Challenger - Painting

A new airbrush, new paint, either we'll be reaching new levels of airbrush mastery or new levels of frustration.

The first try with MRP paint was a very satisfying experience, paint-wise. The Aztec airbrush still leaks after a few minutes, especially with these hyper-thinned paints.

BUT: now I have a NEW airbrush, an Iwata HP-C Plus, which came highly recommended. I probably should have bought this years ago, but a combination of being a cheap bastard and a lot of self-doubt kept me from it. As a matter of fact, it kept me from the bench for almost two years.

The Challenger II now has a nice coat of Olive Drab. MRP is a dream to work with and the smell isn't half as bad as I had feared.

I'll post these 2 pictures, just because of the huge difference lighting makes on the color in a photo.

Out come the thrustworthy silly putty and Tamiya tape to mask this cow's spots. (I jokingly called it a green cow and now the thought is stuck in my head)

On the front half, I masked off all surface area to be kept green. 

On the back half, I only used putty to mark the spots. Not having to mask the entire surface would save time in masking and be an exercise in airbrush control. Up to a point, this was succesfull, but I did get some overspray around the edges of the putty. They were easily touched up again with some OD, but it's a constant reminder that patience is not my strongest point.

Next time (I  might give the Panzerjägerwagen another try), I'll try to do it freehand without any masking at all, but in the end the extra time taken in airbrushing ever so slowly might take longer than the time needed to do some basic masking.

Challenger - Cut it

From the beginning, the plan was to cut the Challenger in half, to be used as book-ends. I tried first with a dremel (Proxxon actually), but the angle was too awkward to successfully cut straight. Besides, I've never been able to cut straight anyway.

One way to cut perfectly straight is with a hacksaw, which made short work of the hull.

More clamps required to force the top and half together.

I used 1mm styrene sheet to close the halves.

Filled the interior with Chinchilla sand, which I had lying around since my experiments with anti-slip surfaces on the Merkava's. Added diluted white glue to keep the sand in place. Also had to create a small styrene box around the gun breech.

Once finished, the weight of the model went from 120g to 550g. I hope it's enough to keep the books in place.

Primed in black, it's now ready to receive the first layer of paint, which will be the first time I'm trying out MRP.

Challenger - Challenging construction

Well, I think Trumpeter really took this tank's name to heart and was considerate enough to make building it an actual challenge.

Ejector marks are EVERYWHERE. I haven't seen it this bad EVER. It must be related to quality of the plastic, or timing of the ejection or ... I dunno, but it's terrible. Many are on the inside, which is fine, if they need to be anywhere, but why would you place 5 ejector pins on such small pieces? 

It must have been an engineering challenge just to put so many ejector pins in one mould.

Luckily I starting using my own sprue goo recently, so at least we can try to work with this.

Sprue attachment points are very thick right up close to the part, so removing them is an exercise in patience and skill.

Locator tabs weren't a big priority in this kit. The boxes all around the turret simply do not fit, tabs or not. Most important thing to look out for is that at least the top and visible side fits somewhat nicely. The inside/underside can have a 2 mm gap for all I care, as long as it's not visible.

At multiple points during the build, I really couldn't see why some tiny parts are separate. It feels like most of them are only there to increase the part count.
The 16 hinges for the engine covers really needn't be separate. At least the 16 grab handles would require slide moulding, so I understand them being separate, but they sure are TINY and combined with the huge attachment points, hard to clean up and easy to break. 

Hull halves also do not fit very nicely together, but with these big parts, the flex on the plastic will allow you to force them in place, and let the glue do it's magic.

Clamps and vices to the rescue!

The rearview-mirrors are a disaster. When installed, the turret can only turn with  the main gun fully elevated. I'm assuming they are retractable on the real tank?

The thingies holding up the mirror are very thin and broke off when breathing in their vicinity. I tried re-inforcing with sprue goo, which worked fine, but I forgot to account for my clumsiness. I've removed both now. I may (or may not) add them back later with steel wire, but they'll probably bend or break later when used in the book closet anyway.

Challenger - Another new project

Since my experiment with homemade Sprue Goo, I'm running dangerously low on TET (Tamiya Extra Thin cement). Dangerous, as in, I probably have enough for another 2 months, especially since I'm close to finishing up the PL-01 and the Galactica, but fellow modellers may be able to imagine the sheer horror of running low on something. The idea of running out in a busy weekend and then having to go all accross the country for new supplies ... /shudder.

It's like having an empty stash.

I don't like ordering a bottle of glue for 5 euro and spending almost twice as much on shipping, so I ordered two(!) bottles and the cheapest 1/35 scale tank I could find - that was still somewhat decent - because I've been playing with an idea.

I plan to make the tank and ... cut it in half! 

Why? Because I think it would be cool to make it into a book-rest. I've been gathering tank-related books for all but a month and a half, so if I want to give those a more prominent spot in the book shelf, I might as well make it an eye-catcher.

When looking for cheap model kits, there's a lot of choice, but a looot of junk. On one of my local suppliers' webshops, I found Trumpeter's Challenger II (kit 00308) in the second-hand section, so the decision was made. It looks to be a decent model, is of an actually interesting subject and I'll be doing it in a two-tone camouflage, which is still a bit of a learning curve, so we'll be having fun, learning a bit and being "creative" in the mean time.

If it turns out a dud, I've lost 15 euro, but had fun in the process.