Pimp my Ateliers de construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux-50

Muh friends, the AMX-50 is ready for painting! 

The model was a bit bland, definitely a nice canvas for painting, but still... it lacked some extra surface details. So after using the remaining parts from the kit, I went through my spares, hoping to find some useful details.

For example, the 3D printed 50 cal had that "uncleanable" ammo canister, so I added a photoetched lid from a "50 cal ammunition set" from Voyager. Various engineering tools were added, making the tank more "combat ready". The towing cable comes from the Jagdpanther 😁Good thing I never throw away unused PE because it was a great source of tie-downs, straps, even the mesh grills! 

The kit doesn't have any antenna mounts and I don't have any metal ones, so I quickly scratch-printed them. They're not very accurate, but better than nothing. The spare ammo boxes and jerry can come from an M48 Vietnam Stowage Set from Legend - a huge box full of beautiful stowage that can be used on any post-war western tank! 

The crewman figure is again from Panzer Art. I'm no expert on French post-war armor, but those few photos I found make it look like their uniforms were pretty much identical to the US ones. The only difference I can see is helmets, instead of US tanker helmets they look like regular infantry. No helmet - no problems! 

There was one more blunder in the kit. The position lights on the fenders should be mirrored, so they'd fit nicely along the lip of the mudguard. Well, they're not, you get two "left" lights instead... that's why the right fender is empty. 

Other than that it's an imposing model that requires a different approach (as with any resin kit) and combined with these various additions from a spares box... I don't even mind the orange color! 😁 

Anyway, this customization process made me really like the model, and I want to experiment with even more radical post-shading... As I mentioned a few times during the Jagdpanther diorama, I started to notice how the tank was the blandest part of the whole scene. In other words, I want to paint it before I start building the WW1 diorama. A small passion project of sorts, a slammer build where you don't have to overthink every step, and instead keep it fast and fun!