Armortek

The BATUS tanks were painted centrally by the activation party crews at the beginning of each season using spray guns for speed and efficiency. There were few exceptions. In BAOR it was the opposite, routine painting was done on the tank park by crews, usually using brushes, which would result in sharply defined edges. If a number of tanks were painted at the same time however, such as for the Queen’s Jubilee Parade in 1977 or the RTR Standards Parade at Sennelager in 1985, the issue spray guns were used, so feathered edges were seen. I always preferred the sprayed pattern, I suppose because I’d grown up with Airfix Spitfires and it looked a lot smarter.

Painting.

Wow, that is really coming to life Phil. Love it.

Have you share options in the company that makes Blu-Tack Phil Can you re-use it again and again afterwards or is it one shot?

She is coming along nicely , 5 packs of blue tack bought which I am using again and again with just a little that gets lost in the masking tape during removal.

Painting, it's basically one small Tamiya pot per line of camo but it is a big model!

I just can't help but do some weathering as I go but more on that later. I received the road wheel tyres today and fitted them so they are now all complete, thank you Monique for great service that's much appreciated!

It must be agony, but after a few days of cold turkey, the desire to daub areas in "authentic" rust will subside

The realism of a well loved machine and a regimented set of rules should override the need to knock the model about.
Unless it had been in a theoretical skirmish with hordes of T62's or just fell off a trailer.

Great paintwork, great build. Hope mine can eventually come somewhere close.

So far "Phils Chieftain" folder on my laptop has over 600 files (350mb+) easy to reference, looking forward to the turret build.

Only track rust on this one John! I may apply some very faint rust shading here and there but that will evolve. After each deployment/exercise the vehicle would have been washed down inspected and then backed into the tank shed for basic or cosmetic repairs, these fighting systems where so valuable they were pampered to the extreme, so the paint job was always being touched up and should therefore be in reasonably good nik. Now flakey paint that has been painted over should should be on our list but I'm not keen on that look

Phil, going back to fitting the tyres to the main wheels, is there a preferred way of doing this? for example, spread the loctite on the inside front half of the tyre that will make contact with the wheel first, slide the tyre over and then rotate around to spread the loctite evenly? Is there a better way?

Hi Richard, you can use that technique with the smaller Panther and Tiger tyres but these are bigger wider buggers. They are a good fit so you don't need buckets of adhesive to fill a gap. I applied a thin coat to the wheel and another to the tyre inner surface, working quickly but steadily, line up the front edge as this is the part that you can see with your finger, you will need to wipe away the excess from the inner edge and use cyno wipe on the outer edge for a professional finish whilst it's still soft, although cyno remover can be used on fully cured cyno but may also remove you paint.
Hope this helps, it is a bit daunting I know!

Cyno wipe and cyno remover. Learned something there. Thank you!

Anyone thought about the front fender rubber skirts yet and where to get some good thin scale black sheet ?

Hi Phil
Looking great how about Cycle innertube for scale rubber .

Regards

Derek

Phil, and other fellow Chiefy builders.......

Not sure what scale thickness would be, but a good start might be either Viton rubber sheet 0.5mm or nitrile rubber sheet 0.5mm, both found by searching eBay. 100mm (4”) square mat for a couple of quid. My model is still in boxes but I imagine one such mat cut into two or more 4 inch strips would suit nicely.

Thicker sizes are definitely available, not sure about thinner. I guess we need a measurement of the original rubber thickness.......

Let me know what transpires and I’ll get my order in.

Kevin