Very nice Paul.

Does anyone have clear pics or drawings of 115mm ammo crates as you would find stowed on a T-62? I have nothing and I want to scratch a few up.

Looking good, fellow modelers...

I decided to build Tamiya's T-55 Enigma OOB for this campaign. I had a 2-week business trip, and wanted a good solid kit to build on the road....and that's what I got. It goes together like a dream and looks great. It just needed a little filler where the armor extensions meet the back of the turret. I finished construction in 10 days; I don't think I've ever built a kit this quickly.















So, I still have a few days more on the road, and then I'll paint it when I'm back home.

Chris

Dave awesome looking bar armour!! I would love to know more,very keen to try your method some day!!

Zaphod...well vanilla is tatsy...but sooo much better with a swril of flavour...or two!!

Paul Just simply The bomb!! Or should it be the beast!! Got'a love the Isralei take on pimping their rides!!:p

Chris will be great to see another Enigma built & be able to see an OOB & Ole's teweaked girl side by side to offer different perspectives.

James that rebel looks like it has about 4 causes & all of them very hard!! Stonking looking paint job!!

After seeing the wish I had a glue doctor it is offical, seems like my grab claw is around for 3-4 months, at best I maybe able to make a figure or two but can't hold anything wider or heavier, But I will keep watching & getting inspired by all the builds!!

Cheers Mike

Paul, what can I say? A sterling build mate, absolutely great from start to finish, have very much enjoyed your skills with the resin an pe as much as the airbrush and paintbrush.
The subtly worn and weathered dusty finish really complements the subject vehicle and finishes the build beautifully.

Now what are the chances of a base to sit it on and a crew member?!

Chris, your post represents everything I love about tamiya kits, I just wish I could keep it simple and stay away from the aftermarket to enjoy such a quick build time!
Be great to see some paint on her.

Mike, sorry to hear you're still not 100%, hope you're back behind the bench soon as you're t-55 was coming along beautifully.

Cheers,

James

Rest of the wheels



Hull primed (just missing the front lights & lights protection cage), painting the lower hull & suspension is next, then wheels & tracks.

Chris - Good to see your addition. I've built several models on hotel room desks as well. The first thing I do is search for local hobby shops, if any, around the locality

Well with the build section of My T-80 done and dusted I'll be putting some major time on this to get it completed by due date.
Started building the workable link tracks and ran into a trouble with them straight away due to two problems. The pack supplies thin plastic pins that are supposed to be inserted into holes on the side of the tracks to lock them together. Often these holes need extra drilling as they don't go all the way through and the plastic pins are to thin and often break if their is a blockage. My solution is twofold, first is drill all the holes manually to confirm its they way it should be. Second is to use thin brass rod inserted into the guide holes and trimmed off flush with the tracks.




Otherwise I also started on lower and upper hulls. Lower hull had no problems, the upper had no build problems but accuracy need some adjustment and usability of Legends instructions is lacking.

First part is a little accuracy boost by adding weld seems under the turret overhang wings (you can see these grey strips against the tan of the Tamiya kit). As for the instructions for the Legend conversion set it would nice if they showed areas that need filling and parts that need to be removed for replacing of kit parts as opposed to just showing a picture of the kit resin or Photo-Etch piece in place.

hay'll thanks again for the nice word an the slat if you'll want i will post the measurments for the slat on monday i'm working this weekend so that will be thfirst time i can
dave

I do the same thing. I've been pretty fortunate to find some good shops all over the US. It especially comes in handy when you forget to pack something, like extra blades.
The only issue I find is that I might buy ANOTHER kit, and then I have to find room for it in my suitcase.

Ahhhhh.....modeling problems are the best kind of problems.

Chris

Paul- a beautiful job on the Tiran

Nearing the end, still have the detail painting to do and I'm painting the MG. One thing that i found was the Friulmodel tracks that I used are slightly wider than the kit ones. I had to modify the front Idler so the tracks don't protrude too far past the front fender. My apologies to anyone who can read Arabic, it is the best that I could do on the script.

Thanks lads your comments are well appreciated

Chris ,looking good there, and I bet it gets rather annoying seeing loads of model shops, that are full of those things you really want and the suitcase just will not let them in
you could always post them to your home address

Mike, whatever you do take it easy my friend , there are going to be plenty of campaigns you take part in later. Possibly even a #2 of this one

James, thanks dude that means a lot coming from specialist painter like yourself


John, hang in there my friend, you'll get r done in time

Andrew, I tried that once with the older Trumpy tracks , and almost went cuckoo with 'em
I hope you have more success

David, I for one am looking forward to your measurements

Cam, thanks also. Your camo has also turned out top, looking forward to the final stages

Happy weekend all,

we have 23°C today in Münster N.Germany (in the sun) and 14°C in the shade. I am now going to my allotment to have the first BBQ of the year and maybe one or five of these

Here's some nicer pics, a few of which will go into the gallery:
























Paul

Hi guys

I have not been around for while, but boy, you have all been busy and productive.

Paul@ you got that one just perfect.

