Chi-Ha

The latest model built from the kits my mate Mark bought for me last Xmas is the Airfix Type 97 Chi-Ha tank.

It's an easy kit to build. It goes together nicely; in my case I just needed a little filling at the rear of the turret roof.

The kit instructions have the frame radio aerial on the turret painted in the same orange colour as the exhaust components. I'm sure the latter will be rusty as a result of the paint having burned off. This didn't seem likely for the aerial so I did a bit of research.

It looks like the frame aerial was actually build from copper rod or tubing. In addition it seems there was copper wire wrapped around the uprights connecting the aerial to the turret. I decided to base coat the whole frame in Castellax Bronze, a lovely deep bronze colour from GW's airbrush range, and then apply a highlight in Vallejo Copper. I also added diagonal lines of copper on the uprights to suggest the wound wires. These aren't visible in the photos.

Sadly I've spotted one glaring error in the picture above. I'll leave it to you to spot while I contemplate whether I can be bothered to fix it!