A friend took a work gig in Japan, leaving behind a model that was planned to be used in our club display. He asked me to build it for him, so I accepted. It’s an old Tamiya tank kit, so how hard can it be?
The plan is to keep the AMS/OCD to a minimum. But me being me, I ordered AFV Club’s injected tracks, as the kit’s belt type tracks have zero detail on their insides. I avoided the metal A/M tracks since this is a US tank with “live” tracks, so no sag. The model will represent an ARVN tank from the Vietnam War. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated, as I know basically nothing.
My friend had assembled and cleaned up the kit’s gun barrel, so one tedious task has already been done!
Even so, I want to get this build across the finish line ASAP, so here to help me is…
WOODY!!!
This is Bandai’s new assembly kit, which I started over the weekend while the guys were over for our monthly model get together.
He’s molded in color, so requires only a minimum of detail painting. I normally never abide by this concept and always prime and paint my kits, but this one will be different. I’ll finish him as the maker intended, with just a clear coat. This is part of my attempt to get back on the saddle (pun intended) and start finishing all the kits lying around my room. So work on Woody will continue as he helps me build my friend’s model.
It’s kind of like those people who need to use a hand puppet to communicate. But unlike them, I KNOW I am nuts, so it’s all good. [:P] For those who chafe at this kind of silliness, relax, it’s all for fun! And modeling should be fun. If it’s just all rivet-rivet-rivet, where’s the joy in that?
Re the M41, I built the same kit a while ago, and used it to practice ROK camo, before comitting paint to the M47 I was trying to do “right”. I used the AFV Club one-piece tracks, made a mantlet cover from putty, clipped the front fenders, and did some texturing. I thinned the headlight guards, amybe addedd a couple of bits from the spares box but I think that’s about all, and had a total blast. Plus side: I had $9 in the whole project (kit $5, tracks $4).
It’s a fun kit that is easy to build. It looks like the stereotypical “US Army” tank. It is very cheap and is quite dated in detail. The US Army markings for the kit are rather odd. The 5th Armor Division was stationed at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas during the 1950s. The 5th was deactivated about the time Camp Chaffee became Fort Chaffee.
The markings are probably based off of a display tank since there aren’t any company/platoon bumper numbers on it.
I always thought that the box illustration was kind of weird.
It shows the tank in operation, commander in the cupola. But the view is from the REAR with the turret rotated around and the travel lock for the barrel up.
Thanks guys, will have to pick one up. Very interesting history of the vehicle, seems it served all over the world. And recently read a history of General Walton Walker, one hell of a life story.
Instead of detaling it I could go with a quick, cheap, and dirty build right now.
It was sunk by the PT-76 Soviet amphibious light tank. So we had to counter with a light tank that was amphibious. In comes the M551 Sheridan amphibious airborne light tank, goodbye Walker Bulldog.
Thanks guys for the input! Aftermarket is so prolific and easy to get these days, that I have become dependent on them for almost all my builds. Back in the 1970s there was a dearth of A/M, so it was all DIY. Funny how all those kits got built anyway. [:)]
Aside from the tracks, I have decided any mods will be DIY. I plan on thinning the headlight guards, adding the missing vision blocks to the driver’s position, and making the mantlet cover (but NOT from the bags the kit sprues came in). I’ll use the box art for reference to add any further details like the stamped ribs on the side of the hull and periscope guard on the turret. Yeah, it’s weird that the box art shows a crewed tank with the turret traversed to the rear in the travelling position.
I also plan on using the included figures to make a new TC in a slightly more interesting pose than the one provided. Maybe not a raging dude firing an M16 from the hip while screaming and tossing a grenade ([:P]) but at least more animated. Maybe. No promises.
The kit, once completed, will be turned over to my buddy “The Evil Mad Cao” (our resident MiG mud master) for scratch-n-dent/weathering. And then I’ll turn my attention to repainting my PT-76 as an NVA machine.
Oh, as an aside, the Tamiya M41 kit holds a place in my personal model lore. A friend had one that was motorized, and we frequently tore up his back yard to perform “tank torture tests”. His M41 was the fastest and most reliable running tank any of us ever had, never threw a track, and ran UNDERWATER - once. The motor got messed up, but it ran repeatedly under the muddy puddles like some kind of crazy submarine all afternoon!
Tangent follows: my best running motorized tank was the Tamiya Matilda. The design of the running gear kept the track on and unlike tanks with open sprockets, it kept sand and debris from going inside the lower hull where the gearbox and batteries were.
You made me laugh! Years ago I R.Cd an M-113 from Tamiya. The thing floated like a slightly drunken boat! No water in the running gear though .It finally met it’s end .
Squished with some other stuff when movng to another, bigger Boat. Box slipped, fell almost to the water, between the boats. Boats came together with a Terrifying crunch. Oh Well! T.B. P.S. The guy who made the crunch wake found out about his damage in a No Wake Zone. He bought me new kits to replace the broken ones, though. I think the Game warden told him. He was a fellow model builder too.
Yes, that box art does kinda throw one off. As I remember (or not), the old Renwal kit of the Bulldog had basically the same pic. Same angle from the right rear. Don’t remember if the CO was in the turret in the picture though.
No RC…but my younger brother and I used to battle our Tamiya 1/48 motorized tanks in the garden patch in our back yard. My Swedish ‘S’ tank–totally unplanned–demonstrated the ability to zip through puddles like a jet-ski. I think the hull was just ‘boat-like’ enough to plane through without sucking in water.
Both our AV’s eventually fell prey to ‘heavy artillery’…in the form of a .22 pellet gun. Loads of fun!
