I like how you covered the European serial with Arabic numerals. That's a nice touch. You've doing some interesting things with this T-55; keep posting!

Hi Greg, thanks so much!
I'm starting to wonder if I've been a bit too meticulous, but who knows. I hope it will be too.

Yes it's disapointing, as I too left the forum a very different place when I was last posting ~2010. Still someone made a good point that the busier the site is the more difficult it is too keep track, thats why I suscribe to certain posts I want to follow.
I appreciate that you feel my work is worthy of extra comment however!
I've reached a point where I'd like to see this one finished too! Have to 'stay stong' and keep working at it to make sure I get it finished. Difficult when I visit the hobby shop and end up buying new kits however!

jphillips, Thank you, I like to try and make my builds a bit different to the norm, and I hoped by giving this build a realistic life of different paint layers I'd be able to do just that. They key perhaps is knowing when enough is enough......

Cheers!

James

Ok,time for another layer of hairspray and paint.

Feeling very cock-sure about how things were going I went for the fairly drastic option of covering all of my previous hard work with a layer of sand, the inention being to show another development in the T-55's life when more tropical climes were worked in, (or perhaps if I wanted to jump far enough forward, to it's paint of coat prior to being a gate guard?) but unfortunately things didn't quite work out as planned.......

The thought was that I'd chip this one pretty heaviy to ensure enough of the hard work underneath was visible while retaining the integrity of the sand coat as a basis for future layers (ie. a disruptive pattern).

This is what I cam up with:





In hindsight it doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought at the time, but needless to say I went to bed that night with a heavy heart, thinking I'd made a complete balls of all my previous hard work.

You may think it's not that bad, I don't know? I'm not sure why I was so unhappy, but I think I felt I hadn't achieved either of the things I wanted to, basically because my aspirations were to high and they were at the opposite ends of the 'possibility spectrum'. I had to remove more paint than I wanted to let the previous coats show through, and even then I was left with too little showing. On top of that I felt that the contrast between the sand coat and the underlying greens was too stark, and didn't seem to fit the big picture too well.

hmmmmm, what to do.

I considered a few options, from paint stripping the entire thing, to adding another coat of paint, but decided that I liked what was underneath more than what was on top so went for the sem-drastic option of trying to chip away as much of the sand coat as possible. This got me to here:











I'm not sure how realistic such a drastic 'paint loss' actually is but I must say I'm happier with the result, I'ts certainly adding to the battered and worn look quite well.
Some close up pics:





You'll notice that for the large part I haven't removed paint from the masked areas or the mantlet cover so these areas look a bit wierd in comparison. Also for some reason the disruptive yellow and grey camo largely removed itself from the glacis plate but stayed elsewhere. Perhaps the protective flat coat wasn't as well applied here as I thought?
Not too worried though as this large flat area is really showing a nice range of tones at the moment.

So where does this leave me? I'm happier with the finish than I was but the contrast is still a bit high for my liking, therefore I think I'll apply a couple of filters and see how it looks with the tones a little more uniform.

However, it's thrown my previous 'paint plan' out of the window a bit and I'm now thinking that 'less is more' rather than my previous 'more is more' philosophy!

So I'd really appreciate some advice on what to do next from you guys. As I see it my options are:

- STOP! I've done enough. Quit while I'm ahead and start detail painting weathering etc. etc.

- Do the same thing again. Add second completely battered layer of paint with the majority of green showing through like the sand coat but with a better toned paint (like a darker sand-brown) that may reduce the singular high contrast of the sand while still adding another dimension of chips.

- Add a disruptive pattern. A Syrian orangey brown (or another colour?) chipped back as I did with the yellow and grey may break things up a bit and as it worked nicely last time look pretty good.

- Add a thinly sprayed 'rebel camouflage'. I envisage very thin tight wavey stripes on the big areas, as seen on some AFV's and technicals in Syria. The rebels have got it running and realising the poor state of the paint had a go with a couple of car spray paint tins. Could remove the masking prior to this for some extra depth too. Aways on the cards as the last step but not sure if now is the time or one of the other options first?

So, as discussed, a few options that I could really do with some assistance on. Look forward to your thoughts!

Cheers,

James

Hi James,
the way I see it, it would be best to either pick a photo and work from that or leave it as is. I did a brief google on the subject and some of the tanks in photos look just the way you have the tank now+heavy coat of sand dust. Now I don't have any knowledge of the subsequent camo changes of Syrian army tanks, so I have no idea if you should paint another coat for the accuracy's sake. But the way it looks now aesthetically is perfect.

I wouldn't worry too much about the contrast as that will lessen after layers of weathering.

If it was my model and choice, knowing about the subject as little as I do, I'd chose option 2: - leave the camo as is, proceed with weathering, looks great so far.

