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Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
First I want to thank all the people who share their experiences and knowledge here!!! THANKS!!!!
I just thought I would share what I did to my Walker Bulldog in two evenings... about 4 hours total... No pictures but if anyone is interested ask, I can take a few... The idea of this is just to get the Bulldog functional while I rebuild my tiger.... I do have one question and I will leave that to the end.. Paint - I simply used Walmart Krylon OD Green... a few coats... I did not mask the rubber on the wheels... nor the suspension.. My thinking (and likely I am wrong).. if the tank needed a new coat of paint I doubt they would mask everything... (Minus windows, etc.) Also I figure when I redo my bulldog in detail it will have a few coats of paint already, helping the paint to look a little rougher and NOT with a showroom finish... I am going to let my use over the next month weather the tank a little... INSIDE.... I took out the gear boxes and ran them with a drill to work in the gears... I used Orange Mechanics Hand Cleaner to wear the teeth... it has pumice in it... and washes off easily, they were free wheeling in NO TIME!... I then relubricated them and created plastic covers which are held in place by the gear box mounting screws and small zap straps....This is to keep down the mess in the hull. Once I need to lubricate them again.. I will use a single hole punch to create an access point in the cover for the slim knozzle on the spray can. To keep things cool I mounted a small fan on the underside of the edge of the speaker... the fan does rest against the board, sandwiched between the speaker and the board.. but there is only plastic there, so no potential shorts. It draws air in and blows down... The fan is not mounted under an exterior grill but it seems to draw air with ease from the rear grill through the hull to the front area. It keeps a pretty good flow of air... to keep the board cool.... I wired this directly to the on/off switch so once I turn it on, the fan is on... I then siliconed up any holes in the hull... to make it water RESISTANT... Note though I have done NOTHING with the switches, like on my Tiger... I still need to paint the tracks and the mufflers... that is where my question is.... What is the best way to paint the mufflers to look rusted... From my experience metal objects which are hot.. i.e. muffler really do not flake.. and have a smooth rust color appearance.... any suggestions.. do you agree?... Any help would be great!!! Anyways I figure the improvemnets I made will keep my Bulldog running trouble free and if you are so inclined, hopefully yours as well..... for a while at least... haha.... KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
ORIGINAL: Kabul Tanker I still need to paint the tracks and the mufflers... that is where my question is.... What is the best way to paint the mufflers to look rusted... From my experience metal objects which are hot.. i.e. muffler really do not flake.. and have a smooth rust color appearance.... any suggestions.. do you agree?... Any help would be great!!! Outside of their covers (with the rest of the "accessories" ) http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/badkarma/Tiger/10.JPG Inside their covers (which are just painted plain yellow at this point) http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/badkarma/Tiger/11.JPG These were done with nothing but tamiya acrylics. If you like them, here's how... First off, I painted them all over in XF-16 Flat Aluminum to give a metalised undercoat (thinking about it, although I undercoated the rest of the tank in car primer, I didn't with these, I was too eager to get on and paint something!). Then I gave them a thorough wash in 50% XF-64 Red/Brown, 50% thinners. Then it was a wash of 25% XF-1 Black, 75% thinners. After those were totally dry, I started to dry brush with multiple layers of XF64 Red Brown mixed with more and more XF-57 Buff, making it lighter as I applied the layers. If at this point it starts to get too light, another wash of very thin black will sort you right out. Finally I gave it a very very light dry brushing of orange (this was in fact some old Citadel Miniatures (now called Games Workshop.. and if you remember CM that'll give you an idea of how old this paint is and it's still good!). I'm sure Tamiya's XF?? Orange would work perfectly well. And that's it. I was REALLY pleased getting the effect I was after, which like you say gives that look of constantly heated pipes that have a solid, non-flakey layer of rust all over them. In a week or so I'll post my whole build thread, of my HL Tiger 1 which has been fully "renovated" :D |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
I'm glad for you, that your inside work was a success. I feel, any form of electronics would benifit from these modification details, because of less driveline resistance and heat damaging build up of electrical parts. It's already bad enough that we expect these tanks to perform similar to the real ones, but, they do have their limitations. I also want to mention, that I went one step further by lubricating my tanks metal tracks to eliminate any power robbing resistance.[sm=punching.gif][sm=wink_smile.gif]
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RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Two thumbs up, on your paint detail work. The parts look realistic![sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=omg_smile.gif]
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RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
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first off, the krylon OD is not the proper color. It should be a shade of cold war are OD, and they changed about 3 times, (kept getting darker)...from 1945 to 65. The Testors 1265 or 1911, even the Tamiya NATO green is OK. On the mufflers, correct, they were always red hot and you could see tham miles away at night....get Rustall.....it comes in 4 bottle packs, but you really only need 1 and 4....the rust red and the powder to sprinkle over the muffler shield to resemble paint flaking off. The other two bottles are blackwash and gloss flattening stuff. I spray the tank with Dullcoat anyway. Coat the muffler shields about 3 times and sprinkle the powder sparingly on it.....the results will look so real, you'll think they are rusty steel. Paint the rubber on the wheels a flat black and the tracks are steel, so they should also be painted a flat, metalic (dirty) with black pads, also rubber on the inside where the wheels run. . The small handle behind the driver's rear periscope is a fire extinguisher handle, so paint it red.
