I picked this one up at Modelzone a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't looking for anything in particular but I'm a bit of a sucker for box art and this looked the business. Got it home and started a wee bit of research only to find it was basically only ever constructed as a test bed for the bigger gun and possibly only one example was ever made before the introduction of the new ISII tank ! Oh well, it's still a pretty impressive big russian clunker.
This was the first time I have faced individual track links and I was a bit nervous about them however thanks to a couple of tutorials on this excellent site they went together a lot more easily than I had feared. It was built straight out the box with no after market stuff and came together without any fuss at all, so much so I bought another Trumpy yesterday, I believe they are good value for money. I'd like to hear back any comments about this one especially regarding paints and finishing because while I'm generally quite pleased with the end product I am finding it difficult to know how to "improve" my technique.



























Thanks for looking sorry if there's too many pics.

Great looking tank, thanks for sharing.

Russian philosophy: "Bigger is better." Excellent job! The tracks look great. I'm a big fan of indi links.

This is a nice representation, I like the way the tracks have come out. For me I would lose the figure although nicely painted ,you could look at some minor chipping around the D shackles and tow ropes,

This is a really good build. It's Russian, and it's big and beefy---and you've done a great job. This is just me, but a bit of dry brushing to highlight some of the edges, handles, etc, would (IMO), really make this one pop. Again, this is just me. Nice job here!

Thanks for the comments lads, I have redone some of the dry brushing to redefine the edges a bit more and added a little bit of chipping, think I'm calling it done now. Time to clear up the bench and get ready for the next one.... Trumpeter BTR-70 depending on how it goes I'll put up some pics.
Cheers Paul, (from ridiculously hot Glasgow).

I have one also to build for the Trumpeter Campaign and it will help me with my 1/16th build as well. I did a lot of research on them before I knew the kit was out and fell in love with the beast!

I like the tracks weathering... any tips or secrets you'd share? One thing I would have done is add some grayish/silver color to the surface of the roadwheels since they are a metal surface.

All-in-all I hope mine turns out this good as I am ramping up some weathering techniques.



~ Jeff

Jeff,
yeah your right about the wheel rims, the paint would have worn off, I'll need to revisit them. No secret about the weathering on the tracks. I sprayed them flat black then misted with a mix consisting of light grey, bit of dark earth and a touch of silver then once on the tank ran a graphite stick over the contact faces and finally some dry pigments ground down from some chalk pastels from an art shop kind of an earth colour and a nice red/brown for the rusty deposits. Coincidentally when building this we had a caterpillar excavator hired at work so I was able to have a good nose around the tracks and a good play around with it.

Paul

Hi, Paul.
I realy like the job you have done.
Like others comment here, i guess a little of chiping and dry brush will improve your great job paint. I only suggest add more shadow on the botton of the turret and hull.

But even without all of this, still a greate job.

Dbó.