Back, with Dragon's Ka-mi tank

[Buck]

Aloha All,

It's been awhile for sure, certainly a long time since actually completing something! I've finally finished a kit, after about a year & a half of not being able to knock anything out. So here it is, Dragon's new Type 2 Ka-mi amphibious tank in 35th scale... A totally enjoyable build.

It's built right out of the box with very little fuss, painted with Mr. Color lacquers, and weather using a mix of techniques & media. I did add Cyber-hobby's individual link tracks (I still count that as "out of the box") but must say the DS tracks would have worked just fine. The DS tracks do "cup" a little around the sprockets but the rear idlers are adjustable so the issue can be correct easily.

Again this was a lot of fun to build and was pretty much assembled in an evening and painted over a couple of nights. Think it might have got me back into the hobby so count it as great therapy as well ;)

Let me know what you think & thanks for looking.

Mark

PS... Next on deck, Tamiya's big P-51D. It's another fun build that's going together REAL quick :D

[dylan]

wow Buck that looks great

[11bee]

Very nice job, I especially like the weathering.

On an unrelated note - how did you incorporate that black background in your pictures? It really helps focus attention on the model.

[HOLMES]

Mark,

Once I got pas the Red X's .I can see this is an EXCELLENT build..

WELL DONE Sir,

HOLMES

[MarkW]

You really brought that little box to life!

[shinai]

Funny I am on my way to the LHS To see if he got this in. He special ordered it for me.

I was not able to find a lot of reference material for this tank. Did you find anything or use any reference pics.

[Buck]

Big Mahalo gents, always appreciate the response & kind words. Still gotta figure out how to shoot without a flash, sorry about the exposure of the images!

Regarding the black background... All I had hand was a piece of black velvet my wife uses to photograph her jewelry. Normally it "works", for her anyway, but it looks like it's showing up a little too much in the images. Frankly I'm surprised there isn't more cat hair on it! ;)

Oh, and reference for the build... I didn't find a lot either. Missing Lynx does have a Japanese armor forum and one can find a least some info there from Steven Zaloga and others. There's also a book, recently released about WW2 IJA & IJN Armor but I don't quite recall the exact title (My friend has it). There's a lot of discussion regarding the Ka-mi on other forums as well, mostly about color (as usual). Apparently they were painted either overall gray (I used an IJN ship color) or green (some say Type 21 Green, again used on ships). Guess it depends on what period or battle one intends to represent.

Again thanks for looking & all the replies... I hope the kit is eventually release with both pontoons & vent stack. I'll paint that one green! :D

Ahui hou

Mark

PS... The model is quite durable as well, the antenna is normally a one piece molding. Of course after dropping the turret twice (there aren't any retainers with the turret ring), the antenna ended up in several pieces. A little tenax & patients and it seems to aligned reasonably well.

[11bee]

Regarding the black background... All I had hand was a piece of black velvet my wife uses to photograph her jewelry. Normally it "works", for her anyway, but it looks like it's showing up a little too much in the images. Frankly I'm surprised there isn't more cat hair on it! ;)

Funny... for some reason I thought you photo-shopped the background. I really like the effect, it makes the model stand out even more than if you used a white background.