After several years of failed experiments, dead ends, and general disappointment, I finally patched together a finish on my Tamiya Matilda that I'm generally happy with. I don't like how the bed rolls look, but I'm sick of messing with this model, and its been months since I've finished anything. So I'm calling it done.

The tank is not 100% historically accurate, but I think it evokes the feeling of a desert Matilda pretty well.
















ugh! That bedroll looks like plastic, not cloth!

The kit had a few extra details made from wire, tape, and thin styrene rod. All painting was done with Vallejo points. Weathering was done with artists oils, various ground pastels, ground pencil graphite, Mig pigments, white glue, Tamiya smoke, a bunch of Vallejo earth tones, and Liquitex matte medium. Much thanks to those on Armorama who provided weathering suggestions a few weeks ago.

The model is ~90% brush painted. I only used the airbrush for a few matte coats, and a semi-translucent coat of sand color.

Bedrolls look fine to me. Maybe they are rubberised?

Great work on the weathering, not too much not to light

Congrats on the finish Ralph. I can relate to that feeling -- on and off builds that get to be an eye sore on the shelf, moreso that feeling on non-accomplishment. Now you remind me of my Tamiya Matilda that also needs to get done!

Agree with the others, you really brought that kit to life with the overall finish! And the bedrolls look fine.

I'm currently working on one of these. I hope mine turns out half as good as yours. Nice job!

Cheers, guys!

I appreciate the positive feedback

I think it's very well done! Only comment is the wooden tool handles are a tad too bright a yellow.

Incredible brush paint job! The woodwork could use a coat of dust to blend them in. Great work!
Thanks for sharing,
Don "Lakota"

Thanks, Don and Colin. I drybrushed a bit of sand onto the tools to tone them down and blend them in.

Looks real nice...good job...I did builed the same model three years ago https://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=30263&catp=bodsulak

Your build looks fine. I would be proud to have your finished model on my shelf.

As I'm currently building this Matilda, I also have a question for you or anyone else who has built this model:

What tracks did you use and at what stage did you paint the tracks?

Also:

If you used the length and link tracks and painted the tracks before the rest of the tank, how did you mask the tracks when you painted the rest of the tank?

I'm assuming that if you use the rubberband tracks, you could theoretically delay adding the tracks until after the rest of the tank is painted by "threading" them through the space between the fender and the track skids (where the return rollers were on earlier versions of the Matilda)?

Great-looking Matilda--much better than the one I finished for the Tamiya campaign a month or so ago. And I think your rolls (are they bed rolls or tarps?) look just fine.

In answer to Mark's question, for my Matilda I used the Bronco Matilda II workable links rather than the Tamiya rubber bands. My method (I'm sure there are others) was to assemble the hull, prime and base coat the hull and side skirts separately. The tracks I painted with Vallejo German Grey, dry brushed with Vallejo Oily Steel, and then washed with burnt umber oil paint. Once the tracks were painted and mounted, I attached the skirts to the hull, masked the tracks and was ready start laying down the camo. I was VERY sparing with anything looking like rust as the dry, sandy desert environment would have kept bare metal scoured pretty clean.

Oh, and AK has a set of paints out now specifically for doing Caunter schemes, which is what I used. Really good article about it here.

Mark C.,

Thanks so much for the info and link. I actually have that AK Interactive Caunter Scheme set, because appears "close enough" to the "right colors" (whatever they may be) for me and I would not need to mix paint to create the colors.

Great build.

Mark,
Since you asked about tracks, one thing I had forgotten was that the kit sprockets need some modification. From what I can see they don't really kit the kit tracks very well (perhaps Ralph has a better feel for that), but they definitely are an issue with the Bronco tracks. They need to be narrowed down a bit before putting the two halves together or else they are too wide for the tracks. The sprocket teeth also need some filing work in order to get them to mesh properly with the tracks.

Beautiful example. I love this site.

Congratulations on that lady. It looks awesome. I love the weathering. Spot on.