Review of the Tamiya Chieftain Mk 5 model tank

I just love the intimidating cannon on this model. Tamiya spent a lot of time on the detail of this model. It has a good deal of storage boxes etc to build on to the turret and hull.

On the whole it was a great kit to build and very realistic as well as time consuming.

I painted this model in April 2008. It is the paint scheme of Chieftains on manoeuvres in Canada.

I used as normal Tamiya Acrylic paints. I airbrushed Flat Green (XF-5) on first, I then used Tamiya model masking tape to mask out the areas, which I airbrushed Dark Green (XF-61) to give the camouflage pattern.

I then airbrushed the cannon’s thermal sleeves using Deck Tan (XF-55).

I painted the crew by hand, using Olive Drab (XF-74) on their uniforms (I left on XF-61 for the berets) and as always, I used Humbrol Acrylic 61 for the skin colour.

The instructions were poor with the painting. It only showed a view of the left, not the right and had no top view.

It didn’t say which colour to use on the thermal sleeve so I took a picture of a Chieftain to the model shop and matched it up.