HTH, cheers,
Greg

ahhh.. I wanted to make a comment on the on the Yom Kippur time camouflage and... you have proceeded to the next step already!! You are too fast my friend.
First things first: The Yom Kippur camo looked fine. Especially the yellow bands added more life and contrast to them model.

Than came the desert colour. Good choice for further weathering. I must agree however that it was too heavily applied at the beginning. The whole secret in the last stages is too apply very thin layers that are almost invisible on the beginning. If you can search for Mig Jimenez Diana DAK truck. It's is very difficult to achieve and that's what I failed to do on the Polish Pz III and thus I completely repainted it. Your rescue mission however is a success I must admit with joy. Just two elements I would rework: the mudguards. The right hand side on the rear are too sandy not enough chipping. The left side (especially the last portion) would need a light coat of sand paint. Pics:




As of your last question I would:

Add a thinly sprayed 'rebel camouflage'

a very thin coats will add the necessary beige-sand base for future weathering. If you don't do it all effects you plan to do (especially darker ones like washes, stains or streaks) won't be well visible on the dark background. In addition I really think that if you don't lighten the surface you'll end up with a very dark model as each layer of oil paint, washes etc WILL darken the surface. Maybe first two or three layers of a light "filter like" paint and than with the sale colour the camouflage bands. It would require few more passes but only there where the bands should appear. My 3 cents

spit

I agree with Spit re: the right side fenders.
Otherwise it looks great. The only final layer I'd recommend would be dusty color pastels/pigments applied dry.

Hi James,
two choices mate:
1. leave it as it is, and try to remove some paint from the rear fender
or
2. try and remove some paint from the rear fender and retry using very thin layers to let the older paint show through and hit that with wear and tear.

Don't go too fast now, the campaign has another 2 months to run, so take it easy and well thought out



Paul

If it was my model, which i wish, i would do something about the right fender and apart from that leave it as it is. My experiance from similar projects of my own is that when you feel like maybe it's time to stop it often is. Do some weathering and you will have an absolutely great looking T55.

Jakob

Hey gents,

Thanks for all the comments, very much appreciated!

However, I think there has been a bit of a misunderstanding regarding the fenders!

The areas Pawel has pointed out are both covered by Maskol, so whatever the current finish is doesn't matter as once I remove the Maskol the underlying coat will be the Russian Green ie. the sand coat was applied before the fuel cells/stowage boxes were removed.

I probably should have pointed it out better:




If you look at the pics below you'll see the ares I masked a bit better perhaps (look for the purple bits!):





Hopefully that clears that up.

I really appreciate the comments, however, knowing that the fenders should be ok, does that help anyone make another decision?

Cheers,

James

as I said before:




And if the mudguards will be green after you remove maskol (didn't see it) I would apply some sand layer over it too.

spit

Hi James,

Loveing the look!! The abraic numbers over the old style russian one's is a great idea & really show's the original owners look!!

I agree that the origianl sand may have been a bit much but after "washing" down it now looks fantastic,really making it look like an old "block girl"!!

I will keep on looking in but will only be able to make minimal post as at teh moment using / writing on the computer are very differecult & I need to save what limited movement I have for work.

Keep up the inspiring work!!

Cheers Mike

- Pawel Sorry my friend; don't 100% understand what you mean, the 'rebel camouflage I mentioned was something like thin grey sprayed stripes like M.R. did with the black and white bands over his T-62.
I understand what you mean about needing to lighten the colour before weathering, and agree that future coats need to be much lighter - this was probably the major issue with my sand coat. However do you mean for me to spray a coat over the entire model to lighten it? Must say I'm not too keen on this idea. I think I need to keep things a bit more minimal going forward but agree more work is needed.


Mike Thanks so much mate!

No worries, totally understandable, hope you get well soon.

Cheers guys,

James

Okey Dokey,

So after last weeks panic, I took a step back from the project to collect my thoughts. First thing I decided to do was to apply some filters to see if that would help with the overall look given my concerns regarding the contrast of the sand coat.
First I used a heavilly thinned dark green humbrol enamel (sorry I don't rmember which!) and applied this over everything, but the effect was a little too subtle.
I then went with a 50-50 mix of black and burnt umber oils again heavily thinned and this had the desired effect:













Certainly looking a lot better and helped me get my mind back in gear on where I'm taking this project.
You'll notice I've changed backgrounds for the photos, I've seen how some guys post with these brilliant white backgrounds and bright light and so bought another lamp and some white card but even touching up in paint shop leaves them looking a bit 'dreary' not sure what the mystery missing component is for great looking photos, perhaps just more light but my desk is a bit cramped with 3 lamps on it already!

So, with that done I thought long and hard about what everyone had said (thanks again by the way!) and although I was happy with the look as it was, and very wary that doing too much more could ruin things I still felt it needed something else.

