1:35 IDF Tiran Tank Paint Mask Set - Markings And Numbers

A captured machine that got a second life

Tiran is the Israeli designation for Soviet tanks captured in the Six-Day War and later in 1973. Instead of ending up in a scrapyard, they went through the workshops and returned to service under a new flag: they were given a British 105 mm gun, different machine guns, stowage baskets all the way round the turret and a reworked ammunition stowage. The result was a series of machines that look familiar and yet carry the equipment of a completely different school of soldiering. They served as infantry support and a number of them lived to see one more rebuild, this time into heavy armored personnel carriers.

Markings sprayed, not stuck on

The contents concentrate on the part of the work that decides the credibility of a finished model: the tactical symbols and the numerals. Applied by spraying, they sit directly in the paint, so nowhere is there a glossy rectangle of carrier film or an edge that would have to be retouched. On the rough casting of cast armor it is the only way to get markings onto the surface with no obvious seam. The difference shows especially on the large numbers on the turret, which on the real machine tended to be applied with a stencil just as they are here.

What tends to be the stumbling block

The state of the base is underrated. The template is laid straight onto a matte, slightly dusty base, because that one is finally dry and looks finished. But a matte coat has a microscopically broken-up surface and a film will never seat on it over its whole area. The paint works its way into those irregularities and the numeral is left ragged around its perimeter. Before the markings, therefore, polish the area with a clear coat, let it cure, and apply the matte finish right at the end of the build.