I’m looking to find a cheap brand tank kit to learn and practice doing various color schemes (camouflage, winter scheme, etc…) This kit will basically used as a junk kit used over and over for practice purposes in painting different colors/schemes. Nation of origin is not of importance. Any ideas?
I don’t have a particular recomendation, just pay attention to scale. 1/35 is most common for armor . 1/72 might discourage you a bit
If a Hobby Lobby nearby, they carry the Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog and old Tamiya Pz II F/G kit. With the 40% off coupon, they are quite reasonable. They also carry this new 1/35 scale Revell snap together M1A1 tank kit. Not a great model by any means, but it is a large, blank slate to work with. It runs about $14 so with the coupon, it is real cheap.
If you want some junky armor 
that’s the likeliest place you’ll find it.
Rob - that’s perfect! I didn’t think they came in 1/35 scale. Looks like I’m gonna check out my local Hobby Lobby and pick one up.
BS, get the 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby and get Tamiya’s Panzer II - it’s under $10.
I’ve been tempted to buy one to replace my current paint monster, a circa 2000 Trumpeter M60A3 kit. That kit has enough paint on it to deflect any BBs from damaging the plastic.
pyrman64 - I will definitely look for that one as well.
That’s exactly what I wanted to know - something not too expensive, yet cheap enough to do loads of practice in painting different schemes.
This will be my first attempt in doing armour since I’ve done a couple way back when - Monogram Patton Tank and Tamiya Abrams M1 kits.
a cheap flat sided JGPZ-V or VI. easy to mask and strip off paint. and down the road it can become the test your paint vehicle.
If you ever have the opportunity to attend a local IPMS club sponsored swap meet, check the non dealer tables.
Last two events I attended had partially built 1/35 scale armor kits marked with asking prices of between $3 and $5 each; ex stash kits from model builders who went to that big IPMS convention in the sky. The kits sold quickly, too !
I hate to see it, but that scenario is playing out more and more frequently around here.
Sprue-ce Goose - the nearest IPMS club is located in Syracuse (1 hr drive from me) and Watertown (2 hrs north of me). The one in Syracuse is held at a hobby shop out there I’ve been wanting to check out. Unfortunately, I have yet gone out to find out more about the IPMS monthly meetings there.
Due to my work schedule, I do not currently belong to an IPMS club.
The local clubs do effectively publicize their swap meets, though…even on this FSM website…
The July Illinois NIMCON was advertised on this website. It did take an hour to drive to the show, but cost in fuel was more than offset by the ability to purchase kits unavailable in hobby shops and at considerable discount vs. mail order.
I understand that swap meets do not occur everywhere, however. I live in the Chicago metro area, so there are still plenty of modelers to support such an event.
I still use an old submarine that I got really cheap. It gave me a lot of plastic to try different effects on. Try everything it makes sense and its fun.
Found the Panzer II kit but stupid me, I left the 40% coupon at home. With coupon, it’ll come to about $10. Gonna head out later this week and pick it up. Oh yeah, I don’t own a smartphone too. LOL!
OUCH! Too bad. I did the same thing once, but had a smart phone so I could just pull one up on that. The Panzer kit will be good for what you want to do if you are planning on building German tanks. If you are thinking about building allied armor, you may want to buy an allied kit instead so you can practice using allied colors. The techniques will be the same, but you might as well get the experience in the medium you are most likely going to want to work in.
Occasionally, a discount store chain will have kits at low prices.
Late last year the Tuesday Morning stores in the Chicago area were selling Lindberg kits for $5 each;
picked up some of their unknown scale German Sd.Kfz 222 kits for that price
http://shop.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&P=WR&I=LXDLEH
I don’t know what scale it is, but it isn’t 1/35th scale and it isn’t worth list price-in my opinion…
However, the wheels are perfect diameter replacements for the wimpy Rommel’s Rod front wheels and the hulls will be excellent painting mules for practice with different brand paints.[:D][Y]
Never thought of looking in Tuesday Morning. I’ll have to check it out someday. There’s a closeout store in my area I stop in on occasion called Ollie’s. They get model kits from time to time real cheap. I missed out on a Ventura aircraft one time.
I’ve hit the Tuesday Morning (used to carry a bunch of the foil bagged star wars kits) and the Ollies. Ollies had some models around Christmas time, Tuesday Morning had the Lindberg 1/72 scale aircraft and armor. I picked up a few Panthers (copy of the Hasegawa kit) to replace the diecast metal hulls of the older Dragon kits. Two of my old Dragon Panthers have the metal hull crumble to pieces (one built, the other untouched). Cheap alternative.