Dear Jon
Here is what I mean in red the deliminitation of the concrete panels and in black the steel bars, small rods like solder rods will work great.





Cheers
Seb

Thanks Seb, those are some good ideas and nice suggestions. I too have been thinking about the partitions in the concrete blocks. It's something I overlooked at first but I think I can etch the detail into the parts without having to remove them. Would add a nice extra little element for sure.

I ordered some diorama accessories yesterday, some modern accessory parts from Mig Productions, and some accessories from Royal Model. Hope to have these early next week for inclusion. The Royal Model parts in particular should really help add some extra character to the inside of the building.

Looking good Jon !

Alexandre seems to have been refering to the edges of your building walls which are a little rounded. The ruins in your reference pics have really nice sharp edges in comparison - this gives the impression of modern "prefab" highrise buildings. I guess you are limited by the "soft" plaster board as you mentioned above.

I think you'll find Mig are closed until early January (for the Holidays), I've just ordered some stuff from them as well.

Have you given the paint for the T-90 some thought (including the brand / color / mixes) ?

I'm interested in what you'll be using for the Camo and particularly the brands of paint and mixes - if you don't use colors straight out of the bottle

Paul

Hi Paul

Yes I'll be trying to sharpen the edges a little with some household filler. I'm building it up in layers to fill the curves and give them more of a harder edge. Hopefully this will help address some of Alexandre's points about the corners, fingers crossed! I think though next time I will try using a thick card "painted" with gesso for texture as it gives much sharper definition. That's one of the drawbacks with using plater board sadly.

For the Mig parts I was lucky enough to find what I wanted at Historex Agents in the UK, as you say Mig are closed till the new year now. It's a shame as I was hoping to order direct from them as I wanted some of their new items too like the rain mark product they just released.

For the colours I'm not too sure... I have lots of generic Russian dark Greens but most of these are WW2 and Cold War/Soviet. So I don't have anything for these new khaki and light green colours used in modern Russian Federation Camouflage. I guess I will end up mixing some colours for the base colour and trying a few things out. Actually if anyone has any ideas for the khaki that would be very helpful. I figured I would ask Simon what he used for his recent T-90 build over on the Russo Soviet forum.

I have a lot of Citadel colour, as well as Vallejo and Tamiya, so maybe I might be able to mix up a frankenstein shade from various things using the reference pictures as a guide.

Talking about reference pictures has anyone ever had any experience ordering from Avia Press? I ordered a book from them via their website recently and although they say it's shipped it's still not arrived after numerous weeks. Next week it will be 1 month since I paid and was told i was shipped. Does anyone know where they are based? Their website is extremely vague and has very little information about the company.

Jon, I'm just a novice but have had luck cutting sheetrock with a small power hobby saw, this will create the straight lines you want. I love how you guys openly give each other advice and input and not just give attaboys. Learning a great amount as you build thanks Pat

You might also take a look at this guys site...

http://www.youtube.com/user/thekamloopian

He builds war game terrain and some of his techniques for building construction are outstanding. Especially his use of insulating foam board.

Bob

Thanks for the tip Pat. I'd like to try that in the future, what kind of saw did you use any brand in particular? As for myself I've never used hobby power tools or dremmels etc, just regular hand operated stuff like pin vices, and jewelers saws etc.

I think your point is a really good one Pat, actually for me the best part of the Hobby is sharing techniques, tips and ideas with other modellers and improving your work in this way. I've learnt some great things over the last few months that I've been posting on scale model forums and I've had some great feedback thats pointed out some really important points on my builds that I totally didn't see myself. Getting help and ideas from other modellers is really appreciated, and it's nice to be able to offer feedback myself to others when I can. I think this hobby is always a learning process and we can all always build upon and improve all the time.

Bob thanks, I'll be sure to check that guy's work out. I'm new to scratch building scenery so it's always nice to get new ideas!

You might want to check out his 40K Cathedral Ruins... look on the left side of the screen discusses the use of the foam insulation board... Another really good one, although not appropriate for your build is the wooden barn.... real wood. Looks like a lot of the old abandoned barns around here (Southwest Washington State)...

Am enjoying your build. Will be interesting how it all comes together...

Bob

Wow...where do you find the time? This is going to be awesome.

Bob, Bill thanks! I hope to have some more update photos up later today.

Bill, Christmas holidays have their advantages! Finally gives me some free time to build!

Hi Jon !

Thanks for the reply - the colors will be interesting !!

Avia Press are in Moscow Russia... I'm surprised it is taking so long to get your order.

