerprints in the paint. How long does this take to dry?
Amount of paint - I can usually get a good size airplane or two out of a single bottle of PollyScale or Model Master. This dinky little tank took 2 full bottles of Gunze.
Sheen - I guess I expected a flatter finish - this looked almost glossy.
I dunno - paint is a personal preference, and my experience with Gunze was okay for small little brush stuff, but I wouldn’t spray it again.
