Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 06:35 AM UTC
Hi all,
This afternoon I've just started my very first T-55. For it I use the Tamiya kit with the Accurate Armour conversion. I'll add an Armo barrel and some Eduard PE parts when needed.
To begin with, I cut the sponsons to allow the fitting of the side armor brackets. I also filled the various positioning holes of the turret as per the instructions. These are not perfectly clear and you need reading them thoroughly to avoid any mistake.
My Enigma will depict the one displayed in Mourmelon (France). So it'll be a little different from the one depicted in the AA conversion.
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Joined: April 09, 2011
KitMaker: 181 posts
Armorama: 175 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 07:14 AM UTC
See, this is why I love the Russian side to this forum, sooo much more interesting
I came very close to ordering this conversion myself, I think enigma's look fantastic and bizzare all at the same time.
Going to be following this one with great interest.
Milano, Italy
Joined: July 13, 2010
KitMaker: 3,845 posts
Armorama: 3,543 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 08:17 AM UTC
I'll follw this tread for sure Olivier
...well in my opinion T-55 isn' t just a tank. Actually it is THE TANK...
Austria
Joined: May 01, 2007
KitMaker: 608 posts
Armorama: 593 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 08:46 AM UTC
I subscribe for this Blog^^
Keep it goingOlivier,
Andreas
As long as there are humans there are problems. No humans no problems!
Illinois, United States
Joined: March 29, 2009
KitMaker: 1,135 posts
Armorama: 1,030 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 08:52 AM UTC
Im subscribed to this one as well. I love soviet vehicles
Currently taking back the fight to beat modeling ADD
#284
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Joined: October 04, 2006
KitMaker: 3,094 posts
Armorama: 2,942 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 09:02 AM UTC
I'm definetly following. Good luck with the build Olivier.
On The Bench:
Ethiopian BMP-1 (Trumpeter 1/35)
AMX-13/75 (Takom 1/35)
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 - 09:40 AM UTC
A quick update tonight.
I modified the lower glacis as the tank displayed in Mourmelon does not feature the KMT mounting brackets. So I cut all of them and had to fill the gaps.
I then adapted the new sponsons with the side armor brackets. Prior to gluing them, you need to set in place the turret ring parts jutting out the hull sides as they help finding the correct height of the AA parts. On the pictures I have, these sponsons are not flush with the original ones. I hope this makes sense.
A+
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Milano, Italy
Joined: July 13, 2010
KitMaker: 3,845 posts
Armorama: 3,543 posts
Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 - 09:58 AM UTC
...well in my opinion T-55 isn' t just a tank. Actually it is THE TANK...
Istanbul, Turkey / Türkçe
Joined: December 05, 2007
KitMaker: 953 posts
Armorama: 705 posts
Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 - 12:11 PM UTC
Good luck Olivier....I'll follow.....
Texas, United States
Joined: June 29, 2010
KitMaker: 5,854 posts
Armorama: 4,817 posts
Posted: Monday, June 20, 2011 - 01:18 PM UTC
Will be following this Olivier
Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Joined: May 14, 2006
KitMaker: 3,829 posts
Armorama: 881 posts
Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 08:18 PM UTC
more pics of the actual vehicle , svp
good lookin' conversion, I like the build being a real subject!
greetz et bon courage!
Rest in peace my dearest of friends, Mike I 'll miss ya a lot
fastest way to get killed,
messing with the man with a gun.
modelling is life, anything before or after is waiting...
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 09:20 PM UTC
Thanks for the links Mauro.
They are interesting as they show different armor mounting brackets or hinges and so on. They are also slightly different from the one displayed in Mourmelon.
They will certainly be helpful to make the AA instructions clearer.
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Milano, Italy
Joined: July 13, 2010
KitMaker: 3,845 posts
Armorama: 3,543 posts
Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 10:21 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Thanks for the links Mauro.
They are interesting as they show different armor mounting brackets or hinges and so on. They are also slightly different from the one displayed in Mourmelon.
They will certainly be helpful to make the AA instructions clearer.
Olivier
You're welcome Olivier.
The main difference which I've noted between the Mourmelon tank and the Bovington one is that the first was based on a Russian exemplar (see the rear grilles) wheras the second was made using a Polish T-55
...well in my opinion T-55 isn' t just a tank. Actually it is THE TANK...
South Carolina, United States
Joined: September 28, 2005
KitMaker: 778 posts
Armorama: 763 posts
Posted: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 03:43 AM UTC
hey olivier great work I'll be waching this one
dave
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Saturday, June 25, 2011 - 05:39 AM UTC
Hi all,
here are the latest progress. Not so much in fact as the latches for the rear bn took me a very long time !
