A rather chance conversation that started in the M1A1 Abrams build I had posted put me in contact with a wonderfull fellow here, Boomerang, who being Australian you can imagine has pride in his country. We got to talking quite a bit about the Aussies and the Commonwealth countries Armed forces in general, and how they are always so overlooked in the modeling community. Since then my interest in the Aussies (and Commonwealth) has drawn me to want to represent and work in that niche. Thus we have the subject of this build log.
The Kit:
Here we have Tamiya’s 1/35 Italian Carro Armato M13/40. This appears to be a somewhat older mold that has been updated with a few simple photo etch parts and a metal barrel along with what appears to be a couple updated sprues. Overall there is almost no flash, clean moldings, and link and length tracks. Now, some may be going “Brian, you just babbled on about the Australians…what has an Italian tank got to do with any of this?” Ahhhhhh, good question. And for my answer I give you one of the photo that serves as the inspiration for this thread:
The Aussies managed to capture a number of M13/40’s and split them between three Squadrons of the 6th Cavalry Regiment called “Dingo”, “Rabbit” and “Wombat” (as well as some being used by the 6th RTR). To distinguish their vehicles from genuine enemy vehicles they painted their’s with a number of white kangaroos which became the thing legends are made of. Thankfully the Tamiya kit decals come with just such markings making my job easier! I hope to do our friends down under some justice with this build. And with that we begin with the pictures:
It begins!:
Mmmmmmm…plastic and metal!:
The famous 'roos!
With this build I also get to try out a new set of toys I bought. The camera I have been using is my Canon Rebel xti dslr, and the lens was one I bought for general scenic photography which it did wonders with, but alas was not much for macro/close up. So I went and bought a 4 lens set of close up lenses. Now a world of fine detail photography opens up. Thus I get to show you a few of the speed bumps in the build so far…gaps!:
I used a healthy amount of Mr. Surfacer plastered on and then a q-tip dipped in laquer thinner to scrub off excess and fill the gap even more. Still needs a few little touch ups, but much better now.
After a few hours work today here are the results:
And the main hull parts dry fitted together (so you can start to get a feel for the shape). Note the gaps now filled with Mr. Surfacer…a wonderful thing for modeling!
Looks like this is gonna be a pretty quick build! I definitely look forward to seeing how this turns out… I haven’t seen this particular kit before, so I might have to pick one up… And I wish my hobby store had mr surfacer- how unfortunate. Well I’m looking forward to seeing the progress- very nice so far!
Is this an all-new molding or an upgrading of an older kit? I know it comes with link-and-lengths, which is an improvement, but I don’t much else about it.
Hey Njal, the build is pretty simple…since it is really a light to light-medium tank there is not a whole lot to it. The time consuming process will be the weathering.
Tigerman, the kit includes an aluminum barrel to replace the plastic one and there is a small photo etch fret that contains the machine gun cross-hairs, lic. plates and a rosette that goes on the front sloped plate.
I also forgot to mention that I will be adding a little more “Aussie” spice to this with a couple of Ultracast resin figures. Thinking of building a simple base for it all as well…
Cool looking project, not only is it Italian armor which you don’t see much of but it’s also going to have Aussie markings! Looking forward to seeing this one come to life. [B]
The funny thing is, even before I knew about the Australian markings and before I started taking more of an interest in Commonwealth vehicles, I had been eyeballing this kit. Truth be told, I enjoy oddball subjects and stuff you just don’t see around much. I love Shermans, Tigers, Panthers and Stug’s just as much as the other guy, but I really love uncommon subjects more. And that was what origionally had me interested in this kit. Then I found out about the Kangaroo markings and had the kit ordered within a week! [:D] I was joking with Boomerang about being in Egypt in world war 2. Imagine your a German soldier fighting when all of a sudden this little tank plastered with white kangaroos comes charging at you with guns blazing…now THAT would be a sight to see!
Wingy, the Kangaroos are absolutely going on! I have a couple of Australian crewmen from Ultracast coming in that will round out the Antipodean flavor for the build. [:D]
Redleg, thanks for the comments. Interesting and different is something we both like. [;)]
And a real quick update. I pulled out the pin vise and drill bit set and spruced up the machine guns:
Got a couple hours in on the bench before the weekend kicked off today, so I thought I would share with an update:
I started building up the hull, and the upper hull and lower halfs had a wee bit of a problem…
Crikey! You could fit Uluru in that gap! So I broke out the sheet stock and cut a shim strip and glued it in with COPIUS amounts of Tamiya thin:
I let it dry for a bit before adding the upper hull. When it was set up I used the old Xacto blade to smooth the transision for a seamless join. I then added the uper hull and glued that in once again using copious amounts of Tamiya thin cement:
Next session at the bench I will go back in and smooth things a bit, run a panel scriber to define the joint in places where the line is shallow and finish with a little Mr. Surfacer for a finished look. In between drying for the parts above I built up a few other assemblies and tid-bits:
Rear deck:
This kit has a catch 22. It has a number of updated parts including new exhaust mufflers, but they and a number of other parts rely on somewhat vauge placement (no locator holes). Not too big a deal, it just means more caution that everyting remains symmetrical. Speaking of exhaust mufflers:
And we also have some decent looking fuel/water cans (built up from 4 parts…taking a page from Dragon perhaps!?):
That is it for this update. Should get some decent time in on Sunday and will update Sunday evening.