Don't forget to lower the pioneer rack about half way...it sits way too high, and straighten the driver's periscopes so they look ahead and not watch the birds. (They pull out easy and you can trim them to sit straight with a Dremmel tool. ) The gun travel lock is missing, so you may want to make one. I drove a Bulldog for about a year so am very familiar with the lovely little beast. It was a sad day when the Army dropped the M-41 and went to the stupid Sheridan. |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Patton...
I have seen quite a few of your posts and I plan on using your advice in detail on a number of levels. However.. the mods, repairs, upgrades... whathave you.... have simply be done so I can have some fun with teh tank.. while finishing my Tiger... then the detail will happen... i.e. exact paint colour, lowering the rack..... Thanks for the rust idea.... one question though... It has been my expeience items that get really hot rust differently and really do not flake like a piece of metal that has been sitting outside... What was your experience with the exhaust of the bulldog? Thanks KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
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To Kabul Tanker...here's a couple shots of my M-41 to show what Rustall does and also the newly fabicated travel lock.
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RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
ORIGINAL: Kabul Tanker First I want to thank all the people who share their experiences and knowledge here!!! THANKS!!!! I just thought I would share what I did to my Walker Bulldog in two evenings... about 4 hours total... No pictures but if anyone is interested ask, I can take a few... The idea of this is just to get the Bulldog functional while I rebuild my tiger.... I do have one question and I will leave that to the end.. Paint - I simply used Walmart Krylon OD Green... a few coats... I did not mask the rubber on the wheels... nor the suspension.. My thinking (and likely I am wrong).. if the tank needed a new coat of paint I doubt they would mask everything... (Minus windows, etc.) Also I figure when I redo my bulldog in detail it will have a few coats of paint already, helping the paint to look a little rougher and NOT with a showroom finish... I am going to let my use over the next month weather the tank a little... INSIDE.... I took out the gear boxes and ran them with a drill to work in the gears... I used Orange Mechanics Hand Cleaner to wear the teeth... it has pumice in it... and washes off easily, they were free wheeling in NO TIME!... I then relubricated them and created plastic covers which are held in place by the gear box mounting screws and small zap straps....This is to keep down the mess in the hull. Once I need to lubricate them again.. I will use a single hole punch to create an access point in the cover for the slim knozzle on the spray can. To keep things cool I mounted a small fan on the underside of the edge of the speaker... the fan does rest against the board, sandwiched between the speaker and the board.. but there is only plastic there, so no potential shorts. It draws air in and blows down... The fan is not mounted under an exterior grill but it seems to draw air with ease from the rear grill through the hull to the front area. It keeps a pretty good flow of air... to keep the board cool.... I wired this directly to the on/off switch so once I turn it on, the fan is on... I then siliconed up any holes in the hull... to make it water RESISTANT... Note though I have done NOTHING with the switches, like on my Tiger... I still need to paint the tracks and the mufflers... that is where my question is.... What is the best way to paint the mufflers to look rusted... From my experience metal objects which are hot.. i.e. muffler really do not flake.. and have a smooth rust color appearance.... any suggestions.. do you agree?... Any help would be great!!! Anyways I figure the improvemnets I made will keep my Bulldog running trouble free and if you are so inclined, hopefully yours as well..... for a while at least... haha.... KT any help greatly appreciated.:D |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
The mufflers and shields on the M-41, M-46 and M-47s all did the same. Within an hour, all the paint is gone and overnight, the moisture gets to it (it always rains on tanks) and they will rust and the old paint will flake off. At night, after you have been running a few hours, the pots will glow bright red and let everyone know where you are. Nice in cold weather 'cuz you can always get warm and eat hot chow...but also nice to be able to hide and keep pesky metalic hornets away. The exhaust on the M-48 shot straight out the top center but the M-48A2 came with a cover that hid the mufflers and blew the exhaust out the back. This kept the heat signature to a minimum.
