TongDe Chaffee Minor Build

[Herr Dr. Professor]

A search shows that no one has yet done much with the TongDe Chaffee, so here's my simple build. (My unboxing blabber and photos are at: viewtopic.php?p=375380#p375380.)

1) I wanted to change the RTR camouflage simply because it is similar to a WWII German Tri-Color.

2) Seeing MrChef's attempt at Black Basing, I wanted to try the technique. Shock! I had no black acrylic primer (I will get some.) However, I do have plenty of Vallejo's Dunkelgrau primer, seemingly close enough for the effect. I also do not have any photos of the all-black stage . Too bad: for about 48 hours I had a Dunkelgrau M24 Chaffee Beutepanzer.

3) Now I have sprayed on some Vallejo FS Olive Drab, good ol' " 'Murrican" tank color. I picked up two online tips for more easily "marbling" the paint. One is to use pulled-apart steel wool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1TJSLoQqZY&t=143s). The other is to use a special mask available on eBay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnerFV2nT_I). Since I had steel wool, I used the first. Here are some photos of the results. More anon (i.e. soon, well, maybe soon).

Black basing front.jpg (393.48 KiB) Viewed 127 times

Black basing left.jpg (494.45 KiB) Viewed 127 times

Black basing rear.jpg (491.14 KiB) Viewed 127 times

Black basing right.jpg (533.34 KiB) Viewed 127 times

[Stormbringer]

That looks good

[Estnische]

Hi Doc - good to see something different like the Chaffee. Are you going for a Vietnam theme?

I appreciate you said it would be a quick build, but it would be great to see you erase those blobby bolts from the front of the tank and replace them with something crisper. Doesn't have to be expensive, hexagonal rod is quite modest in price.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Estnische: I'm afraid I will disappoint you. Ouch! I now see what you mean by "blobby bolts." I wish I had noticed and thought about those much earlier. But I have so many projects, so many with little errors, and so little time, that I am blobbing on. My apologies to you and all who can do so much better than I.

Doyle, David. M24 Chaffee, Vol. 1: American Light tank in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Legends of Warfare; Ground. Schiffer Military, 2019. ISBN978-0-7643-5859-3.

I considered Vietnam as the French use them as well as the U.S. in Korea. As I am the son of a U.S. WWII veteran, long deceased, if a tank served in WWII, I tend to prefer it that way. Moreover the Walker Bulldog was replacing the Chaffee (although not in U.S. service). I did notice that the carrier rack on the back of the TongDe is said to be anachronistic for WWII, yet Doyle's book shows a photo of one on 4 May, 1944. Certainly such a rack was on M4 Shermans.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Here are some photos of the TongDe Chaffee, now in its Olive Drab base coat over the "black basing" technique. The camera shows some of the tonal variation, as does magnification, and it looks even more subtle to my bad old eyes. If I use the technique again, I will use a flat black primer and perhaps a lighter tone of the base paint. I would also use the technique of a special mask as recommended in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnerFV2nT_I. The pulled-apart steel wool worked for me, but it left some fuzz, a nuisance I easily sanded out and resprayed.

Base Coat 01.jpg (313.16 KiB) Viewed 67 times

Base Coat 02.jpg (401.07 KiB) Viewed 67 times

[Stormbringer]

Amazing work mate
sometimes until its pointed out that something is wrong/not correct that we notice it but file it away for future builds