Hi all,

Just finished this one yesterday. It's the Italeri "Early Version" kit. I built it mostly OOTB, except I made lots of changes to the layout of things on the turret roof, copying photos I've seen of the Formations one built up. I added texture to the mantlet and turret front, along with the weld seam between the turret front and the rest of the turret. The MG is from the Academy MG set. Figure is Tamiya. Stowage is from a bunch of sources as well as homemade. Normally I'd add an aerial ID panel, but I liked the way the star came out so thought I'd leave it exposed (sprayed it through a Verlinden stencil). I'm aware of the many inadequacies of this kit (wheels, etc.), but wanted to to one mostly OOTB. And guess what.....from opening the box until today was 40 days. Not bad at all, considering I had 3 other projects going on. Thanks for looking.

Rob

Rob,
Your Chaffee looks great to me. It does look a little glossy though. Probably just the photo. I also really like the base it is on. Could you tell me how you did the asphault?

Art,

Yeah, I took the photo outside in the shade this morning, and the shot looks a LOT more glossy than the tank....the tank got two coats of Modelmaster dullcoat, so I'm a bit surprised.

The road is a relatively fine grit sandpaper I had laying around. I glued it to the base (white glue), and the next day airbrushed it a very dark grey. The next day I streaked it with very thin beige acrylics, just kept brushing it and brushing it til I got an effect I liked. That's it.

Thanks for the comments.

Rob

Hi Robert,

Nice looking build. The British had a few of these so it's on my list to build sometime.

Know the photo problem, looks like it needs a little road dust.

The Chaffee is a great looking tank, I'm surprised it's not more popular, somethnig neat about the compact shape.

Nice work, but more dust lol, lol. Already typed this in once but I must have fluffed the post

Cheers

Al

Rob,
Thanks for the tip on the sandpaper. I think it looks great. I know what you mean with the dullcoat. I don't know what the deal is....but the dullcoat doesn't seem to completely negate the Future gloss coats I have been applying to my models just before I start to weather. They don't look too bad but it really shows up in photos. Thanks again for the tip.

Art

Rob -

Nice job, looks real good. Like the simple base, definitely adds to it, an easy scene compared to some of the ones that are done.

Thanks for sharing the pics! Cheers!

Tim

Looks great, Robert. I agree with you on the star on the engine deck. It would have been a pity to cover it up.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks again for all the nice comments, guys. Again, although not the most accurate kit OOTB, I think it builds up okay overall, and with decent finishing it looks like a chaffee. Thanks again.
Rob

Good work Robert. I like the groundwork too.

Turned out nicely Rob.
Always liked that tank.
Looks like the sports car of WW2 armor.

One more improvement to the turret would be to correct the port for the 2" smoke mortar on the righthand front of the roof. Italeri's original M24 had the mounting converted to an antenna base and they didn't bother to correct it for the backdated model.

The Formations turret looks like it has some sort of plug fitted, with the plug removed, the port looks like this



Makes me want to rescue my M24 from the stash and fill in all the sink marks and so on

David

I've had the same thing where dullcote doesn't seem to get a full matte finish every now and again. I think it's the actual can that has issues when it wont dull it down. Some seem better then others. I have a huge jar of it I use with the brush to dull down individual items like tool handles or sheen from glue when I put two painted parts together, I haven't tried it through the airbush yet though.