Hey Jon if you go over to Historica Hobbies they have in stock BMD tracks. I got mine off of ebay from a dealer in england since at the time it was the only place I could find them. You can get the a eduard photo etch set from Greatmodels website, but hurry they only have one left in stock. It's must have for the kit, I would also replace the gun barrel since the one in the kit sucks. Armor35 has it in stock. But other than that, I just used photo etch and new tracks which are just a fiddly to work with since they are so tinny. I hope this helps some.
Chris

Thanks for the heads up, I'm planning to use the RB Barrel I used on my BMP-2, thats a really nice item.

After the problems with the tracks warping I found a new problem... I bought a pack of the Eduard T-80 wheel masks recently hoping that I could use these to quickly and easily paint the rims of the wheels. However sadly these are only usable on the Dragon/Zvezda/Revell plastic wheels as they are too big for the SP Designs replacement Resin Wheels. That ruled that one out! which means that I'll have to paint the wheels camo the tough way and tidy up the rims later.

On a positive note theres an excellent article on the Mig KMT-7 in this months AFV Modeller. I picked some Tamiya colours by eye for the colour scheme I wanted and funny thing is it turns out that I chose the same as Adam Wilder did for his T-72B! Ironically we are both using NATO Green!

Hey Jon, I don't know if you have access to a store that sell drafting supplies, but you could always just use a circle template to paint your wheels with. Nothing more you can always do like I did on my t-34, mask the whole wheel with tape and run a sharp knife around the rim. But sorry to hear the masking from eduard won't work. Cool I have to pick up the AFV modeller, I defiantly want to build the KMT-7 next.
Chris

Well John, that right there shows you how far off the DML wheels are to what they should be. I cannot say with certainty that the SKIF/SP Designs wheels are perfect, but they are a LOT closer to correct.

Definately, and it wasn't just a small difference either, the masks were MUCH bigger!

Chris thanks for the suggestions. I had already sprayed the entire wheels black, hoping to pop on the mask and just spray the middle. Actually with a little careful airbrush work painting the green onto the wheels shouldn't be too much of a problem. I might have a look in a local stationary store though for a template or something. In the end I guess I'll just default to the usual, it was actually the first time I was going to try a wheel mask anyway!

Okay, so my new duties as a News Writer for Armorama have kept me a little busy in my free time at the moment... but, the project isnt dead!

I've even managed to get some paint on, heres a little teaser of where I'm at at the moment. I wanted a modern russian tritonal camo, but one that was different to my T-90, so I went for the examples of T-80U in the Baryatinskiy book.

Jon that looks simply fantastic. Seriously, amazing work.

Thanks Sean thats very kind of you but theres still a loooong way to go yet!

All I have to say is Damn it looks sweet. Did you freehand the paint job? If you did....you did an outstand job with the painting. I can't wait to see it weathered up, lloking foward to the rest.
Chris

Beastly looking T-80. A constructive criticism, if I may, borders between black and other colors should be very sharp, borders between sandy yellow and green need to be sharpened a little too.

This kit is looking really good, nice that all the work is reaching a happy ending

hope you can finish it by the next month

regards

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Chris yes I did this freehand with my Iwata, I've tried doing camo like this with masking in the past and it just doesnt work for me. I only tend to use masking for hard edged camo. Theres also the problem of damaging all the PE and small resin parts if you mask, I could never cover a model with blu-tack to mask for example (I'd have a heart attack!).

George, thanks and yes definately. This was just my first coat, so there was a lot to do going back and tidying up the sharpness on the edges and cleaning up and over spray. I used Nato Black and I hadn't realised how grey it is, it really takes a few coats to get it to stand out strongly especially against a dark green.

Raul, I'm looking forward to the weathering too!

The soft edge camo is superb Jon! Excellent stuff, and you did it by hand!? Thats brilliant work so far.

I cant wait to see this when you start weathering the beast.

Are you planning a heavily weathered/battered vehicle or a cleaner example?

Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks Anirudh, I'll be going for a heavily weathered vehicle with lots of mud and dust, much like the reference images I have in the Baryatinskiy book.

So I've managed to get the camo patterns finished. I've finished the rest of the pattern on the hull, turret, and side skirts. I'm painting the wheels, tracks and side skirts separately and then gluing them into place later. Takes a little extra work but it's easier to paint up the tracks that way.

I've also added the decals onto the T-80, most of these went on without any problems at all, the decal on the NVST ammo box was quite tricky as the surface is covered with ridged texture detail. To be honest it's not exactly perfect as the decal isn't sitting exactly straight, however I didn't want to risk moving the decal and possibly destroying it. The raised texture was making it extremely hard to reposition. It's not exactly spot on but I can live with it!

Also heres a reference image that I'm working from for the camo.

Looking really good Jon!

About the only comment i'd make is that the camo colors seem a bit dark, if you plan on weathering the model heavily there is a risk that the camo will darken even further. It might be an idea to add a very fine highlight to the green and tan camo just some it shows up better if you add washes and filters.

Hi Rob, actually the problem with these recent photos is the crummy lighting in my house today! It was really sunny so I had all the curtains closed so these images have come out a bit too dark

The actual colour is the same as the earlier photos, which give much lighter shades. I'll be taking some better photos over the next few days.

Ahh well in that case the camo looks fine! I cant wait to see some of the weathering. Will you be adding crew to this?

Thanks for mentioning it though Rob, actually its a very good point and something to think about. Actually I was aware of it myself when I was considering washes and filters. I'll be avoiding dark washes and harsh tones. I'm planning to use lighter shades to pick out details and also the majority of the weathering will be light dust and earth tones. Nothing too dark, mostly light browns, khaki and sandy dust shades. Got myself a whole load of light shades of Humbrol Enamels to try

As for figures I'm not so sure, the good thing about this kit is the interior detail of the turret through the hatch... so I don't want to block that with crew. However I may use the Zvezda Tankers outside of the tank and convert them up a bit...

So I've nearly finished the T-80! Basically I just have to attach the wheels, tracks, and fenders in place and I'm done.

I also have to finish off the turret interior, I really hate painting white by brush! in retrospect It probably would have been easier to airbrush it before I started the turret exterior, but I'm used to brush painting from my fantasy modelling days so it's not so bad. A large brush was also easier to get to the nooks and cranies where I would have struggled with an airbrush.

The weathering is now all done though! After numerous filters, enamel washes, spray applications, and pigments!

Hi

really nice done, good work really good work

now whats next?

regards

Thanks Raul! Actually I have to finish my BMP-2 dio, and my next build will be a T-62M.

Hey Jon, I'm loving the build so far It's looking kind of lonely though, what about a simple base with some mine detecting crew with it? I have tamiya's reboxing of ICM's modern soviet infantry and it has a pretty nice guy in it with a metal detector. You could always do something of a road base cleared away with lanes marked out with engineering tape or something. But other than that, I like how it's weathered with not too much mud caked on, you just need some muddy foot prints on the hull to add just a bit of touch to it.
Chris

Hi Chris, I know just the ICM set you are talking about and I plan to use it for a future project. Also if you buy it as the ICM original its much cheaper and the set comes in two halves. Sappers and donkey in one box, and sniper and heavy weapon team in another box. Tamiya just slapped both sets together and charged a lot more for it.

I've been considering boot marks actually, it's not something I've done before on a tank, but maybe with something light, like some buff or something .

As for base I think I'll go for something small and simple, and include the Zvezda Tankers also

Jon, I really like your hull mud. Looks great. I think your rear mounted fuel tanks are awesome; the leaks and runs look quite real! Super job.
Terry

This is excellent Jon, the mud splatter on the front of the hull looks so real!

Have you got hold of the zvezda figures yet? How are they in terms of detail?

Looking forward to more.