A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: M36 JACKSON, A COMPLETED MODEL AND WATER-BASED PAINTS…

Perhaps though, this project will be remembered as the first that I had completed using almost exclusively, water-based acrylic paints.

25th August 2025

After just over ten days work, my Tamiya Jackson is complete and ready for its starring role in an upcoming TMMI.

This was a fun build that allowed me to complete another of Tamiya’s open-topped parade of U.S. tank destroyers. Having already built an M8, M0 and partially completed a Hellcat, it was good to get another one under my belt, have fun with the stowage and get back into the realm of weathering after spending so much time building aircraft this year.

Perhaps though, this project will be remembered as the first that I had completed using almost exclusively, water-based acrylic paints. Though the primer layer was Mr. Surfacer Mahogany Brown and the figure basecoated in Tamiya black under white, everything else up to the weathering steps, was either sprayed or handpainted using AK 3G and Vallejo acrylics.

Having been an avowed user of Tamiya and Gunze acrylics/ lacquers over the years, I was sceptical that I could get similar results using what I considered softer and less user-friendly, water-based materials. This model has put those concerns to bed, the paint being easy to apply, resilient and incredibly flexible. All paints were thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner for spraying and thanks my use of the same colours for airbrushing as handpainting, working the airbrush in with my collection of sable brushes, proved seamless. I was, shall we say, converted.

I can’t see me ever using these paints for aircraft, because my systems are fully set in stone and the materials that I use to paint each one, very hard to replace (even if I wanted to, which I don’t). But for armour, I’m looking forward to working with them again on future projects, the vignette that I plan to build around the Jackson being perhaps the next sensible step in that evolution of ideas. All being well, I’ll show you the results in an upcoming entry on this site.

So this then is my build of the Tamiya Jackson. I hope you like seeing it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

See you tomorrow.