Warlord Games Type-97 Tank - second turret part one

One problem with the Warlord Ch-Ha tank is that there is almost enough parts for both turrets, except the rear of the turret machine gun and the commander's cupola.

Now a contributor to the Rubicon forum has pointed out that the "spare" hatch from the Warlord Panzer IV kit can be converted for use on the Chi-Ha.

The above is part 27 from the Panzer IV kit, which is the open hatch.

The plan is to remove the supplied hatches and use the two part hatch from the Chi-Ha kit.

Warlord Games Type-97 Tank

The Japanese Type-97 Chi-Ha light infantry tank was introduced in 1937. Armed with a 57mm short barrelled gun, it was intended to provide fire support to infantry.

When it faced the Soviet army in 1939, the tank fared badly. The Soviet 45mm gun outranged the Japanese 57mm gun.

In response, the Type-97 Kai ShinHoTo was developed with a larger (ShinHoTo) three man turret with a 47mm high velocity gun. The hull was slightly modified and fitted with an improved engine.

The Warlord kit comes in a larger box and contains two sprue.

The instructions have colour images of the completed model as part of the painting guide. The sprues do not have part  numbers, you need to reference the part numbers in the sprue diagram. There is a sheet of decals, a number of which are not referenced in the instructions. There are also vehicle cards for the Chi-Ha and the large turret version.

The kit does not include a complete set of bits for the two turret options. There is only one commander's cupola, which is a bit annoying.

The box contains a set of damage markers.

There was a large area of flash on one of the sprues.

I do not have any other World War 2 Japanese tanks, and this was mainly purchased as an opponent of equal points value to the Soviet T-26 1939 for games of What A Tanker!

Most examples I have seen have been painted in a three colour camouflage, however some (including one of the painted examples in the instructions) are plain green.

Once the kit was assembled, it was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray, followed by Citadel Caliban Green spray. The tyres were painted with Vallejo Black Grey, the shovel and pickaxe shafts were painted with Citadel Morning Brown.

The track was painted with a wet mix of Vallejo Black, Vallejo Black Grey and Army Painter Chaotic Red. A similar mix was used on the exhaust system. The track and the exhaust was dry-brushed with Citadel Ryza Rust. the machine guns and the tow ropes were painted with Vallejo Black Grey.

A mix of Army Painter Strong Tone and Vallejo Burnt Umber was painted over the tracks and wheels.

As the tank looked rather bare, I added the flower petal logo to the turret and the Japanese numeral to the hull side.

I added a tarpaulin on the rear deck

The Soviet T-26 1939 faces off against the Japanese Type-97 Kai.

Tour of Duty television series

As has been posted recently, Empress (and a number of others) have recently released Vietnam ranges.

Tour of Duty was a television series made between 1987 and 1990. The show followed a US Army infantry platoon during a tour of duty in Vietnam starting in 1967.

This is the box set of all three series, totalling 58 episodes.

A Question of Scale...

A while back I posted some comparison photographs between 1/56 and 1/43 scale VW Beetles.

A couple of weeks ago I bought the Tamiya 1/48 scale Volkswagen 82E kit (pre-war Beetle).

It is still work in progress, but this shows the difference in size.

Company B VW 82E; Tamiya VW 82E and a die cast VW Beetle.

Sleeping Dragon "Jersey Barrier"

At a recent show I bought two packs of four resin vehicle barriers from the stand of The Sleeping Dragon Hobby Shop. They do not have them on their web shop (yet) but are trading at a number of shows in 2019.

Though labelled as "Jersey Barriers", they appear to be rather tall (a Jersey Barrier is about 810mm tall, these are 20mm tall - over a metre tall at 1/56 - 1/48). The Ontario Tall Wall is of similar design and is 1070mm tall.

It does, however make them suitable for use as cover, even with figures on slotted bases.

The pieces are moulded in resin from a 3D printed master. There is rather obvious print lines on the pieces, but that is not much of an issue as it gives the rather dull surfaces some texture, more of which later. There are some odd artefacts on the top surface, though I am taking them as being part of the reinforcement of the concrete.

As with any resin item, I washed them with cheap scouring cream applied with an old toothbrus, rinsing them thoroughly afterwards.

The painting was a multistage process.

First they were blutacked to the painting box in an upright position. Rustoleum Rust effect spray was applied to give them some additional texture. Once this had set, they were laid on one side and given an undercoat of Halfords Grey Spray Primer. Once that was dry they were then turned over so all sides were a uniform grey.

The pieces were then blutacked upright on the box and sprayed from the top with Halfords White Spray Primer.

One half of each piece was then masked. You can see the artefacts on the top surface.

The masked pieces were sprayed with Citadel Mephiston Red.

After removing the masking tape, they were heavily dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone. A final wash with Citadel Nuln Oil gave them a suitably dirty appearance.

They are going to provide suitable cover.

If you are going to use them for a vehicle checkpoint, you do need to place them so they do not provide cover to your opponent.

Caught in a spotlight, William Killian wishes he had cleaned the Land Rover before going out.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank - part three

So the T26 is painted. There is some final weathering to be done, but that will wait until the rest of T26s have been (bought,) painted.

Comparison with the T34/76.