Bill |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Hi Bill,
What color was the base coat (primer) used on the tanks? Was it Oxide Red like the Germans? I cannot say enough how we appreciate your input and knowledge, Thank You! |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Hi James,
Never really saw one of my tanks in primer, but from scraping, sand/filing etc, it looked like the standard wine colored primer. By the time I got any of my tanks , it probably had 8-10 coats of paint, even over the bailing wire and green tape that held it together. The M-41 is my all time favorite though. It was fairly easy to maintain, sufficient room to move inside and fast as a blitz and extremely maneuverable. Hated that gun though...the 90 was just a dull boom, but that HV 76mm had a very vicious snap that would take your head off or pop your eardrums. We normally had to brush paint....armor units in the field didn't have nice stuff like spray paint guns. Bill |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
There was a show on the history channel the other night, a collector said the BullDog was his favorite as well, very comfortable to drive. With the popularity and longevityof the tank in foreign service you wonder how much better if at all the M551 Sheridan was.
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RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Regarding the Sherridan, it was designed for air mobile, and therefore very light weight with aluminum armor. The biggest drawback was the 165m missle launcher which was also capable of firing a conventional round....but the recoil was to intense that it could not be fired with the turret traversed over the side. It would lift the track a foot off the ground. It was reported to be medicocre in maintenance and was very fast. A battalion of them were used in Desert Storm but as far as I know, the only Sheridans on duty are in Ft Irwin CA with OPFOR, dressed up as VISMOD s to represent soviet armor. Don't know how many were sold overseas, but like the M-60A2, it was a poor design and did not last long. Argentina and Boliova are still using the M-41 in updated forms.
Bill |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Pantiger Man,
I have not waterproofed it yet... firstly I call making it water resistant.... and there are various degrees... for all degrees... it simply is up to the level of the top of the hull... however my tiger is getting teh full meal deal... but My Bulldog is simply, at this time... becoming water resistant... alll I did was silicone any holes that lead to teh outside... I have not moved any switches or anything... so there really is not much to see. |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Bill,
I have a question... what did you do to the light.. airsoft warning light on the mantle? Jason |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
ORIGINAL: Kabul Tanker Pantiger Man, I have not waterproofed it yet... firstly I call making it water resistant.... and there are various degrees... for all degrees... it simply is up to the level of the top of the hull... however my tiger is getting teh full meal deal... but My Bulldog is simply, at this time... becoming water resistant... alll I did was silicone any holes that lead to teh outside... I have not moved any switches or anything... so there really is not much to see. :D |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Bill,
What is teh measurement of the proper height for teh pinoeer rack? While fixing my tank.. I had teh rack off and one of the supports broke. I figure if I am going to glue it back on I may as well do it properly. I have your picture as a reference.. but it is only from one angle. THANKS!!! KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
How did you lubricate your metal tracks... I mean so you do not have to constantly do it.
KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
With tracks off( Usually, when doing internal work or tank clean-up.), spray down with a spray lubricant such a WD-40. Wipe off remaining residue so not to splatter undercarriage or stain floorings.
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RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
I ordered rustall yesterday... I am quite excited about this product.
Thanks I am sure I will be taping your brain lots for input for my Bulldog! What did you do to teh light on yours, for teh main gun. KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
I disagree on Krylon OD being the wrong color for a cold war tank as it is pretty dark as it is. It is certainly not correct for a WWII era tank which is why I am lightening it with various shades of Testors OD by dry brushing.
ORIGINAL: Kabul Tanker What did you do to teh light on yours, for teh main gun. KT -Harq |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
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Here are my bulldog tracks... They need a little dirt but after quite a few coats of different colour paint... and alot of dedicated time to sanding.....
Well you be the judge.... comments appreciated. KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
1 Attachment(s)
Well.. I have the tracks done..... I had to wash them in bronw. I had some comments they looked a little red.. and rightly so, they did... Mufflers done as well... Keep in mind on minimal mods have been done.. so I can play with this...
KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
FOR YOUR INFO....
Well I am writing this.. because something I did.. well did not work!.. I took alot of time and painted my bulldog tracks as you can see in the previous post. Well I did some concrete driving tonight.. and well all my hard work painting the black pads.. has.. shall I say.. WORN OFF!.. Oops.... So before any of you put in alot of time painting black pads... well... think twice. Maybe... paint them silver.... paint the rust on... then on concrete hopefully the silver wears off and then the natural black plastic will show. KT |
RE: Quick Walker Make-Over/Upgrade
Why not coat the pad area with Plasti Dip or something similar? Make a template to surround the pad and either use the spray or dip verison. I'm going to coat my Tiger's rubber portion of the roadwheels with it soon.
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