Hey all. After building one of these kits I was asked on other forums how it went together. Since I am doing a dio with about three or four of them in a convoy rolling through the streets of Berlin, I figured a Blog was a good idea incase someone some where was curious. This kit was riddled with fit issues and pin marks and the like. So what better way to show people what the kit looks like than to take you through a Blog of it! Here goes:

The kit comes boxed in a standard open top box with some really nice box art that was pretty much the inspiration for the dio that I'm working on. The size of it is almost s heavy as some 1/35 kits and comes with a substantial amount of sprues and parts!


The build starts with the instructions needing to be re organized to put the steps in order for a little more ease. Step one to four calls for the driver's compartment and interior walls to be constructed. These steps are nice subassemblies which makes it a little easier to work with. So I built up the walls of the interior and noticed some locating holes that will need to be filled in after the suspension springs are glued onto the inside:



The next few steps I got through was adding the controls, and seats and other finer details of the interior: These details are added after the interior walls are glued into place:







That's all for tonight on this one!

Looking good so far James, look forward to seeing the progress on this one.

Looks great!
I'll get one!

Hi James

Its looking very good so far. I like the interior. The driver and co-driver's areas are coming along very well. If I can ask a question, what made you decide on going with a Hobby Boss T-34 rather than say a Dragon or one of the other ones out there ?
Harry

Hey Harry, thanks for the comment. The big choice for this was that Hobby Boss' kit is 1/48th scale. I have become very addicted to quater scale models due to their cost and size on the shelf. Also, for this case, the Hobby Boss' T34 series all come with complete interiors in the hull and turret. This is essentially Trumpeter's 1/16th T-34/85 brought down to 1/48th scale! So instead of paying 150.00 for the kit, I paid 20.00!

Hi James

My bad, I didn't know that it was 1/48th scale You are right on every point on going that way. That also makes the work that much more impresive. Looks very good
Harry

O god i built one of these kits it was the T34-76 it was a nightmare.
500 somthing parts for a poor quality small kit.
Strait lines were not strait fit was poor tracks didnt fit the list goes on.
BUT....

They have potential for the patient modeler.
(not me)
Love to see how you do man.

Heh David! So true, but this kit seems to have been better cast, as there's really no warpin, and very little mould lines and flash. Anyway, I've been away for a bit, but here's some progress on it. The interior is nearing completion, to my standards anyway. it's a shame that the detail will be hidden under the hull, but atleast I know it's there! Here's the pics, no big shakes at all!

I assembled the engine, fan and Transmission, added the brackets and such. I also worked on the interior for the turret and the main gun. Detail is again incredible with quite a bit of filling of pin marks. However, if you only want the interior to be seen through the hatches, they aren't an issue at all! I have since painted the interior using the Illustrious Treadwell's T-34 as a great reference for colours and the like, thanks Tread, for doing all the research for me LOL Here's the pics:







The engine and transmission haven't been glued into place yet... nor are they finished!











That's it for now!

Marvellous!

I have a HobbyBoss T-34/76 sitting near the top of the to-do pile, and this build log should help a lot when I start building and painting. Thanks for sharing.

Alright guys, this is the last of the construction pics. It's about ready for paint, just gotta finish the other run of tracks.

Since I didn't assemble the kit like the instructions suggested (I'm a little rough on my builds when the fit isn't right), it was time to work on the exterior details. Testors liquid glue is my favourite glue for gap filling when it comes to minor gaps. I constructed the fuel drums and let them sit and dry well for a few days, so now it was clean up time, and putting them on the tank. I also added the finer details to the hull such as the headlight, horn and various hooks. The only problem I had was with the back plate. Which fit fine until I added the fan grille up on the engine deck. This part was warped slightly and a little pressure was needed to get it to sit right, which I think resulted in the entire fit of the back plate being off. I puttied it up no problem. The front needed a weld seam so I tried glue for it since it needed to be so thin. I would have used Milliput for this, but I couldn't get it to go thin enough to be in scale. So it will need a little clean up before paint tomorrow! I did however use Milliput for the join of the lower and upper hull where I cut off the fender. Texture was added to the bow gun using Mr. Surfacer 1000 and a good old paint brush for stipling it. The final bit of detail was the straps for the spare track rack, made out of Tamiya Masking Tape. Here's the pics:









The turret, while nice was lacking in some serious detail such as the cast texture and the weld seam, which should have been present according to most reviews. I did the cast texture with Mr. Surfacer again, and the weld using milliput and sculpted it with a #11 blade:







The tracks are interesting in that there are pin marks on the outter surface of the tread. Very poor IMHO for such a greatly detailed kit. So a Micro Chisel was needed to remove the excess plastic, and some putty will be used to fill/create mud on the tracks. They consist of the upper run, with the proper sag already molded, aswell as the lower run. The kit supplies jigs to put the tracklinks together to go around the sprocket and idler. Care here needs to be applied when putting these indies together as too much glue will glue the track to the jig, and not enough, won't hold the tracks. They are very finicky! Here's a pic of a run still drying on the jig:



All that remains is a little clean up of some glue spots. The headlight lens is clear plastic, and the tow cables are copper wire twisted into a cable. Nice and soft for easy manipulation. These will be added last before weathering.

Here's a couple pics of it all together before paint:











That's it for tonight all, thanks for looking!

what happend to this build????

hi all! my first post here and just happened to come across this since i have also a Hobby Boss T-34/85 in my stash. i'm finishing up the T-34/76 and for me this line from HobbyBoss is bang for the buck. the molds are good. just a little clean up and it's a great build. i'll post some photos when i finish up

Could you please post the link( if it is a link). Great build by the way.

i bought this kit about a month ago, nowing their were a few problems with it (what do you want for 25 bucks?)

When are you going to finish it? its been over a year!

Great job on not the easiest of kits to get together,I am really looking foward to seeing the final outcome !!!

He hasn't posted since July 2007, maybe he gave up on it.

I gave up on the Hobby Boss T34/85 I have.

Hi very nice build so far , one small but important item that is wrong and it is not your fault but previous reviews , the welding seam you have added in red is not in fact a welding seam , it is the over spill from the casting metal due to the molds being miss aligned. You cannot weld cast iron to cast iron , I base this on 37 years in shipyards and heavy industry . keep up the good work cheers ian

The kit is that bad, huh?

What are some of the problems you had with it?