Author Topic: Help on paint for my little FT-17 build  (Read 490 times)

Offline Panzerjunky

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Help on paint for my little FT-17 build
« on: April 02, 2025, 08:18:47 AM »
Hello Folks
I am in the planning stage of a little FT-1 build (the 1/35th scale Meng version) I am having issues with finding AK interactive paint or at least a viable conversion chart.
The color callouts for the outside are MC-230/N71 Yellowish??  MC-231/N84 brown and MC-232/N73 Green Just can't find those color numbers anywhere????
Also, what do you recommend for 1/35th scale barbed wire WW1 type and where to get it
Thank you for yall's help in advance.
Thanks Jerry

Offline NigelR

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Re: Help on paint for my little FT-17 build
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2025, 06:45:24 PM »
Paint colours for an FT17 - I wouldn't worry too much. Use you eyes as a conversion chart because most colour callouts are guesses at best. The Weald Foundation restored an FT17 and did analysis on traces of paint to get close to some original colours, you can see the results of their work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy_rwgbm66A

Barbed wire? All commercial products are rubbish and look unrealistic. Make your own, it's easy. I use a variant of the method the method shown in this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxUNrNdLMzA

I use 32 gauge beading wire (which is more in scale for 1/35 than the picture wire the guy uses in the video) and also I use a simple jig to make it. I get a piece of 1"x2" wood  about 36" long and hammer a nail in at each end. I take a long length of beading wire (more than twice the distance between the two nails), secure it at the halfway point to one of the nails and then twist it together to form the central core of the barbed wire. Once the entire length is twisted together, I secure the loose end to the other nail and then do the "s" shaped winding of the third piece of wire along the length of the core. Having the core wire held in a jig makes it much easier to do the "s" shaped windings to make the barbs compared to the video. I tend to secure each of the barbs with superglue before I cut the excess "s" shaped windings off.

You can then paint and weather to your taste. The results look far better than any commercial product (which tend to be flat 2D etch). Here's an example.

 

Offline Panzerjunky

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Re: Help on paint for my little FT-17 build
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2025, 11:28:55 AM »
Thank you Very much for your help. Ya on my Big bertha I could not find the colors I wanted and ended up using German WW2 Tri color (Post 43) and IMHO looked good. Ill post pics when I figure out how.   I Will pick up some of the wire this weekend and give it a shot.  also, Sir do you have any more pics of the model that you displayed the wire on. That Theme was something I have been thinking on how to do Tastefully. and you hit the nail on the head IMHO.
Would you mind If I used a variation of your idea in a build of my own?
Thanks Jerry.

Offline NigelR

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Re: Help on paint for my little FT-17 build
« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2025, 06:24:44 PM »
Here you go, here's a picture of that vignette. Feel free to take as much inspiration from it as you want!

Offline Panzerjunky

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Re: Help on paint for my little FT-17 build
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2025, 12:32:02 PM »
Wow and thank you
That Model is so clean simple and well done, yet it 100% shows the impersonal nature of warfare. Well, done Sir. 
Thanks Jerry