Model building can be defined as the art of the scale representation of an object of reality, imitating it.
Since the beginning of time, men have practiced model building in order to be able to see in three dimensions an idea that a person has of an object. Many cultural and educational specialties have embraced it.
Nowadays, model building allows the development of multiple activities that generate many benefits, of which we can name the following:

1. To know, build and keep history alive.
2. To interpret the technological developments of the past.
3. To represent, in three dimensions, ideas, images and drawings.
4. To practice a hobby.
5. To learn about the use and recycling of different materials.
6. To promote family union.
7. To represent certain events such as battles, historical events, etc.
8. To promote investigation in pursuit of achieving maximum realism and historical fidelity in the model building project.

History of military model building

Since ancient times, we have found scale representations of figures, objects and military scenes. They had different purposes, from keeping company to Egyptian pharaohs or Chinese emperors on their graves, remembering the epic achievement of a roman emperor or to project, on a scale, a weapon from medieval wars.
As time passed by, we have used scale represented combat scenarios to create famous war games, or many model figures of different weapons and military equipment, to instruct military personnel with different objectives.
Also, building military model figures allows people in general to come closer to the knowledge of military and defense issues, because making, painting and placing them in a certain period of history forces the model builder to investigate about the different pieces, in its different aspects (technical, historical and geographical).
In order to investigate, the model builder is forced to use different sources of information (books and specialized magazines, visits to museums and web sites, contact other model builders, etc.) and they will expand his or her knowledge on different levels.
In military personnel, building mock-ups encourages the investigation of different kind of national and international armament, which belong to the local Armed Forces or other, developing and promoting joined assignments.
Also, military mock-ups allow the visualization of the armament and gear in three dimensions, making it easier for them to be recognized and compared to a similar model. All of this is put to good use in combat situations.
On the other hand, building military model figures allows the gathering of information and performing comparative studies on technical characteristics (advantages and disadvantages) of the military material from diverse origin, national or international.
It´s important to highlight that historical investigation, complemented with military model building activities, favors interaction between model builders, materialized in expositions, courses, conferences, visits to museums or military units, etc.

Military mock-ups

In our country, most of the military model building is implemented, in general, by putting together plastic injection model figures that are sold in groups of ten pieces, on different scales, usually imported.
The incipient national industry is materialized through the work of small undertakings, which fabricate high quality products -made out of resin and lathed metal- like tanks, armored vehicles and soldier figures of the Argentine Army.

The Argentine Medium Tank (TAM)
The mock up

As an example of our work, we include pictures in this article of the Argentine Medium Tank (Tanque Mediano Argentino – TAM) created on a 1/35 scale.
The TAM meant returning to the construction of a tank from its conception, just as the DL-43 NAHUEL was in 1943, being among the best of his kind in the world.
The TAM´s origin goes back to the studies that the Argentina Army begun in 1973 to replace the M4 SHERMAN, which was reaching its operational limit.
Developing the TAM became responsibility of the German firm Thyssen Hennschel and the first prototype was built in Germany in 1977.
The second prototype was built in Argentina in 1980, in the TAMSE Factory, in Boulogne, in the province of Buenos Aires, and the last prototype of this combat vehicle was built in 1992.
Total weight was restricted up to thirty tons, according to the fields in which it was meant to operate and the cross-country terrain. However, its notable mobility and acceleration characteristics, added to a modern fire direction and its potent 105 mm cannon, give the TAM a great combat capacity.
The TAM gave life to a whole family of vehicles: the VCTP infantry fighting vehicle, which is a able to transport a squad of twelve men and a 20 mm cannon, the VCTM has a Brandt 120 mm mortar, the VCPC equipped with additional communications gear and is able to carry generals or colonels, the VCA which has a 155-mm Self-Propelled Artillery Gun, known as PALMARIA, the VCDT self-propelled artillery fire direction, the VCAM ammunition, as well as a rocket launcher and a recovery car prototypes, which didn't make it to the manufacturing stage. Nowadays, the TAM is being modernized and this process takes to consideration the inclusion of a thermal visor to detect targets at all times, known as TAM S21.

The mock-up

The mock-up, which pictures go with this article, is from Argentina, built by the firm ARMAQ, designed by the Arquitect Gabriel Montanari.
It's made out of resin and lathed metal, it has an excellent finishing touch and it includes the figures of three tankers, which are members of the crew. Putting together this mock-up requires previous knowledge about the military model building techniques, because working with resin and metal peaces implies a more important care than those designed with plastic injection, which are much more common in the mock-up industry.
The mock-up also includes photogravures and rubber pieces for the vehicle's wheels.
It's advisable to check the coupling of the pieces before the pasting, because the resin's fragility doesn't allow common corrections like it occurs with plastic pieces.
The mock-up components allow a better final touch than in ordinary figures found in the industry.
For the painting and number disposal, the aerography technique is used, with our Army's colors which are used in the Patagonia, making the finishing touch with pastels and graffiti.
There's something worth standing out: it is the only 1/35 scale model military vehicle made of the TAM and that its manufacturers are developing projects for the GAUCHO vehicle and the PATAGON tank.