First we looked at Clayton’s Mk10 and Andy’s Mk.5 Chieftain
and now it is our man Paul Lee’s turn with his Takom Mk 11 Chieftain to round
out the trilogy in part III of his build process. Today sees him paint and
weather his Mk 11. See how he went…
Review Build Pt III
Takom Chieftain Mk 11
Manufacturer: Takom
1:35th Scale
Type: Multimedia Kit
Price: ¥7,740/ $62.25 USD/ €55.45 from Hobbylink Japan
With the construction pretty much done it was time to start
bringing the model to life. Procrastinating slightly, I finished off the tracks
and painted them in Vallejo track primer and the pads separately with Matt
Black. I was then able to glue the pads onto the track lengths and only needed
a quick touch up where the pads were cut off the sprue.
Now it was decision time, and of the three boxings of the
Chieftain, this one probably has the least variety with three yellow and green
BATUS schemes, one plain green, and one green and black vehicle. While I was
extremely tempted by the BATUS vehicles with their large vehicle ID's on the
side, I decided to go with the classic green and black in service vehicle.
I started off with AK's NATO Green all over, and then
sprayed some of the upper areas with the same NATO Green but lightened with
some grey. I then made some masks with Blu-Tak and sprayed the area with AK's
matt black.
With the major colours done, I gave the model a pin wash to
bring out all the details that Takom have done so well on this kit. I usually
would have put the decals on first but with only a handful to put on I put them
on after the wash, which didn't make a difference.
The one downside I found about modelling modern vehicles is
that they just don't weather as much as they used to, and because they weren't
in service, are typically kept in excellent condition. However, it doesn't mean
they don't get dirty thought. I decided to give it a dusty after a long drive
look and gave it a wash with Abteilung's Light Mud.
Time to bring it all
together and this is the finished product. First in closer detail...
...And then a walk around a bit further out...
I think this is definitely Takom's best kit so far. The
build is simple, and can be built up extremely quickly, but still has enough
detail to really bring the model to life. Highly recommended.
Paul Lee
Thanks to Takom
for sending Paul this kit to make and review.