Very cool Tony! That M40’s cannon is one wicked cool looking little bugger, eh!? The figures that come with that kit look a little better than the ones in this kit also. Not so much detail but look. There are actually three in this kit, but the two shown on the box art look awfully mean, and the third I swear looks like il duce himeslf! [:D]
Indy, the “simple” base I was thinking of seems to be getting more complex. I found Verlinden makes a rather nice looking Palm tree. Thinking of maybe trying to work that in as well. [:D]
Today was a decent day at the bench (and a trip to the hobby shop for some paint and other supplies.) But first things first. I got a little treat in earlier this week, and I wanted to show it off:
It is “The Australian Army: A history” by Jeffery Grey. A bit thin on pictures, but packed full of information. I also have an excellent book I preordered that Boomerang had suggested called “Mud and Dust” which is a history of Australian Armored vehicles in Viet Nam. He also suggested “Tobruk: The Story of a seige” and “Kokoda” by Peter FitzSimmons that I will eventually pick up. There were a number of other books he suggested or I found searching, but as you can imagine they are hard to come by here in the U.S. (in fact, I bought the above book off Amazon.com used and did not even realize it was being shipped from England!) and as such the prices are accordingly steep. So I will need to choose which books I decide to buy wisely. [:D]
Ok, on to the work for the day. First off I cracked open the Mr. Surfacer and gave the mufflers a little texture for later weathering:
I don’t plan to go crazy with rusting effects because this is a desert vehicle, but the texture will add some nice contrast when I hit it with paint.
I then moved on and removed a molded on part attached to the two front hatches and then replaced them with parts from the updated sprues. They add more detail and look better:
Before
After
Note the Mr. Surfacer around the tow hooks and loop. These had a Qtip dipped in thinner run around them and are nice and clean now. I also built up the other two fuel cans and added them to the rear deck. Again, I relied on vauge (and perhaps the worst angle they could have drawn them up in the directions) placement so I can’t be 100% sure that is how they would have looked OR how they were even attached on real vehicles. But it looks god to my eye, so they stay.
Here is how things look so far:
The last thing I got to today was roadwheels. I clipped off the 32 lower wheels and 12 uppers and sanded the flats to remove sprue numbs…and boy are those tires tiny. So my fingers they be aching! But here we have 44 tires ready for some paint:
You can keep your Cup O Noodles, give me a Cup O Wheels (or as the Aussies would say Billy O Wheels) any day! [;)]
Here we have a Saturday morning update. I am almost done with building (or at least what I can build up before needing to go to paint) and right now letting the second track run’s glue set up. Last night I did the first track run using the Testors Glue method. Here is a run down for those not familiar with it:
First, lay down a strip of low tack tape (if yout think it is too tacky rub you finger on your forhead and run it across the tape doing this a few times…the oil from your forehead will reduce that tack.) You want the tape just right so as to keep the tracks from moving around but not enough that it will hold tightly when you try to remove the track run.
Now this method works just fine for both link and length and indy tracks. This kit has L&L, and to help keep things orientated I maked on the tape in sharpie where run lengths are using their part number (helps you to see at a glance where front and back are). You will need to take care and fidget with the track parts that are molded pre curved, but take your time, be gentle and pay attention when you start laying down glue and you should have no problems with track parts not being snug. Once you have the track laid out grab your bottle of Testors liquid cement in with the pink lable (DO NOT USE TAMIYA THIN, TENAX OR SIMILAR…it HAS to be Testors…as the others set up way to fast for this method). Zap all the tracks with a good dose of the glue. Let it sit for at least 1/2 an hour, but try not to wait more than an hour. I waited a little short of an hour and pulled up the track run. What you should now have is a pretty solid track run, but that has just enough softness at the joint to allow you to bend them around the wheels and sprockets.
If you are working with indy tracks you can use some tissue or toothpicks to create your sag, but with L&L these should be premolded. Using indy tracks you place the tissue between the track and the upper fender…adjust until you get the tright amount of sag. After you are done all your adjusting with either kind of track just let it sit. I let it sit overnight or for at least another few hours. When finally set your tracks should now hold their shape perfectly. You can now pull the whole shebang off the kit and glue up where the track ends meet (in the picture above I have not done that yet, but the fit is well you probably don’t even know where it is not glued [;)] ). For this you can use any kind of glue…I use the Tamiya since it is fast setting and we don’t need a long dry setting for that.
While the tracks were setting last night I made the tow cable:
And since I was already working with the superglue I decided to add the last of the PE parts:
There are two latches, one on each side. The medallion has exquisit detail for such a tiny part. There are also a couple small pieces on the inside of each fender to the front (forgot to get pictures of those). I have two license plates I can add, but not sure if I am going to use them.
Well, from here are just a couple more small detail parts to add before shooting paint. I do have one question for you folks though. On the jerry cans I am assuming that the seam on the bottom is supposed to be there. Did the jerry cans have those seams or do I need to fill those? Not a big thing, but one that is somewhat visible.
You’re making great progress with this one for sure! [Y] In regards to your question about the jerry can bottoms, it looks like Tamiya took a short-cut with these. They aren’t supposed to have that rectangular open space on the bottom but instead should have the pattern that you see on the sides continue on to the bottom. The cans were made of stamped metal and had a “rib” between the two halves that you see represented by the gap on the sides. That size of gap is supposed to be there and shouldn’t be filled but the rest of the rectangular space should be if you want the cans to look accurate. HTH!
