M730 Chaparral 1:35 MERDC - pics

Hi there!

Here are some pics of my recently finished Chap from AFV-Club. I added Friul tracks and some PE from Voyager. To improve the poorly detailed winch from the kit, I added Karaya Copperwire and a chain with hook. Decals are partly selfmade.

It´s my first try of an MERDC camo, and the first time I seriously tried washing and filtering.

Kind regards from Germany,

Eric

Eric / Theoden,

Great looking Chaparral, the tools & winch on the front end look super. Excellent job on the MERDC paint scheme too, looks like it was airbrushed. How did you mask it off? I’m in the process of doing a MERDC scheme on an M60. I’m thinking of going with the silly putty method.

Gary / 1SG

Most impressive! You did a heck of a job on that pattern.

I picked this kit up last year and thought about doing the old '70s Seventh Army scheme on it, but couldnt find a lot of reference material and just painted the darn thing tan with IDF decals.

Again, you did a great job on that kit.

Joe

Very nice work. I would also like to know how did you mask.

Well done. The camo looks very good. The tracks a nicely rusted as they should be. Tools are also well done. Nice job on the lights. Great light weathering. The red caps on the missile mortorslook great

[tup] Great build, thanks for sharing.

Rounds Complete!!

The Chaparral looks great. Great job on the MERDC paint.

cool!

[tup]

Hey guys!

Thank You very much for Your kind words and appreciation! Didn´t really expect, You´d like it that much!

Concerning the masking technique: I used selfmade paper masks from the original Chaparral MERDC-pattern I found on the net. It was quite tedious to copy it to the right size, then cut out all the tiny curves and stuff, but as the Chap chassis mainly consists of flat planes, it seemed the easiest way to achieve an acceptable result. And though I´m not entirely satisfied, I think it was OK for a first shot. I Think, I will use paper masks for future projects again!

@SG1: I saw Your project in the forum, it looks like it´s gonna be some really fine M60! Do You think, the silly putty method will do for the scheme´s black claws? Those were the parts I was really glad I chose paper masks…

Kind regards from germany,

Eric

Eric / Theoden

Thanks for the info. I think I may have found the site you used for the patterns (www.panzerbaer.de) was that it? I thought about doing exactly what you descibed but couldn’t figure out how to scale up with my printer. I don’t think the silly putty method will work for the two lesser colors in the MERDC scheme. Looks like your method is the more complete solution for getting the pattern onto the model and the results were fantastic as evidenced by your photos. I don’t want to hijack your thread any further here with my build.

Thanks for the info,

Gary / 1SG

Great job! I love the Cold War stuff! The Chap looks most good indeed! Air Defense Artillery!

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