Hello from South Wales

[Jarrod1981]

Afternoon everyone.

Thankyou for letting me join. I’ve been lurking for a while. Managed to bag what I feel a bargain after searching for a while. I’ve picked up a Heng long challenger 2, it’s the upgraded with metal tracks drive gears and white metal gearbox. The gentleman I bought it off was intending to do a Berlin brigade build but didn’t get around to it.
I really like the modern armour mostly but also love the world war era tanks. There are a lot of awesome vehicles on this forum and a huge wealth of info !

I’m looking to get into the hobby and learn to detail the tank. I would like to start with painting the metal tracks and wheels. I’d really appreciate any advice on the best way of doing this.

The tank is en route to me via post as we speak so I’ll stick some photos up as soon as it arrives !

Thanks again. Jarrod.

[Model Builder 4]

Hi Jarrod, welcome to the forum from another South Wales tanker

Cheers, Lee.

[jarndice]

Welcome to the Forum
My advice would be to do nothing to your Tank until you have got used to it,
Many of us have piled into our first Tank spending money on all manner of modifications and belatedly realised that we had gone down an expensive blind alley.
I suggest you Identify a particular Unit equipped with the Challenger2 and research the very devil out of it before laying a finger on your Tank.
Don't forget any metal on your Tank that requires painting really ought to be painted with a Metal etching Primer first or the paint simply wont take.
Do please ask the Questions and enjoy the Forum.

[Jarrod1981]

Hi Jarrod, welcome to the forum from another South Wales tanker

Cheers, Lee.

Hi lee,

Thankyou for the welcome. Where about in gods country are you ?

[General Jumbo01]

Welcome aboard! There are endless upgrades and mods you can do to your tank so, like said above, do plenty of research first both into the real thing and the supporting tank hobby market to get the very best from your cash investment. Then you can buy your second one, and third and.... Enjoy!

[Jarrod1981]

Welcome to the Forum
My advice would be to do nothing to your Tank until you have got used to it,
Many of us have piled into our first Tank spending money on all manner of modifications and belatedly realised that we had gone down an expensive blind alley.
I suggest you Identify a particular Unit equipped with the Challenger2 and research the very devil out of it before laying a finger on your Tank.
Don't forget any metal on your Tank that requires painting really ought to be painted with a Metal etching Primer first or the paint simply wont take.
Do please ask the Questions and enjoy the Forum.

Hi jarndice,

Thankyou for the welcome and reply, I don’t have any immediate plans for the challenger other than to take some time getting used to it and having a bit of fun, I would however love to at least paint the shiny metal parts to make them a bit more aesthetically pleasing. I’ve a little experience with engineering but not on this sort of scale.
I agree with etch priming etc. Have you any recommendations of which paints or could you point me in the direction of some how to guides maybe ? My concern was painting them and having them stick because of the paint.

[Jarrod1981]

Welcome aboard! There are endless upgrades and mods you can do to your tank so, like said above, do plenty of research first both into the real thing and the supporting tank hobby market to get the very best from your cash investment. Then you can buy your second one, and third and.... Enjoy!

Hi jumbo,

Thankyou for the welcome !
I’ve been after one for a long time, hopefully the start of a collection. I’ve noticed there are a lot of advertised bits for them however a lot seem to be out of stock. I’ve been looking on forgebears site mainly and some others.
I’m not in a huge rush to do mechanical upgrades straight off the
Bat, ideally I’m hoping to learn from you guys as there’s a lot of experience on this forum and try to make some informed choices for upgrades/mods at some point in the future.

[General Jumbo01]

Okay, l suggest you remove all the parts you want to paint and prime them with metal etch primer, Halfords will have this. You can then top coat with acrylic colour using rattle fans or airbrush. We all have our favourite brands but l favour Tamiya as they are easy to find.

The Challenger 2 tracks have a steel frame with rubber pads so you can have lots of fun painting those but once acrylic is dry it is hard wearing.

[43rdRecceReg]

Croeso, Jarrod!
I use this metal primer on my models (it's also available in small rattle cans):
https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/produc ... imer-40ml/
Tamiya also does excellent metal primers in rattle cans; but they're more expensive than the Mr. Hobby variety.

[jarndice]

Hi,
If you go to "Tips & Tricks and click on "Painting & Weathering you will be overwhelmed by helpful threads,
As to paints,
The choice of paint maker is a personal one, there is a very wide choice and there are 3 basic forms of applicator,
Paint Brush, Rattle Can or Airbrush or a combination of all three.
Most of us use Acrylic paints,
Using Acrylic thinners (Isopropanol) the paint can be easily removed at a later date and while the paint brushes are still wet they can be cleaned under the tap which makes the medium far superior to enamel in my view.
If you decide to use a paint brush,
Do add thinners to Humbrol paint pots as they are quite concentrated.
If you go on E-Bay you can buy a pack of Rattle Can heads for very little money that give you a choice of nozzles that help when detailing.

[Model Builder 4]

Hi Jarrod, I'm from the top of the valleys in Merthyr, there's quite a few of us scattered about up this way now

Cheers, Lee.