Alright, here goes my new project. This one is not going to be nearly as epic as T-80UD build. As you can see Verlinden's hull is much more accurate dimensionally than their turret, however, it still lacks level of detail you've come to expect from modern resin sets. Here is list of additions to the glacics:
- V-mud guard with holders (all scratch built)
- New head light framing (kit ones were too thick and low)
-New tow cable holders along with cable itself and a travel lock for upper hook.
-Locks for towing hooks (I still wish I can find better hooks, because there is no way I can scratch build one)
-Bolt heads (ran out of Masterclub ones, used hexagonal Plastruct tube instead)
-New KMT cables
-New Axii for front fenders.
-Reworked driver's main viewer (the kit one didn't quite agree with pictures of real piece).
-Plastic strip added to fill in gap between left portion of glasics and upper hull (casting defect?)
-"Flaps" were added (I really hoped for them to be in the set). The central ones will be cast in resin (scratch building is fun only in small amounts!)
-Side skirts from .05 aluminum foil

Rear plate:
-Well, whole thing had to be removed because it was badly warped and it was set at very fishy angle with respect to ground level.
-Spare tracks are left overs from Modelkasten set.
-New track holders
-Wiring to the rear lighting added.
-Fuel canister holders are from Eduard set (one was lost, so it was replicated in styrene)
-Cable holders and a lock ( there should be another lock added soon).
Log holders are modified pieces from Eduard PE set according to the pictures.
-Bolt heads added to the planetary gear shifters ( same as with frontal plate, but these will not be as evident after all the mud and tracks are in place)
References used:
Kagero Topshots: T-72M In Detail
Walkaround at thetankmaster.com

Very Nice work George! I like the Gill armour very much.

Chris

Nice Work George.

I have spoken to Sergej, he is considering selling a pack of 20 tow hooks, so do not dispair!

Great work so long Man..

Hope to see your progress, btw you T-80UD was Great too

Regards

Hey nice start on the T-72 Hope to see more soon

Grtz

Sorry for the delay, I had been really busy at work lately. Casting Gils and turning forks is finally done. From now on, there is only one major work left- re-sculpturing the turret. BTW I would appreciate it if someone could give me a link to a 2 or 3 tone camo, preferably Czechoslovak or East German military (new airbrush is quite a stunner )

Hi George,

here are two links regarding former NVA-cammo:

http://www.panzerbaer.de/colours/nva_verzerr.htm

http://www.track-link.net/forum/research_postww2/5103 (somewhere at IPMS-London, I think you'll find more)

But I don't think, you'll find pics of T-72 of your production-state with NVA-3 tone cammo. Most of heir initial T-72 batch has been modernized in 1986 (two year before they introduced the new cammo), when the gill/flap-armour has been dropped in favor of the well known side-skirts. And only a few vehicles have been painted with the new pattern, most were simply green, when germany was reunited.
But a more common practice has been to field apply contemporary white or brown blotches, esp. on excercises...
So maybe a chance to give your new airbrush a try

HTH

Volker

Just finished 'reworking' Verlinden's turret according to the references. It still needs to be sanded to bring out more accurate curves. The pictures are wacky because of unusually shaky limbs tonight Looks like this one is going to be finished after all (So tempted to start DML's Kingtiger.....I mean M1A2SEP)
Great refs, Volker, thanks. I I think I'll go for standard armor green and Eduard's Oak branches for ambush setting, possibly even crew figures.

Sorry for long absence, but I've been busy doing all the work for my classes. The model is almost ready to be painted. Just some minor additions are left. I tried to improve Verlinden's turret as much as I could according to all the pictures and schemes I found. I also added a zoom PE set from Eduard since original PE parts were missing in my copy As stated before I also going to make it outfitted with branches for natural ambush camo by using Eduard's Linden and Chesnut sets. Since I didn't find any useful reviews of these sets I decided to throw couple of pictures here (there are two frets in each set, very delicate detail and worth every penny).

