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Trade Federation Tank (AAT - Armored Assault Tank)

AMT 1/32 scale

The Trade Federation Tank is a kit I assembled back in 1993, and has been sitting on a shelf in my office unpainted for the last 27 years.  Jeez.  When I decided to paint it, I first realized the major seams down the center of the kit.  Horrible assembly from AMT.  So I first puttied and sanded down seams on the kit.  After that, I primed the kit with Tamiya fine gray primer.

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One simple modification I added was a little panel of styrene on each side of the main canon unit.

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This was then followed up by painting the entire body chrome silver, then spraying a coat of hairspray over the top to protect the silver paint.

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The entire model was then painted a base coat of Vallejo Sand Primer.

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I then masked off areas to paint some panel areas with Vallejo Beige Brown.

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And again, some more masking to paint some other panel areas Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan.

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I then began the process of chipping and scraping away the paint to reveal the silver paint underneath.  This simulated battle damage to the tank.

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After achieving the paint chipping and scraping I was looking for, I proceeded to further battle damage and weather the tank using Tamiya pastels.  No airbushing was used for weathering.  I used various pastels such as Soot and Oil Stain to simulate engine heat on the body.  Mud and Sand pastels were used around the body for obvious dirt effects.  And finally Orange Rust was used around various areas to simulate... you guessed it...  Rust.

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And that was it for the tank.  And the final product photos can be seen HERE.

I then painted the body with flat black spray paint.

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