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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

1/16 Takom Imperial Japanese Army Type 94 Tankette


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When I was in Telford last year, Jim gave me a couple of armour kits to build for LSM. One of them was Takom's 1/16 IJA Type 94 Tankette.

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This will be pretty much OOB as there seems to be no AM for this kit as of yet. I was thinking of building it as the Australian capture Tankette that I saw at Canberra's War Memorial storage facility last year, but it turns out that is a late variant with the larger idler wheel. Looks to be a cool kit, if you haven't seen it yet, check out Jim's review here - 

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I started gluing parts between a couple of other things I have on the go that were drying. I'm inpressed with what Takom have done, it falls together and where I am currently is maybe 2-3 hours worth. I recoken this could eaily be an weekend build project if you were looking for one!

I took care of all the running wheels and idlers. Clean up wasn't to bad thanks to where Takom placed the sprue attachment points and a really sharp sprue cutter. Wheels were quickly rubbed down with a 3M scotch pad. I will come back and ruff them a little bit more later. The suspesion is workable and quite stiff. I took the wheels off for the moment till I get closer to adding the tracks.

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Everything built up pretty quickly from here onwards and I am currently here.

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Since there seems to be no AM for this, I am looking for little things I can to make it details stick out. First thing I did was rubbed my RB Razor over the wooden handles of the tools. I am hoping when it comes to painting, the sratches will proved an nice woodgrain.

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Next simple task I did, was thinning down the edge of the horn. Quick and easy task with a half round file.

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The plastic grab handle on the hatch was replaced with wire that was bent into shape with wire bending pilers from a jewellers store. Holes were drilled out and then wire super glued into postion.

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And to give you an idea of size, next to a bottle of hot pink Vallejo.

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Had some more time at the bench today, decided to power on with the Tankette since there wasn't much to do to get to paint. I made up some belts from some small fuse wire and tape for the jack. I just attached it over the PE belts.

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I thinned down some Tamiya Putty with Tamiya Lacquer Thinners and used an old paint to dab it all over the exhaust to give it some texture.

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I decided to include another detail by damaging the rubber on the wheels. I started by taking a file and filing away the sharp edges to give it a more curved worn look, and then cut away some small chunks. I thought I might overdone it but looking at some images on the internet, I think it will be fine.

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After all this was done, I moved onto the turret and drilled out all the cooling holes on the machine jacket.

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Something that I thought was cool and smart from Takom was that they included rivet heads on the sprue runner to add to the turret where they couldn't add the detail due to limitations from injected molding.

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And with that, it's all done and ready for paint! So fit wise, everything fits like a glove and there wasn't need for any filler what so ever. I think you could easily build this within 4-6 hours as there is minimal cleanup, thanks to where sprue attachment points are located on the parts. You have a set of God Hand or Dspae like cutters you will breeze through clean up.

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Small update...

All the base colours are on now. I have decided to go with the overall sand colour scheme, with the rising sun flag on the sides of the tank. All the colour callouts are from the Ammo paint range which I am not a huge fan of, so I converted them over to Mission Models Paints. The colour Ammo suggest is a shade of Dunkelgelb, so I have used MMP-011 as my base colour. Tools and barrel also painted using Mission paints.

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So that is where I am at the moment, I will start some weathering later tonight if I can get downstairs for a bit.

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Had some spare time over the last few days and I started weathering the Tankette. I'm using Ammo & AK weathering washes and effects. I still need to add some chips and paint a couple of little details like the Star on the front and rear taillamp. Tracks were painted with MMP Burnt Iron, and AK Track wash. I have decided to try my hand a making a small base for it. I am going to go with an abandoned Tankette after blowing a track in battle and. I'm also looking at adding a figure it too, there is a nice looking figure of USMC soldier charging from Alpine. But there doesn't seem to be much out there.

Well, this is where I am currently, I am waiting on a couple of jars of pigments to arrive for me to continue...

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This little thing is looking great and will be a nice eyecatcher in a small dio.

There are some 1/16 Marines out there.

I found these two, but didn't find the corresponding company site:
https://www.dersockelshop.de/figuren-buesten/usmc-soldier-wwii-1-16_miniature-alliance_ma9903.html
https://www.dersockelshop.de/figuren-buesten/us-marine-pacific-islands-wwii-w-base-1-16_miniature-alliance_ma2014.html 

and also this one by DEF Model
https://www.dersockelshop.de/figuren-buesten/u.s.-army-tank-commander-in-sahara-1942-1-16_def.model_df16002.html

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