Chris@ good choice of subject, the Enigma is sooooo cooool, looking forward to this with some paint.

Andrew@ nice details with the tracks

John@ keep up the goog work

Cam@ that camo is well done, and spot on for an Syrian T-62.

Have a nice weekend


Ole

Chris - So true!

Paul - lol, I actually did this with a few kits from overseas to back home. And ONCE with a built model overseas

Cam - That's a SICK [Excellent] wash/chipping/wear and tear finish on that T !

Paul - what can be said?

Cam, Looking forward to the finished product, should be great from your work so far.

Paul, would prefer to go batty and have decent tracks then frustrated with kit tracks your unhappy with IMO.

Currently operating from 4 different sets of instructions and let me say its very time consuming. This is also my second (and by far the largest) experince with resin so I'm learning lots with it.

That Tiran 6 is a beauty !!
You should enter the next MOM !!!

Here's my progress

Lots of Great work so far!

I have been slowly getting some progress.

Cheers Rob.

Nice progress guys... good job for those who finished their builds!

The Ace T-55 is coming along nicely



The barrel is from RB Model... I would rather not work with the original barrel from the kit

The mantlet is made from tissue and glue.





I used Gunze black as a primer, followed by Tamiya's olive green. will be finishing this little guy as a battered and tired Northern Alliance T-55

Well gents the builds are coming along nicely. I really like the Israeli T-62. Here is some progress on my humble build.

As I mentioned before I had the Verlinden conversion for the kit which seems way over scale but I am using some of the photo etched.




I'm replacing the footman loops with photo etched.I was pretty happy with the kits cast turret so I didn't feel the need to rough it up.

Tom

That's a great idea John.
enter! enter! enter! enter!

Thanks guys , all this praise is great It must be a good build if you say go for the MoM. We'll see

Rob nice to you back my friend you still have plenty of time to finish.

Ole thankyou mate

Lawrence looking mighty fine . Your mantlet cover and the RB barrel make the world of a difference.


Thomas thanks also , you're T55 is coming along great



Alex I get the message mate

Now you lads keep them cool builds coming







Paul

Phew! Some fantastic results here.

Paul - your Tiran is just great, I love the 'used but not abused' finish that you have achieved.
Cam - please tell me the secret of how you achieve such great soft-edge camouflage? I'm getting close to putting paint on my Type 69 turret and am seriously worried that it's going to go horribly wrong....
James - your weathering is amazing, it's where modelling and fine art meet I think!

And just when I was beginning to suffer from Type 69 fatigue...
I've been adding detail to the turret. Resin is definitely my bête noire. All the smoke-grenade launcher mountings were broken on arrival so I've had to improvise (rather badly I'm afraid)
But you chaps have inspired me to press on and here's the turret, almost complete but awaiting paint.





I'm hoping to cast a few copies of the MIG bare gun mantlet (that I purchased at great expense from the US) over the coming week so will be able to inch a little closer to the finish line.

BTW would any of you knowledgeable people have any suggestion as to where I might locate a decent representation one of these?



The one supplied in the Trumpeter kit is just
Anyway, must get back to the bench

Happy tanking everyone!

Jon if your looking for a good copy of the DSKH, then try to look for the one either made by Fruil which is cast in white metal or the one from Miniarm cast in resin. I've built both and have to say that the miniarm version is the better of the two, even both are far better than the one supplied by Tamiya and trumpeter.

Wow, I seriously jealous now that a few people have started painting or finished their builds all together.

James - some stunning work on the multi-layer paint job you have going there, can’t wait to see it finished.

Paul – love how the Tiran 6 turned out, nicely done. I defiantly need to add one to my collection

Ole- congrats on finishing the Enigma, not too over weather, but stands out as a pretty used Iraqi tank

Cam – Love your T-62 and how the sand bags turned out on the fuel tanks. Haven’t seen anything like that before.

Well I’ve finally finished my build and now I just need to start slapping some paint on it. I just order some new paints today and hopefully I should have everything soon. In the mean time I’ve been working on a base on figures for it.

Hey gents,

Thanks for all the kind words about my build and my painting skills, seriously humbled with all the kind comments.

Awesome to see how some people's builds are progressing and also to see some new ones kicking off.
Great to see the T-55's making a comeback!

Cam - Nice work on your Syrian T-62, great work on the camo and hand painting the numbering/text. Love how the sanbags turned out too.

Paul - Appreciate the detail shots, shows off just what a great job you've done.

Jon - Nice to see some progress on the T-69, I think you're doing a sterling job, smoke dischargers look good to me! As for the DSHK, Tank model from Russia do quite an extensive range and are not too pricy either:TANK

Historex stock them in the UK:
Historex Agents

Chris - Your T-54 is looking really nice, love the unusual rear fuel/smoke drum setup. The figure looks good, where did you get him from?

Not too much progress on my build at the mo, but the maskings off and so you can appreciate the overall look a little better with the russian green areas and the primer on the barrel showing through (anything you want to remind me about at this stage Paul? ):





Posted quite a few pics over on My Blog.

Thanks again guys, keep up the great work!

James