Just a plain awesome build log, thanks for sharing! Always amazed at the work of others, very inspirational to see!

Cheers!
Tim

First of all, sorry for such a long delays in the updates. There has been some insignificant progress (tracks are done), but nothing noteworthy. For the time being, there will be no updates for this blog as I'm quite occupied with the term projects and upcoming exams. If everything goes as planed, I will resume building process around end of first week of December. Sorry.

With considerably more time to spare now, the blog is active again. I decided to rework some details on turret such as inner surface of commander's hatch, machine gun trigger and lifting hooks. Overall, turret is 90% complete minus the pieces above final semi-flat seal and foliage. I'm not sure if I'll use pigments on upper surfaces as extensively as in previous build, time will show.

Hull recieves wash (used up half a 150 piece cotton swabs box). Sorry for blurry pics- cell is low on juice


First layer of filters:

More progress today. Second layer of filters on upper surfaces. Tomorrow is suspension day:

Dry brush and tracks in place:

Green looks very pleasing in the pics. I am jealous of the the stage your are at now - most fun part!
Dmitry

It's looking mighty sweet. Glad to see this one back in action!

-YL

Hello

Great to see such a nice modern project in these WW2 times

I like your weathering mate looks good. Are you goning to build a dio aswell?

Grtz

I think I'm going to have to give those filters a try on my next tank. Did you mix your own or did you buy them?

Thank you for your kind words, everyone. I don't think there will be any dio since I've never built one, maybe a stand with title plate when it goes for sale to clear space. Matthew, I believe you probably are thinking about MiG filters, but I'm using several different shades of green and khaki drab MM enamels and oil paints, thinned with Testors thinner at about 1 to 1.5 ratio, to make shades. They can be mixed or used separately. That big worn patch on middle right fuel tank is made with MM bomber tan while road wheels and turret roof are treated mostly by oil paints. All you need to apply it is a good, dense, brush with which you will rub solution onto desired surface obtaining smooth, gradient color variation. I know nothing about MiG filters' chemistry and how to apply them, sorry.

Hey George,

It looks very impressive. I like the green tone. What's about a "tankist"? Would be a nice addition to your great tank . Keep us posted.

I'm not sure about figure besides I have not built even one yet. If you can suggest a set depicting Warsaw Pact tanker apart from CMK one, that will be very welcome. CMK is not bad, but figures are sculptured standing.
Anyway, here is more or less finished look minus the foliage. Had to do some homework on side lights, but the current looks is somewhat satisfying, at least for now I left the model in the open today before going out and barrel got bent by the sun

That's what you get for living in CA! (Of course I have 24 + inches of snow out my door, but my barrels never bend!)

Check out Alpine Miniatures, they have a couple of very nice modern Russian Tankers.

Hehe, gotta love So Cal winter, shorts and pair of T-shirts are all you need. No, Alpine figure is out of question. Their panzer and OIF figures are top notch, but the face on the soviet fellow looks awful lot like a clown character from mid 80's horror movie. Besides, it is Soviet army tanker, wearing early post WWII uniform, I guess I meant to ask for a figure portraying Czech or NVA crewman. By the way, I already removed those pesky pigment stains on the rear plate. Don't spray SMK pigments. This is off topic, but I just had to take this pic to fuel certain ongoing debate

Sorry to hear about the bent barrel, but rest of the tank looks fantastic! Nice, nice work. Can't wait to see the PE foliage.

Good going on the "comparison" pic, btw. I'm sure that will help move things along!

-YL

Bad hair day if you weigh 46 tons.... of steel

That foliage looks amazing. When I first saw the PE frets earlier in the build, I had my doubts, but I have to say they turned out very well indeed.

Ok, tell me...how much patience did you need to paint each leaf, one at a time? Or did you hire a team of elves to do it?

-YL

The barrel doesn't look too bad. And that foliage turned out to be very impressive.

I've just received early gift in form of Eduard 1/48 BF-110E and PE for it, so I only spent 1 to 2 hours modeling "bushy goodness" lately Painting PE is not that bad at all, all you really need to do is to find good color reference for particular type of tree and give round shape to the branches. Then it's only a matter of half an hour to paint leaves and branches. If you use acrylic and you thin it just right, paint will flow around veins covering flat surface while leaving hint of yellowish texture. Besides even though there is no pigment, acrylic base of the paint will flatten metallic shine of brass. I painted branches with mix of Tamiya BUFF and Red Brown, but they came out too flat, that's what you get for working with enamels most of the time. There is still some work to do:I should probably spray semi-gloss at low pressure, paint all bare brass spots that were left out and turn some leaves around so they don't all lie in the same plane. Lastly there will be no chestnut leaves used, they just look so odd next to small linden ones, besides, one set is enough for a relatively small model unless you want to hide something

Done I asked Santa for a good W.P. crew set and some Miniarm stuff, but old man must have ran onto some obstacle on his way from Macao...

Hi George,

your Mr. T looks great!

As figures are concerned:

DML did a set (#3010) of modern soviet tankers, that could easily been used/converted for GDR or czech tankers, too. (at least some figs of this set)

TANK makes some modern soviet/russian ones. http://www.tank-model.ru (items 35055/ 066/ 067

Check this one: http://www.mueritz-miniaturen.de/shop/index.html. Their item M35-001 should work!

hth

Volker

Hi

Really nice job, you should be proud. Your tracks are really nice too.

Good stuff.

Tom

Thank you for supportive comments, guys. Volker, I too wanted to get the old DML kit and tweak it with Tank heads and some scratch building, but I just could not find this one in stock wherever i looked. Tank modern RA tankers is a great set but the figures have significant difference in outfit from WP clothes, besides this set is so good it should be used primarily for late 80's to present RA tanks.
Tom, I too kind of like this one mostly because I've used tracks and some other AM originally purchased for DML T-72, and now I can just scrap what remains and use some of the parts for pending TOS-1 project.

Great work!

Thanks, but not really. Even though most of detail came from well established company they still had irritating mistakes, some of which could not to be fixed without demolishing whole piece. To be honest this model was supposed to be submitted for December DMoM to see how it holds against work of more advanced members, but obstacles kept me from doing so. Like said before barrel got bent and Verlinden hull, which is better overall then the turret, did have few detail that had to be adjusted; base kit's towing hooks and cable loops were plain awful, kind of got cheap and used hobbycraft copy of a copy of Tamiya molds Finally I've encountered some problems with turret ring and detail of turret appropriate only to Czech early production, both of which resolved in a classic but cruel way. Don't you just hate it when you search long and hard to resolve doubts about some detail, finally give up and model it with what ever limited info and the very next day a thorugh photo or drawing pops up In fact whole idea with foliage was created to cover up some mistakes
Iguess I've done better-than-average work especially since it's my 5th model of a tank in 35th; 2nd in category of Soviet produced armor.