Trumpeter 1/72 Type 61
The choice of injection moulded Japanese armour kits in the manly scale is rather underwhelming, to say the least. I'm really not sure why, especially since so many manufacturers of small scale AFVs are based on that side of the planet. I'd very much like to see some WWII Japanese armour, like a Type 97 'Chi-Ha' or a Type 89 B 'Chi-Ro' for instance without having to pay exorbitant prices for scarce resin kits. Nonetheless, courtesy of a Chinese manufacturer we now have three later AFVs to choose from: a Type 74, a Type 90 and this Type 61. Apparently the Japanese aren't terribly imaginative when it comes to naming their armour....
I needed a quick and easy build as a break from some more involved aircraft projects I've got on the go at the moment and this kit seemed like it would do the job. It wasn't quite as quick and easy as I had hoped, but with one major exception it was a pretty straightforward build so it fulfilled the therapeutic need at the time.
The one major exception is, as you will see at the bottom of the page, that the upper hull had a nasty slope to it when joined to the lower hull. This also caused the upper glacis plate to overhang the lower one producing a noticeable step. Not only would this have looked rather odd if not corrected, it also meant that the fenders would have been too close to the drive wheels with no room for the tracks to fit. The fix turned out to be pretty easy but even at that there was just barely enough room to squeeze the tracks in. The tracks themselves weren't too bad though they could have been a bit longer. They had to be stretched a bit to fit but pictures show these to have quite a bit of sag on the upper run and there is none whatsoever on the model. I know many people are dead against "rubber band" tracks but I don't have a problem with them as long as they're well moulded and not too thick; these qualify on both counts and they're certainly less fiddly than link and length tracks. Other than that the model is more or less right out of the box. Trumpeter include a short length of string for the tow cable but I used my usual control line plane lead-out wire (and I must try and scare up some more of this as I only have enough left for one more tank) with the ends from plastic rod and brass wire. The tools were all separate and very delicately moulded so needed a great deal of care when removing them from the sprue but look far better than moulded on tools.
Trumpeter's decals were absolutely superb, some of the best I've ever used. What little carrier film there was completely disappeared when applied with a bit of Micro-Sol and they settled beautifully into the nooks and crannies and conformed to the compound curve of the turret with no difficulty. The instructions, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. Although there are several options on the decal sheet no mention is made of them on the instruction sheet so I had no idea which numbers went with which turret marking. There are also some stencil markings but again, no mention is made of where they should go. I would have liked to have finished this in the "angry prawn" unit markings but settled on this box top scheme instead, which is almost as good. When it came time to paint I was left a bit puzzled. The nicely done artwork on the box top looks to be a dark gray & green scheme, but on the sides of the box it is depicted as red/brown & green. The painting instructions left me no wiser as Trumpeter quotes a Gunze colour that does not exist! I can find no reference to 'H 369' on any Gunze chart and even on the official Gunze Sangyo website the numbers don't go anywhere near this high. If anyone knows what this colour is please let me know, but I suspect it is an erroneous reference. In the end I went with the scheme on the box sides, which is also what Tamiya's 1/35th scale Type 61 is finished in. I used Humbrol 30 Dark Green and a 50/50 mix of 119 Light Earth and 62 Leather for the red/brown. Tool handles were done in Satin Oak with an overcoat of Tamiya clear orange with the metal bits in Testors Metalizer Steel. The machine gun was Humbrol Gun Metal (well, it would be wouldn't it?!) with a touch of dark blue in it. I used Micro Crystal Clear for the vision blocks. I'm not a great fan of this stuff for windows as it dries too distorted but it was okay for these tiny openings.
Left: Hmmm.... bit of a problem here. If left uncorrected there would be no way the tracks would fit between the fenders & drive wheels and the overhanging upper glacis plate would look decidedly odd. Below, left & right: Fortunately the fix was pretty simple. .020" x .030" plastic strip was glued to the upper edges of the lower hull as a spacer and I also used plastic sheet to fill in the gaping holes above the track run which is a great improvement. Problem solved.
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