2015-03-03

Bolt Action: Imperial Japanese Army - Type 97 Chi-Ha

I've gotten a bit more into the army box and now only a few items remain. One of them is this Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank that you get. As the Japanese didn't really get into the whole tank thing that much (not much use on the oceans or smallish islands), all of them are rather bad. This little thing mounts a 57mm infantry support gun, that in Bolt Action terms gives it a light howitzer, it also has a MMG mounted in the hull looking forward and another one mounted on the back of the turret, a bit strange from the point of view that most of us have from the western development. But I guess it was quite handy in the more jungle fighting and infantry support role that it was used for during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
It was considerer to be quite a good tank in 1937 when it was first deployed, but in the later part of WWII it was under armoured and under gunned to face the more advanced tanks of both the Americans and the Soviets.

Painting of this little bad boy was quite straight forward, I based my pattern on some pictures I could find around the interwebs, and also made use of a painting guide that Battlefront put out.
I also for the first time tried to use some weathering powder I got a while back. I'm not totally pleased with how it turned out, but with a bit more practise and perhaps a shade or two more I can make it look good on future models.










5 comments:

  1. It looks just as crammy and noisy as my father's Toyota MR2 back in the 80ies:0) Wonderful work Ulf - I hope you'll bring this stuff to Solberga for a game in the near future!

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    1. Thanks, and I'll bring them any time that anyone is up for a game =)

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  2. Looks very effective - quite 'oily' looking - like it :)

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  3. Impressive! If you can offer a game then I am in...

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  4. Very nice, great camo & weathering! Cheers!

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