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Tamiya M60A1 w/ reactive armor


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Hey all,

This build represents a couple of firsts for me. This is my first armor build, as well as my first commission build.

a guy I work with is an ex USMC tank driver. He drove the first US tank into Kuwait during Desert Storm. I am recreating that tank for him.

A little background....

Upon arriving in the theater, they decided to put a M-9 plow on the front of his tank. The extra weight of the plow along with the soft sand caused him to slow down and was getting constantly chewed out by his commander to catch up with the rest of the column. Next time at basecamp, they decided to give him a little boost in power to make up for the extra weight of the plow so they removed the restrictor plate from the engine. After they did that, James had no problem keeping up. The next time in camp, they decided they no longer needed the plow and removed it.....but forgot to put the plate back on the engine. On the highway, they clocked the tank at just under 80. The commander made him pull over so he could give it a try and nearly crapped his pants because the thing was so squirrely. So James became the first tank into Kuwait simply by virtue of outrunning everyone.

Now, a wip of what I have done so far......

M60A1.jpg

The upper and lower hull is just dry fitted, I haven't actually put them together yet. Otherwise everything else is glued down.

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Looking good so far there Paul. Like the story too. I have a friend who was in the ARGuard as an M1A1 TC (I think he's full time now) and he said they clocked his Abrams at over 70mph one time. Don't remember the circumstances, but I do know the governor was removed from the engine and I think the side skirts were off too.

Aaron

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Thanks guys.

After doing so many aircraft, the lack of painting instructions really drive me crazy. I'm so used to instructions calling out 15 colors needed in each step.

LOL, looking good Paul... Gonna be a sharp build when complete :blink: Wouldn’t worry too much about paint’n, if the Marines painted those tanks like we did everything would be tan (or green, in my case) B)

Really miss the "Dinosaur", well maybe not that much... Probably forgetting all the nasty stuff like pulling the pack in the rain & mud, breaking track, & cleaning the hull during Q's. Didn't know there was a restrictor plate, only got my A1 to about 25 (down hill with a tail-wind)! Lucky Marine got hooked up for sure :D

Keep up the great work, can't wait to see it all painted up!

Ahui hou :D

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looking pretty good. The tail lights are wrong though. Tamiya molded them poorly. There should be an oval on each side at the top and a slit below it. Only the left oval is a red lense. The other side is a dark slit, along with dark slits below on both sides. These are part of the blackout drive and stop light system.

Here are the same lighs on an M20. The M60 series used the same set up.

USold-styleblackouttaillights.jpg

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I officially hate road wheels.

An easy way to handle them (probably too late now :worship: ) is to leave them on the sprue. Paint them overall flat black. Next go to a drafting supply store or good office supply store and get a circle template. It has various sized holes in it. Find the one that fits to only allow the inner, metal wheel to be exposed. Tape off the other holes and use this template to spray the color for the wheels through on each one. Once dry, remove them from the sprue and clean up the attachment points. Touch up the attachment points and any overspray, then assemble them. This technique makes it much easier than painting each rubber wheel by hand. Goes pretty quickly too.

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Looks great, going to look even better once washed and weathered. I also hate painting road wheels, I've been using the circle template for years with great results. Just line it up in the hole and spray, once done wip off the template for the next project. In the pic I'm not wearing a rubber glove but I would be. Another thing is don't use alot of pressure.

3932temp.jpg

Happy Modeling,

Joe

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Oh yea, the circle template works amazingly well. Both tank models Im working on right now, Ive used this method for all the wheels. I put tape over the other holes, and then use a piece of cardboard taped to it, to help keep it rigid. Like was mentioned above, also dont use a whole lot of pressure. And keep a paper towel nearby to wipe off paint build up, so you dont get it onto the black portion of the wheel.

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gotta go grab one of those.....that looks like it would make things MUCH easier.

Stupid question time.....do you use future on armor?

I never have for the body. I have heard of guys using blue food coloring and future mix to do the visors on the turret. If you used acrylics and say MIG pigments, you will need to dull coat to get them to stick.

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I use future for a "neat" layer when i do the initial decals and detail wash. Then dull coat and weather to heck after that. The future first allows you to work the wash and not stain the initial layer. Once you re matt the finish stain and dirty to your leisure.

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Getting there......

