Paul's painting & weathering the 35th scale M47 Patton from Takom

Paul built up his 35th scale M47 Patton from Takom already, and now he starts to get to painting weathering and ageing the kit in his final part. See how he went in his build guide...

Painting & Weathering guide: M47 Patton

From: Takom
Product No# 2070
1/35th scale
New tooled kit which includes: Plastic sprues, Waterslide Decals, Clear parts
Available from Takom distributors worldwide
USD$ 48 from Hobbylink Japan

Pt.I: Inbox review 35th scale M47 Patton from Takom 

Pt. II - Build guide 35th scale M47 Patton from Takom 

Today: Pt. III - Painting & weathering the 35th scale M47 Patton from Takom 

In September of 1965 in what would become the Indo – Pakistani war of 1965, Pakistan sent its forces across the Indian border and captured the Indian town of Khem Karan. The outnumbered Indian forces pulled back to the town of Asal Uttar where they established defensive positions and flooded the sugar cane fields in an attempt to slow down the Pakistani armoured forces. The next morning, the Pakistani forces did not disappoint and resulted in their tanks being bogged down in the mud and thus being decisively defeated. Out of the 165 tanks that Pakistan lost in the 1965 war, about 99 were lost at Asal Uttar.

While it is universally accepted that wars are terrible, it is undeniable that some wars do not get the same exposure of others. This was one of the main reasons I decided to choose the Pakistani scheme that is featured on the box art of this kit. It also helps that it is a reasonably attractive scheme in green and brown.

It felt strange that the main colour Takom suggests is Russian green but I saw no reason to deviate so I followed them with the suggested Mig Ammo colours. Having just finished a Russian armour build, I stuck to a similar formula and started out with 931 Russian Dark Base for the lower surfaces, and then 932 Russian base for the upper surfaces.

Continuing with the suggested colours for the camouflage pattern, I went with Mig’s 070 Medium Brown but tried out Scale Modellers Supply (SMS) masking putty to mask the lines. The advantage of this product is that it has not adhesive capability unlike Blu-tak, but it will cling if it comes into contact with another section of itself. It will also stretch and string if you roll it too thinly so a bit more practice needed, but I was happy with its non-adhesive qualities, especially over the more fragile areas along the sides of the turret. I lightened the brown with a few drops of white and did some highlights over the brown areas, and then lightening some Russian green and doing some highlights as well, but also lightly going over the brown areas to reduce the contrast between the colours. The mantlet cover was sprayed with the recommended Mig 947 Light Olive, then dry brushed with Mig 057 Yellow Grey to bring out the raised detail, and then the colours blended to reduce the contrast between the colours.

A gloss coat later and the kit was now decalled with all three of them. Mr Mark Softer worked a treat with the decals and settled them down nicely over the ribs of the rear turret storage box. Putting on the tracks in preparation for weathering, I discovered that I had committed the “amateur” error of installing the tracks on upside down on the right-hand run. I previously said the fit of the tracks around the provided wasn’t great and about a link short, however, I also noticed that I didn’t actually install them according to the instructions and was supposed to leave the bottom run-off and that a better fit may have been better but we’ll only know with other people’s experiences.

Non-wartime vehicles are generally pretty well maintained, and this tank was potentially lost fairly early on so I wasn’t going to do a lot of weathering to the vehicle, and did a brown wash with Abteiling Oils Wash Brown, black pin wash, to bring out details an all over dust spray including the tracks with Mig’s 105 Washable Dust, and then a few extra dust accumulations with Abteilung Oils Basic Earth before the final matte coat and this is the result.

I must say that I really do enjoy Takom kits and find their kits to be very buildable, and are of interesting subjects, especially with this release. I will be interested to see how people go with the fit of the tracks or if the issue is with my not following the instructions. I haven’t seen the Italeri M47 which is supposed to be one of their best ever, but I would wholeheartedly recommend this kit.

Paul Lee

Thanks to Takom for sending this kit to Paul to build and review.