Project Bulldog - Start to Finish

[wibblywobbly]

After completing my Tiger I decided that I wanted another tank, but having spent a huge amount of cash on the first one, I was wanted to see how cheaply I could create a nice looking IR ready tank, without spending money on it. First task was to source a Bulldog as that was what I really wanted. I sold some spare bits on Ebay and dropped a hint that I was selling these to finance my next project...a Bulldog (not allowed to mention 'wants/exchanges' on Ebay but doing it this way gets around the rule.

Sure enough one of the well known suppliers emailed me, and told me that he had a Bulldog, it had a fault, but it was equipped with brand new metal tracks, metal gearboxes and metal sprockets. It would come in the box with all the usual bits, and he would throw in an RX14 set of boards. This was exactly what I was looking for, so we did the deal.

As soon as I got it I pulled it apart and fitted the new boards. I also removed the smoke unit. It ran perfectly.

Righty, cooking on gas!

I then carefully removed all of the plastic tools. I had purchased metal ones for the Tiger, and then painted them..but what was the point? Nicely painted plastic looks just the same. I also cut the front tool rack off as the real thing has it set much lower. The rear mg mount was removed, as was the gunsight(??) in front of the turret. Out with the filler, and sanded flat.

I removed the metal sprockets and tracks, and was then ready to paint. I decided on a desert style paint job, just to be different, and also decided to try Valleja acrylics. I checked Antics online to see if the colours I wanted were in stock in Bristol, and it said they were, so I drove into central Bristol, paid £4.20 for 10 minutes parking...and found that the website was lying!! I therefore purchased the closest matches I could find instead.

Everything was given a dilute washover with desert yellow, and the wheels brushed with several coats to bring up the colour. Hmmm...desert yellow is a bit bright! I then applied burnt umber to the rims and hubs to give them that dirty look..which made them a little better, and brought out the detail.

The tracks were bright silver, so they had to change. Humbrol matt black enamel watered down with B & Q brush cleaner was washed all over and sure enough they turned black. I then applied burnt umber to the outside edges to give that muddy desert appearance.

The tools were all handpainted so that the metal bits looked metal and the wooden bits looked wooden. The jerry cans were done in a kahki colour, achieved with Dark Sand and a washover with Flat Earth.

The lower hull was given a coat of Humbrol beige enamel. It's more durable than acrylic and goes on with a brush in a 'one coat' application. There is no way that I could get around the wheels and suspension with my airbrush, and I didn't want to risk breaking anything by pulling it all apart.

Next up was the top hull. This was given a couple of coats of Dark Sand, until it was all a uniform colour. It was much better than the Desert Sand colour!

Next was very dilute Dark Grey, this was painstakingly fed into all of the seams and hinges to bring out the detail.

I then ran around rivets and other detail with Burnt Umber to get a bit of rust.

It still looked a bit boring, so I gave the whole thing a blow over with dilute Neutral Grey to dull it down, and then applied diluted Earth Brown in an attempt to give it a weathered desert look. Unfortunately, my ancient digital camera does not like indoor flash photography so the pics aren't quite natural, I will get an outside pic and post it up when I get the chance. I also have a Darkith IR unit on it's way.

Only things left to do are paint in the vision slits, and it's done.

So, what did a Tamiya compatible tank cost, including 'hit' and 'fire' sounds?

Tank £70
Paint £13
IR £61
Total £144

It can be done, and probably even cheaper if you pick up a bargain somewhere?

Cheers

Rob G

Here's the first 10 pics, next post will have the rest.....

[wibblywobbly]

Here's the rest of the pics, I forgot to mention that I had to make an auxiallary exhaust pipe out of a cotton bud stick, and that I painted the exhausts in aluminium and rust. I also need to do something with the horrible HL turret mg, or just leave it off?

Rob G

[fv432]

looking sweet mate would look good next to my nz dog at a battle at last i have team mate lol

[philipat]

Paint job looks awesome!  I like the desert approach. 

A running tip...upgrade the springs on your front and rear shocks and add some weight to the front end (fishing weights work well).  The Bulldog is a great runner, but she tends to sag in the backend and it's especially noticeable on grass.  Check my thread on adding rubber pads to the track; it will give you a slight running improvement as well as a huge realism boost in the appearance.  I'd love to hear someone's experience with it on metal tracks!

If you're going to take the time to fix the pioneer rack, you should also fix the driver's periscopes.  They should be chopped down so that they are flush with the hatch housing and looking forward, not up at the sky.  If you want a host of other great ideas, look at fv432's build thread.

[wibblywobbly]

Ok, here's the last of the pics, 2 outdoors and 1 indoors with the vision slits painted. I took it for a run round the garden and one of the idlers came off. At this point I discovered just how long it would take me to find an idler wheel painted the same colour as Cotswold stone chippings in a sea of them!  :-[

I will take a look at the springs etc, although I have to say that the Bulldog suspension is pretty good as it is. Maybe removing the smoke unit helped with the weight distribution?

The gearboxes need running in, but all in all I have to say that the Bulldog is pretty well made?

[tiger205]

thats a cracking build rob g, ive never seen a bulldog in desert camo before, cool, rob theres one obvious thing missing from youre 'dog before you get youre team mate, tracks, it might help to drive it with tracks on, just a tip

              Tony

[fv432]

looking sweet rob and all that for a bargain price you cant beat the dog for manouverability

one criticism please sort those drivers vision blocks out 

yes tony ha ha mate my dog now has tracks well one side anyway
just goes round in circles its a battle ploy mate

[tiger205]

is that your secret stealth tank for when you go battleing?,  ::) ::)


            Tony
             

[fv432]

shhhh mate youll give up the surprise lol

[tiger205]

whoops, 

              Tony