M60A1_3.jpg

M60A1_4.jpg

M60A1_5.jpg

I gave it a little bath in a pastel paste (ground some Burnt Umber pastel into a power, mixed it with water and dishsoap....I made the solution much more of a sludge than I would for a panel line wash so it would stick like mud). Then, after the sludge had started to dry, I dabbed a paper towel into water and lightly wiped from front to back...this was a fast tank with having that rev limiter removed, so I wanted to give it the impression of dirt streaks. The wheels use the same sludge, I just let it dry on there and didn't wipe. The tracks were done with a Tamiya flat black base coat, then a wash of Tamiya Metallic Grey and flat black really dilluted. After that wash dried, I took the same burnt umber sludge and washed it over the tracks and let dry without wiping. Then, I went over the rubber "feet" on the tracks with MM rubber.

I just want to apply a light powdering of pastel chalk to give the look of dry dirt caked on, and I have a couple of gas cans for the back and a couple of camo wraps that get mounted onto the sides.

All in all, I am pretty happy with how my first tank is coming out.

Edited by paul.nortness
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Looks pretty good. The weathering came out nicely. You need to weather the lower hull sides though. The track and roadwheels are nice and dirty, but the lower hull is clean. A couple other things too. The mesh in the turret basket should be the same color as the rest of the hull. It was permanently attached and painted w/the rest of the vehicle. The TCs vision block above the .50 cal and the gunner's sight to the right of the main gun on the turret roof should both be painted gloss black, with some clear green over top to look like thick glass. The inside of the barrel and the smoke launcher tubes should have some black in them to give them more depth. Antennas and their bases are usually dark green too, not black. A pretty good job. A few tweaks and it will be great.

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Looks pretty good. The weathering came out nicely. You need to weather the lower hull sides though. The track and roadwheels are nice and dirty, but the lower hull is clean. A couple other things too. The mesh in the turret basket should be the same color as the rest of the hull. It was permanently attached and painted w/the rest of the vehicle. The TCs vision block above the .50 cal and the gunner's sight to the right of the main gun on the turret roof should both be painted gloss black, with some clear green over top to look like thick glass. The inside of the barrel and the smoke launcher tubes should have some black in them to give them more depth. Antennas and their bases are usually dark green too, not black. A pretty good job. A few tweaks and it will be great.

Sorry....you totally lost me there. Gotta remember, you are talking to a plane guy. TCS vision block?

I have since gone through and done the barrel and smoke tubes with black....but one question regarding that. On the smoke tubes.....they have little square tubes as well as the round ones. Is it all the tubes, square and round, or just the round ones that should be black?

And finally.....regarding the mesh on the bustle rack....is that a rule of thumb on all vehicles or something unique to the M60?

BTW Arty.....thanks for posting that link for track weathering....it lays it all out in very easy to follow steps, even for a plane guy ;)

Edited by paul.nortness
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Sorry....you totally lost me there. Gotta remember, you are talking to a plane guy. TCS vision block?

No problem. On the small turret w/the MG barrel, there is a box w/a hood and open front on it. It is a vision block that the Tank Commander (TC) looks through while firing the MG. The rectangle inside the box is a glass vision block like the oval ones around the turret. It should also be painted gloss black. The same type device is on the turret roof to the right of the main gun. This is the gunners viewer used in sighting the main gun. It too is glass and should be gloss black.

I have since gone through and done the barrel and smoke tubes with black....but one question regarding that. On the smoke tubes.....they have little square tubes as well as the round ones. Is it all the tubes, square and round, or just the round ones that should be black?

Just the round tubes are the smoke grenade launcher tubes. The squares are part of the structure of the launcher and should be the same color as the syrrounding hull.

And finally.....regarding the mesh on the bustle rack....is that a rule of thumb on all vehicles or something unique to the M60?

Nope, its that way on all tanks that have the basket mesh. It is an expanded metal mesh that is welded to the turret basket before the tank is painted. It gets painted with the rest of the tank as well. Many tanks have just the bottom (floor) of the basket with mesh. The M60 series also had it half-way up like you have it. However, it is usually cut at an angle so the mesh is not square, but looks like diamonds. You can see what I mean on my M60A2 or M60A3 below.

M60_016.jpg

M60_012.jpg

4624.jpg

You can see the vision blocks and smoke launchers here too.

4525.jpg

If you want, you can also paint the inside of the small tube to the right of the main gun black on the inside too. It is the coaxial MG that is in line w/the main gun. Also, the bulges on either side of the turret have verticle slits on them. These can be painted gloss black on the inside. They are lenses for the incedence sighting sytem for the main gun.

Edited by HeavyArty
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