The tank for the driver vision blocks washers comes in the AA set but unfortunately not the piping.
The fuel tanks come with the connections but they are smaller than the Tamiya ones so this creates another difficulty to make the system that secures them to the fenders.
Here are the pics.
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Joined: April 09, 2011
KitMaker: 181 posts
Armorama: 175 posts
Posted: Saturday, June 25, 2011 - 06:32 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Hi all,
here are the latest progress. Not so much in fact as the latches for the rear bn took me a very long time !
The tank for the driver vision blocks washers comes in the AA set but unfortunately not the piping.
The fuel tanks come with the connections but they are smaller than the Tamiya ones so this creates another difficulty to make the system that secures them to the fenders.
Olivier
Your bin latches look very very good, I like them
And the fuel tanks are probably smaller due to shrinkage, they look like modded copy's of Tamiya's.
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 26, 2011 - 12:07 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Your bin latches look very very good, I like them
And the fuel tanks are probably smaller due to shrinkage, they look like modded copy's of Tamiya's.
Thanks for the comment. Indeed the fuel tanks are copies of Tamiya ones and AA did the same for most of the stowage bins. They just added some details here and there like the fuel lines connection here.
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Sunday, June 26, 2011 - 05:32 AM UTC
The front armor blocks are not a problem once you dry fitted them to find the proper location.
The counterweight for the turret is not a piece of cake to fit. I had some bad time trying to fit it horizontal and centered with the turret axis. In the end, I found the left arm was 1mm longer than the right one ! This fixed, all went a lot easier.
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 09:31 AM UTC
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Napoléon
Izmir, Turkey / Türkçe
Joined: June 11, 2004
KitMaker: 1,426 posts
Armorama: 464 posts
Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 10:41 AM UTC
Hi Olivier, I'm making little enigma (1/72 scale) and your model is referance for me...
All of them Braille Scale...
New Jersey, United States
Joined: March 15, 2002
KitMaker: 1,745 posts
Armorama: 1,483 posts
Posted: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 04:04 AM UTC
Like stated before...all the Engimas in museums are all slightly different. I built mine as the one that used to be at the foreign materials motor pool at Aberdeen PG.
Helps if you pick out one and work from that...
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 06:44 PM UTC
You're perfectly right Scott, to model an Enigma (from the AA conversion at least) it is quite necessary to have pictures of a real one.
The more I progress with this conversion the more I grow disappointed about AA product. This is the first time I find it so hard to work with their products.
The instructions are unclear, the pictures of the built model are not enough and from one angle only so you often can't figure out where to place a part.
I have struggled all the evening to put the searchlight. AA do not give a single indication of where to glue the brackets. When you find it from real tank pictures, it is impossible to have the searchlight sitting horizontal. And finally you have to make a new linking arm between the light and the gun.
So no pictures of yesterday work. I hope posting again next week-end as I'll be off my workbench for a couple of days.
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Correze, France
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 - 09:01 AM UTC
It's been a while since the last update. I started by fixing all my errors. I repositioned the glacis armor blocks a little more close to the bottom edge, I also moved the headlights upwards.
On the back, I modified the wrong Eduard unditching log brackets and added a bolt head on the sprocket "housing".
I still have a lot to do. I try to shape the IR light protection but AA PE is really stiff and hard to shape. The Mourmelon Enigma has some details specific to it I must add too and I have to make the dreaded frame around the engine grilles typical to Russian made T-55s.
Here are the pictures
Olivier
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"La reine des batailles, j'ai nommé l'infanterie"
Napoléon
Joined: April 09, 2011
KitMaker: 181 posts
Armorama: 175 posts
Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 04:31 AM UTC
Hello Olivier,
I am lovin this build so far, there is one little thing that is worrying me though, the clearance around the right tow hook, it looks like you would never be able to get a tow cable on it, is that right ? or did AA mess up with the clearance ?.
Milano, Italy
Joined: July 13, 2010
KitMaker: 3,845 posts
Armorama: 3,543 posts
Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 05:09 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Hello Olivier,
I am lovin this build so far, there is one little thing that is worrying me though, the clearance around the right tow hook, it looks like you would never be able to get a tow cable on it, is that right ? or did AA mess up with the clearance ?.
...well...that's it!
Room for tow hook is very little indeed
Most likely Iraqi army had preferred adding extra armours rather than allowing an easy fit to the cables
Anyway T-55 preserved at Mourmelon museum doesn't have front armours mounted on
...well in my opinion T-55 isn' t just a tank. Actually it is THE TANK...