Was your package insured ?

Paul

What a sweet build!! Can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks guys.

Paul, not to my knowledge. I paid the standard shipping infact they only give you one option. I ordered direct from their website and they took the money from my card at the end of November. All I know is it should have been shipped on November 30th.
I'll try emailing them again, but they aren't exactly fast on replies. Let's hope it arrives sometime!

About the colours, I spoke to Simon about his recent T-90 build and he said he used Gunze Oil's, It's hard for me to get Gunze paint where I am so I may try and find a comparison using the colours he gave me with Vallejo and Tamiya maybe.

Mike, thanks!

As a side note I did some more work on the ruins this evening and I think they are looking a little better. Tried to fit some of the elements from the feedback in where ever possible.

Will post some photos shortly.

Having ordered from them, I'm not especially surprised. I've never not received an item from hem but I have waited up to 6 months after it supposedly shipped before receiving an item.

Matt

Thanks for the feedback Matt!

Lets hope it doesn't take them 6 months!

Howdy Jon,
I saw this and thought of you! Scroll down. Good building and rebar images from Gronzy. The post says more to follow, so maybe more help for you. Happy holidays, Ryan
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=99988&page=1819

Thanks Ryan thats very kind of you. I had a look at the thread though and all I could see were photos of Vladimir Putin doing Judo...

Do you know what page number its on? Or maybe they were deleted? I saw some discussion there about deleted images...

Here are some updates as promised. First up the work on the building, I added some more surface detail by marking out the panel lines and also added more rebars to the concrete:







I also tried to sharpen the edges a little on the walls:







I also managed some more work on the T-90, adding the rear fuel drums, plumbing, tracks, and the wooden beam for the rear:

Jo Jon,

Nice update! The buildings are better and sharper. Nice setting and you added a fine detail to the buildings.

Clean build on the T...

Greetz Nico

Hi Jon,

Pretty better! I really like the floor panel. almost real.
keep a close eye on it,
The tank looks great also.

Jon,

This is a great build and a very informative talk through of the Miniarm sets. The experience and advice will be invaluable (especially the warning about the reversal requirements of side armour panels!)

Can't wait to see this painted up and everything coming together.

Keep the updates coming Jon!

Gary

This is coming along nicely Jon, ive been silently following this one with interest!

Your building is certainly improving, however I still think some areas need attention. In particular the blast damage looks too soft on the edges, where the blast has blown out the wall, the damaged sections still look rather soft and rounded. I think they would be much rougher and jagged, and have sharper angles. As it currently is it almost looks like something has melted its way through the wall, as oppose to impacting and blasting the wall.
I would also consider giving the building some more height. Perhaps not necessarily adding anymore floor, but adding more structure to the upper sections to give the impression that the building was much taller and has been destroyed or partially knocked down.

I enjoy seeing the equipment of a modern military force but it's a real eye opener to see such devastation and hard to think about the unfortunate civilian souls who may have been caught up in this. Good luck with your project, it looks great so far.

Gary

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement as always guys. The suggestions are great and really help.

Nico, thanks!

Alexandre, maybe it's getting there now. Thank you for the feedback though, your buildings are great and it's nice to get your input on this project. It's my first time to scratch build a large building so advice has been invaluable and really appreciated. I saw you decided to redo your Pripyat building? First one looked great to me, why the change of heart?

Gary thanks! I'm glad I could help other modellers with feedback during my build experience and share things. Actually thats why I like Perth Military Modelling's reviews as they often point out little build issues in their reviews.

Gary K, thanks too for your comments, I totally agree!

Rob thanks for posting. Those are good points. Actually I too have been thinking about ways of adding height, or as you say giving the impression of height that "used" to be there. I may just add some kind of crumbled ruins to the top to give the look of more destroyed areas.

As to the point about the blast crater, thats a good point also, but actually looking at the reference photo there doesn't seem to be much in the way of sharp edges around the hole itself. A lot of it is worn down and rather rounded, I guess a mixture of cheap building materials, and possible weathering and erosion of the surfaces in the harsh weather. For example:



I may try and make them a little more jagged though and pronounced. I have found though from personal experience that many former Soviet apartment blocks built in this way have often had ongoing repairs over the years to surfaces with plaster and other such softer fillers and materials. I imagine when hit by an explosive shell or RPG etc. that such surfaces wouldn't be so robust against damage and crumble more easily?

Howdy Jon,
I guess it was deleted. I do not know why. Sorry about that, wish I had saved some. Ryan