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M-109A6 Paladin

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M-109A6, named as the “Paladin”, is the latest M-109 variant that is still in service today. Since the hull is nearly the basic M-109 hull, it was easy for Italeri to produce a kit by molding a new turret and adding this to their already existing M-109A2 kit. Of course, there are visible differences in the hull and if you care a lot for accuracy (not me) you will have to make modifications. I chose to build this Paladin for the Self Propelled Indirect Fire Campaign.

The construction of the kit was a little painful since the upper hull was warped seriously. The molding quality is not as high as any recent Tamiya or Dragon offering, but overall the kit looks okay when built. Since I hate vinyl tracks, I dumped the kit tracks and replaced these with AFV Club’s workable M-109 tracks. You can see I had quite a bit of trouble on the left side and learnt the hard way, so the assembly of the right side was much better. I also replaced the barrel with a Barreldepot metal barrel.

I used Tamiya’s NATO colors for the paint job and Humbrol enamels for detail painting. I do not like the way the jerry cans came out, I tried to make them look different but somehow they stand out too much. I think I should’ve replaced them. Also, much to my dismay my matt varnish was spoiled and for fear of destroying the model I applied to little, so the turret is still a bit glossy.

For weathering I used Mig Production pigments. I tried using these both dry and wet, using different solvents. Not too bad, but not as good as I wanted it to be. Guess I have to keep learning by doing, I’m still very new to pigments (this is my second application ever).
Hope you like my Paladin!
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About the Author

About Emre Efli (emroglan)
FROM: ISTANBUL, TURKEY / TüRKçE

Have been "seriously" modeling since 2002. I build armor and more recently aircraft, as well as some sci-fi when I feel like it.


Comments

I'm anxious to get to a computer so I can see the photos more clearly, but it certianly looks like a very nice build. The kit does build into a nice represntation even without fixing the hull and turret deficiencies. I do wonder if that aftermarket barrel corrects the bore evacuator. If memory serves me it does not.
AUG 11, 2009 - 06:34 AM
That's a nice looking Paladin, the pigments look good. I would put a little layer of dust on the whole vehicle since these thing get dirty after driving for 100 meters About the barrel, I was once told that Barrel Depot stuff in general are direct copies from the plastic barrels in kits without fixing an dimensional problems.
AUG 12, 2009 - 09:05 PM
Nice job. Looks really good. Only thing are tracks should a tad tighter. Straight across the run I do not think they touch until maybe 4 th station. Gino you around buddy?
AUG 12, 2009 - 11:15 PM
Yup, I'm here. Guess I missed this the first time around. It looks pretty good. Everyone covered tweaks to it. Nothing to add except good job.
AUG 12, 2009 - 11:44 PM
After finally getting a better look, I can say it's a very good build. True, a lot of the tweaks were left off, but it's nice to just build one as is sometimes. The one weathering detail that might add a little more realism is underneath the sponsons. Due to the long run of track with no support rollers, there is a lot of lateral movement in the track. So much so that it gouges the hull quite prominently, leaving the bright aluminum underneath the gouges.
AUG 13, 2009 - 02:08 PM