Looks fantastic George. That "natural" camo should look pretty neat when it's done. Guess you will paint the leaves before you attach them?

Looks great, George. You are really adding a lot of detail to this one. It will be quite unique and well detailed.

Thanks for sharing

HI

You may want to add some white glue to the branch part of the leaves/vines you are going to add. The glue tends to add a 3D effect and depending on how it dries, also gives you some texture.

All in all a great build so far.

Tom

I was going to use fast curing epoxy glue to make them round and not so flexible once painted, but thanks for suggestion
No updates until after this weekend, storming library prior midterms.

Phew, what a week. Base coat of paint is already applied. I used Model Master's 4BO filtered with two very diluted layers of Olive Drab and Medium Green. At this point things should get done quite fast, but I doubt it since evil mailman seduced me with huge DML M1A2SEP box this morning

Oh no, not another Abrams! Says the guy building one himself.

But seriously your T-72 looks wonderful. Now you have reached my favorite part of any project.

.
Hehe, I read through that one last night- Keep 'em coming! Painting is my favorite part too, especially when it comes to Soviet tanks.

Hey

Great looking T-72!! Nice to see such a nice modern build. Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Hy George!

I´m simply stunning when looking at your builds and efforts. keep them commin´! Very well done!

Best regards,

Andy T.

Despite the impact of recent wild fires on all of us in South Land life goes on, and here is a small update on paint job. I felt like original base was too dull, so I decided to spray some more olive drab filter. And no, I didn't just forget to install lifting hooks on turret. Once dry and rub brushing is done they will be there. The last pic shows quite odd result after using alclad prismatic, nah I'm just messing with your bandwidth

The green looks better. Gonna play around with post shading at all? It's a lot of fun and can add a lot of character to a model. Shadows, Highlights, rain streaks, or simply add subtle and completely random splotches of color. This can help break up one color camo schemes. Since I bought my Iwata Eclipse airbrush this past summer I have been playing with these techniques. So much fun. And if you screw up or over do it just apply a light coat of the original green. Sometimes mistakes can lead you down a path you didn't expect. Actually I almost always apply a light coat of the base color over my post shading to help blend it in. Have fun and watch out for those fires.

Like I said there will be fair deal of dry and rubbing brush soon to follow. But for now I need to finish up my long overdue Su-24M project. Yep, you are right on money about Iwata hardware, Matthew. I treated myself with HP-CS with their compressor earlier last month and there is just no comparison
with my old Paasche set. No more worries about accuracy and such, just painting for past 5 weeks now.

More filters. I don't like using airbrush to simulate faded paint as it kills cast texture therefore brush is the only solution. No wash yet.

Great build so far. I love russian T series and yours is truly excellent.

Maybe a little late, but you may find useful Calvin Tan´s blog. He uses Fimo gel in p/e leaves to make some beautiful looking -and cheaper- vegetation. Here is the link:

http://zyclyon.blogspot.com/search/label/Tests%20with%20Fimo%20Deco%20Gel

Great build!

The earlier T-72 with gill armor definitely looks the most "cold-war ish" of all variants.
Impressed with the accuracy your putting into this. Could you add a link to this thread to your thread on reworking the Verlinden turret?

First of, thanks for the comments guys. Hmm, I don't Vladimir Sulk would approve of this method using PE foliage, but it is a very effective way to create brush or small tree for a dio, hats off to the author. I doubt all this work is suitable for replicating natural camo as I'm trying to use single long branches rather then significant tree parts, but thanks for the link.




I did not have any threads about reworking turret, but all you really need is good reference photos such as ones here and here . You can also refer to in-box review of the turret .
I spent some more time weathering the turret last night (results can be seen below), so all it needs now is a little wash and dry brushed corners (plus some minor detailing to be attached afterwards). Here is nearly finished turret as opposed to toy-like homogeneous color on the hull.