Over on the T-54/55/62 campaign thread Bob had asked about the yellow colour I used for the disruptive 'Yom Kippur' camo and Paul posted a link to some Syrian armour on the excellent Military in the middle east blog. The orangey brown colour used in several of the photo's struck me as the 'misssing ingredient' and I was able to mix a pot up from some old dark sandy yellow easily enough (I love it when its easy, sometimes you just cant get the mix right for the colour you want!) with some orange, ochre yellow and red brown. I then applied this in 'splotches' over a coat of hairspray, and using a new flat brush very gently chipped these areas back.
This is the result with a matt coat of Alclad II applied afterwards:









Not sure what you think but must say I'm very happy. Just what I was after. Another layer of 'history' to the build while bridging the tonal gap between the sand and the green while also reducing the overall 'greeness' of the tank.

I think I'll quit while I'm ahead now and next stage will be to remove the masking and start weathering this girl, I must say I'm excited as the painting was quite an intense process all in! I'll still need to add some 'Rebel touches' with paint at a later stage but this will be after a bit of weathering so that they look much fresher in comparison.

I'll leave you with a few more shots of her in the current guise. Cheers guys!

James

I think it looks great, you've recovered from the sand quite well and I can't wait to see the weathering

Cheers Barry!

Glad you agree, I'm looking forward to it actually as so few of my builds actually make it this far!

James

Amazing work and great attention to detail

Much appreciated Steven! Perhaps spent a bit too much time attending to detail but glad to know it's been worthwhile.

Cheers!

James

Hi,

sorry replying so late but I was away sunday and yesterday after a thunder storm my PC is not working (PSU died).

Actually is looking very good now. Maybe the white back ground helps a bit too.I think jus a thin sand filter would be good. Than the dust and rain marks will lighten it up. I would advise making some light colour streaks (mixtures like dust effects are quite helpful). Don't remember which exactly AK products you have but remember that you can change their colour by mixing more or less oil paint. I'll reply to your last email as soon as I get my PC back on line.
BTW if you have the possibility I would get few photo bulbs (at least 6000K for the white and not yellowish colour) it would greatly help getting lighter pictures. In France they are 5-7 EUR so maybe you can find something cheap in Australia too. Your pictures are very good but more light (and maybe a photo tent) would make them event better.

spit

Hey mate,

No worries at all.
Thankyou, I'm glad you like how its looking. I see what you mean now, yes a sand filter is a very good idea, I'll do this once I get all the details hand painted.
Don't have the dust effects mix, but do have the rainmarks, mud effects and wet effects fluids amongst others, will have to assess everything I have and how I use it.
I was planning to add streaking with oils though which hopefully will accomplish a lot of what you suggest.

Appreciate the photo tips as your pics are what I was aspiring to! Yes some better bulbs may be the way, I'll look into that.
Tried the two diffent backgrounds last night and the green actually comes off better I think, wierd but true. Will try and post some pics later to show you what I mean.

Cheers!

James

James,

That is one very awesome looking paint job!! Loving all the layers & how they show the life cycle that she has been through!!

I agree that the "orange" adds just that hint of something different.

Re your photos I have been advised by a photographer in our club that either a blue or green plain piece of cloth used as a back drop that is "curved" at the bottom to stop any "shadowing" is helpfull for showing off your masterpeice.

Cheers Mike

Thanks Mike!

Very pleased that the hard work has paid off and that the paint scheme does give a good feel to the 'history' of the tank.
Appreciated, as it was, it was too green compared to what I had in mind for the finished look. To be honest though that has altered so much during the painting that I'm not even sure what I had in mind in the first place!

I'm using a piece of curved green card at the minute and was surprised how much duller using white made my pics, the thought process being that it would reflect more light and make them brighter, instead it think it may be 'robbing' light instead. Will see if I can find some better bulbs this weekend, hopefully the final photo shoot isn't too far off!

Cheers,

James

I don't think white background can actually absorb more light than green background, what it does instead is IMHO that it just shows insufficient lighting more than the green does. From the photos it also seems that maybe you used mixed bulbs with different light temperature?

Anyway I came here to say I can't wait to see her finished! Very interesting build log!

Cheers,
Greg

Hey Greg,
That sounds plausible, I added a LED light to my 2 other 'standard' bulbs and that looks a lot bluer which may explain the look you mention.

Yes I'm beginning to look forward to 'the end' myself now, hopefully not too far off!

Thanks,

James

Hey hey,

Well not a major update but thought it was about time I posted something!

Taking all the maskol off took a while but it seems to have done a good job. Changes the look of the build somewhat and has broken up the finish that bit more. Only other real change is that I base coated the mantlet cover with humbrol enamel, will add highlights to the folds and also detail paint the other areas prior to weathering now.

First up a photo comparison beetween backgrounds, following on from previous discussions on the subject.

White:



Green:



To me the green looked better so I ran with that.

Here you go then:







And some shots of some of the areas that have had the masking removed, showing the underlying Russian green areas:











Cheers Gents!

James

Looks awesome and real