Dear George!

Everything looks great and very promissing so far! Keep it up, I already know that it will be a stunner! Great paintjob so far. Wow, those tracks just look fantastic......remind me of the MINIARM ones, unbelieveable. I thought Masterbox tracks are made in plastic??

Anyway, great build so far, keep up the inspiring work!

Best regards,

Andy T.

Hey George

This is a great thread about a really good looking model. I like your progress sofar. What refferences did you use to improve the kit? Are you going to add a groundwork aswell? Could you please post some larger images?

Grtz Roel

I thought you might like those tracks, George. I have the BMD versions and they are a DREAM.

Now to find a more reliable supplier than Hobbyeasy...

Tracks set finally arrived today. Boy, are they a treat.... I never used any of Masterclub offerings before, but this tracks set surpassed all of my expectations. Level of detail is unbelievable (will throw in some more pics w/ drawings tomorrow); they are fully workable and cast in odorless PUR resin.



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I have a couple of the Masterclub track sets and they are stunning - and really affordable (I paid $16 and $21 for the BMD -1 and T54/55/62 set) They are (IMHO the very best tracks in resin OR metal!) I also noticed they have the T80 replacement road wheels as well.

Great WIP Blog - This is a stunner!

Chris

Beautiful T-80. Love the camo. There is so much to look at on this tank. So many small details. Feast for the eyes. It would probably look at home in a Star Wars flick.

First oil wash and 'base' dry brush via pigments.

Dusting and other minor touches prior final dry brush and sealing ( if you find something wrong or odd PLEASE point it out before it's too late ). Ignore overly glossy surface for now; it was done on purpose to improve flow of oil wash.

Looks Great. Gonna be a winner for sure.

Some 'dirt'

Looks Great George. What is your receipe for mud/dirt?

Yeah that dirt looks amazing. We must know the secret ingredients!

Outstanding...
I hope it will come out as I intended:
This model looks much better without paint. With paint it's a really good, detailed model of the T-80.... Without you can see all the extra resin and metal parts; all the extra work that went in it -it shows you how good it is.

Simple. White glue, appropriate pigment (makes no difference if you use generic artists one or custom designed), some baking soda (looks even better if you can find some polyethylene micro spheres) and flat lacquer.

Do you have a specific set of proprtions for mixing the "mud" or do you just wing it?

3 parts of glue to 2 parts of pigment to one part of spheres and flat base. I usually let the mix sit on sun for few minutes to get viscous. Sometimes I also add a coat of pigment and alcohol to simulate dried and dusty crust or gloss coat to make it look wet. Actually it's not entirely my know-how. Thought of it before ,but never got desired results until I read Advanced Techniques: painting and weathering

Now this I have to try. Thanks for the tip.

Good luck. I doubt there will be any updates for this weekend or during the following week. Gone to IPMS Nationals, see you there!

All I can say is WOW! This is going to be one impressive looking kit! Heck, it already is!

Hy George!

Amazing! Your paint and weathering job look great so far! Great choice of camo too.

Keep it rolling,

Best regards,

Andy T.

I like my tanks just the same way as my you know- mean and dirty. Almost final weathering of hull (Surprisingly tracks got installed very easily)

That looks beautifull George. It is hard not to like a tank that looks like that. Keep it going...and did you see anything good at Nationals?

Vendor room! No offense to anyone's work, but they could as well stick giant balkenschutz for 07 Nats logo.... Most armor models were German WWII era kits, though there was quite a collection of beautifully done Shermans. Russian armor school was represented by couple KVs, T-72A (which should be M) and tamiya T-62 turret used as pillbox.
Why vendor room? Zvezda revealed it's 1/48 La-5FN kit that became quite a stunner for most. They also said that was a new standard for ALL of their new tools. If it's true we soon may get, in 1/35th scale, new figure sets (closest to be released is WWII soviet mountaineers) and few secret AFV items. Flappers will soon get 1/72 Pe-8 bomber and Mi-26 heavy lift heli (will be nice for diorama with trumpeter's BTR kit). They also confirmed that T-90 model is cancelled

I love a tank with a layer of filth.

The model now is fully finished, along with its sidekick, phew. Just when I was going to start taking pictures of model itself battery died (whacky lighting on the first pic). More pictures will be added soon. Looks like now I have no excuse not to review T-72 conversions by Verlinden.

George,

Your T-80 looks great and I'm pleasantly suprised at how good the SP Designs stuff has improved...where did you wind up getting the Master Club Tracks From?