Type 97 Japanese Medium Tank

by Ian Robertson

Tamiya's 1/35 scale Type 97 Japanese Medium Tank is available online from Squadron.com

For my first attempt at an AFV I decided to build Tamiya's relatively inexpensive 1/35 scale Type 97 medium tank (kit 35137) out of the box. I chose markings for a tank in the 9th tank regiment, Saipan Island.

The kit is straightforward to build, and in most cases the detail is very good, particularly given that the kit was released in 1987. The biggest shortcoming of the kit in my opinion was the almost featureless screen guard over each exhaust. Because the exhausts are so prominent, the model would be greatly enhanced by the replacement of the kit exhaust covers with finely detailed etched metal alternatives. The vinyl tracks were satisfactory, but in the future I will be tempted to purchase individual link tracks for added realism.

I painted the model with Polly Scale acrylics: dark green, tan, and Japanese red-brown. I used masks of UHU tac to create the hard edge between camouflage colors. For weathering I used chalk pastels and small amounts of "Real Rust" by Aims Products.

The diorama included the use of various dried mosses, drywall (for the rocks), and "Pour-on" high gloss epoxy for the water. The two figures on the ground are from Tamiya's Japanese infantry set, and the tank commander is from Warriors. I fastened the tank directly to the diorama base to give the impression of weight on the tracks.

The images were taken outdoors with a SONY digital camera set at its highest picture resolution (2048 x 1536 pixels).

Other camera settings were as follows: 200 ISO film speed (it's an option on my digital camera), 800-1000th/sec shutter speed, F-stop 8.0, and fixed focus distance of either 20 or 30 cm.
 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Ian Robertson
Page Created 28 May, 2003
Last Updated 25 March, 2004

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