Japanese Type 95 Ha Go

[Jamie Tainton]

Keep the updates coming, looking forward to them, and I hope you get to take some pics, the good Lord willin'

[Darren Gawle]

Dan: I use a liquid masking agent made by Vallejo. It's not the greatest stuff I've worked with - I prefer Maskol by Humbrol, but I haven't seen that around here for ages. Had to use what I could find.

Photos coming when it's all been painted and unmasked.

Thanks!

DG

[Dan Reed]

James,
Have you tried using Silly Putty? Great stuff and would work well on this kit due to it's flat surfaces.
Dan

[Jamie Tainton]

[Dan Reed]

Who feels like a ass now?
Dan

[Darren Gawle]

I had thought about silly putty and masking tape but settled on the liquid mask because of the fine curves which will be involved with the camouflage pattern. Liquid mask can be no fun at all to remove, especially around areas like hinges but it was the lesser of three evils as far as I was concerned.

In other news, I picked up the FineMolds Type 97 Chi Ha "limited edition" kit with the early style of engine deck. I'll see about posting photos of my haul as a separate thread later, but I have to say the moulding quality is SO much better than the Ha Go this thread is devoted to. This must be the quality evryone seems to rave about. No white metal jack, though...

DG

[Darren Gawle]

It looks like this model has a date with a can of oven cleaner; I'm not 100% happy with the way the contours in the camouflage pattern turned out using liquid mask, and I'm also not 100% happy with the camouflage colours themselves - the yellow is too deep, the green isn't light enough, and the brown is too... well, purple, actually. And the liquid mask is such a bitch to remove that a complete re-think of this is in order.

Anyway, I wasn't going to post photos but some of you are probably wondering what all the fuss is about:



And for some reason while I was painting the green the entire LHS became coated in animal fur. Really. I have no idea where it came from...

DG

[Jamie Tainton]

Hi Darren, I for one appreciate the photos, they show a lot as the old saying goes. I think it's good to post ones less successful efforts as we can all learn something,I always try and show my mistakes in these things as well as the stuff that makes me look good. I kinda thought the masking with liquid mask would be a bitch as I in my experience it's always a drag trying to get the stuff off, specially when using enamels. I think I will try very diluted paint hand painted in many layers next time as it may give me more control of the pattern. Keep up the good work it's good to see more of these Jap tanks, my curiosity is is growing.

[Tim Coulson]

Hi Darren,

How's the paint removing going?

It's probably too late to be of use to you, but I've come across some walkaround photos of a Type 95 at the Bovington Tank Museum. Don't know if you have seen them?

http://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/Walkaro ... 8412_Diunb

Tim

[Darren Gawle]

Thanks for the link, Tim, I was already familiar with it. I also found this link once: which has photos of other Type 95s in Russia, Hawaii, and the APG.

Most of the paint came off with oven cleaner, but there are a couple of spots which I might need something a little more medicinal than oven cleaner to get done.

DG