Grant Canal Defence Light

1
February 16, 2023
Final drive assembly with cast texture added. This is putty applied thin, then quickly wetted with liquid cement and stippled with a stiff brush; after drying, it was sanded to reduce the resulting texture again.
2
February 16, 2023
Main pieces for the armoured radiator cover that seems to have been commonly fitted to CDLs. The numbers are the thicknesses of the card used.
3
February 16, 2023
Basic shape of the armoured radiator cover assembled.
4
February 16, 2023
Armoured radiator cover finished with all its details, and in place on the model.
5
February 16, 2023
Rear right stowage box scratchbuilt from plastic card (because Takom missed half the boxes that were commonly on CDLs).
6
February 16, 2023
Front mudguard stowage bin, another that Takom forgot.
7
February 16, 2023
Stowage boxes on the engine deck finished.
8
February 16, 2023
Left-hand side of the stowage boxes on the engine deck.
9
February 16, 2023
Night-driving light and three brackets added to glacis plate, again details that Takom omitted (though oddly, the etched guard around the light is provided in the kit).
10
February 16, 2023
Bullet splash guard around turret ring added from a strip of plastic card. Glued in place as a single piece, with the gaps cut afterward to make sure everything lines up.
11
February 16, 2023
Right front view of the finished but unpainted model. Figure is from MiniArt.
12
February 16, 2023
Left front view of the finished but unpainted model. Antenna mounts on turret roof are from the spares box, as Takom (again …) missed them almost completely.
13
February 16, 2023
Left rear view of the finished but unpainted model. Tracks are still loose, assembled into a couple of lengths, for ease of painting. The etched sand shield mounting rails have been hand-painted with Mr. Surfacer to prime them before painting,
14
February 16, 2023
Right rear view of the finished but unpainted model. Fire extinguishers were replaced by Asuka ones, as they seem slightly better.
15
February 19, 2023
Painted in SCC 15 olive drab, mixed from Tamiya acrylics: 5 parts XF-81, 1 part XF-58 and 1 part XF-71.
16
March 1, 2023
More painting done: panel highlights sprayed with Mig IDF Green, then a wash from thinned (about 1:1) Army Painter Soft Tone, and once that was dry, a drybrush with Revell Light Olive.
17
March 5, 2023
Wheels and tracks painted.
18
March 5, 2023
The wheel rims are bare metal because the track teeth often rubbed the paint off them in the real world.
19
March 8, 2023
Markings from the kit added, though not all that it indicates (the census numbers it tells you to put on the front and rear are unlikely, the bridge classification disc on the rear is just silly) and the blue square seems to be spurious, but I only found that out after applying it.
20
March 14, 2023
Model dirtied with an earth-coloured wash, not too much as it should look as if it’s not been in service very long, and tracks added.
21
March 19, 2023
The finished model from here on.
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March 19, 2023
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March 19, 2023
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March 19, 2023
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March 19, 2023
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March 19, 2023
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March 19, 2023

Jakko ‌
Thanks 🙂 TBH, the kit is basically sound, but I feel they dropped the ball in some areas. The stowage bins are apparent in most photos of Grant CDLs, for example, and the radiator cover as well as the canvas cover over the gun. Also, Takom tells you to fit the gun barrel with an external armoured shield, which was common on the American version but never seen on the British one.

I get the impression they started making a model of the American CDL tank, and then said, "Why don't we also release the British version?" but didn't do their research well enough to find all of the differences.

16 February 2023, 18:27