Tamiya 1/48 G40 Bulldozer

[Guest]

I'm wanting to further my practice of hairspray chipping and heavy weathering, so picked up this little kit from John as I think it should lend itself well to that. There'll also be a small base, but unless I find where the figures hat went to it may be driverless.

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There's not much to greet you inside the box, just two crisply moulded sprue, a couple of decals, some metal foil stickers, and a fold out instruction sheet.

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After about an hours work it was already looking like a 'dozer, with minimal clean up and everything fitting together perfectly

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I've seen a few of these built and one thing that put me off was the massively oversized hydraulic hoses and I'd planned on replacing them with thin wire, but then I found the reference picture below. I guess Tamiya got it right after all.

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So I carried on with the assembly, but took note of the reinforcement on the hoses and had a go at recreating it by wrapping 0.1mm copper wire around them. Not exactly authentic, but gives the impression, which is more than enough for me.

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Everything was just snapped together at this point so I stripped it back down into sub assemblies for a coat of Mr Primer Surfacer

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As I wanted to chip through the final colour to reveal a rusty surface it got an all over coat of Hull Red, which I then progressively lightened with red & yellow to give a variety of rusty tones. It's bit OTT as it stands, but will hopefully look okay in the end.

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I'll let the harden up overnight and hopefully start some chipping tomorrow.

[Tim Marlow]

Nice work Andy. The wire work lifts it a notch.

[Guest]

Thanks Tim.

[adt70hk]

Great work Andy. Very, very nice indeed!

ATB.

Andrew

[scottie3158]

Andy,
Nice work on the hoses and the base colours look good for the chipping later on.

[Mini Me]

Nice work so far Andy.......should be fun working at the chipping process.......heavy equipment is known for this. excellent choice! :thumb2: Rick H.

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
Went together well - typical Tamiya. I like their 1/48 scale stuff. Wound wire is a nice touch. Paintwork is fine.
Jim

[Steven000]

Looking good :thumb2:

[Mickc1440]

Slow down Andy my seats not warm yet.
Great work so far.

[Guest]

Thanks everyone.

I've been a bit hit & miss with my chipping in the past so looking forward to getting a bit of practice in.

[JR]

Ooh liking that wire wrap Andy, Tim's spot on with his remark.

Nothing like a beat up dozer :thumb2: those colours should fit the bill perfectly.

[outrunner]

Looks great Andy the full undercoat of rust is the way to go. What paints are you using? I use acrylic and if so you will need a coat of clear laquer before the hairspray. After it's dry leave the topcoat for about 15 minutes before using a little water to start chipping, probably telling a painter something you already know but as soon as chips appear move on to another bit so you dont take too much off, that is what I did with my Mirror Models dozer and it came out OK.

Andy.

[Guest]

Thanks John & Andy.

So far it's Mr Color Andy, to give a nice stable base.

Undecided on top coats yet. Water based acrylics are easier to chip and give a longer working time, but often my chips come out too large and out of scale with them.

Lacquer based like Mr Color or MRP are more robust and take more persuasion but tend to give finer chips. Just don't leave them too long or they are tough as old boots!

[Guest]

After a fruitless hunt for the drivers cap I had a go at making one. Not exactly Michelangelo levels of sculpting, but with a bit of sanding and a blob of paint it'll much better than having a flat top. No doubt the kit part will turn up instantly now that I've replaced it :rolling:

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Then on to the chipping. After warming the hairspray up just to coax it out of the can I gave the pieces a couple of light coats then let them dry for an hour. I then gave them a blast of paint with Steve Jones in my head - "light coats Andy, light coats" :smiling5:

I ended up using Vallejo Model Air. Now some of you will know that I've never had much success with this stuff, but what a difference a change of airbrush makes! It sprayed really well. No coughing or spluttering, no blockages and virtually no tip dry. I'm not counting my chickens but if it carries on like this I can finally make use of the drawer full of it that's been in hibernation for maybe a year. I used Dark Sea Grey, than added some highlights by adding more and more Sky Grey. The shading isn't too evident in the pictures but then it never is with me lol

After an hour or so near the heater I started chipping with some water and 3 different sizes of stiff bristle brush. It's definitely one of my better attempts and as it moves further along with weathering I'm hoping it'll look the part.

I also blocked in a few of the colours for the hoses, seat, tracks & blade, then gave it a couple of coats of varnish to seal it all in.

Sorry for the wall of text!

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[Fernando N]

Looking very nice Andy :thumb2: