Hi all,
I've been working on this big guy for a while now, and posting it on my usual haunts, and decided I wanted to post it here, so I'll just copy what I've posted elsewhere:

Been working on my birthday present since I got back from school at the beginning of the month... finally have something painted to show for it. This is the engine and transmission compartment all finished... included are a few pics of what will be visible once the model is fully assembled thru the hatches unless I cut up a few more panels, which I probably wont do... notice the brass hatches I made for the engine hatch... those took about four tries to not screw up and make workable and durable.











Alright... new pics. Here's the fighting compartment complete... last is the turret interior, and then I close'er up and move onto exterior assembly.













Working on the exterior now... the markings are of no particular unit, based on a variety of images I found and my decision to change from a whitewash to something with white recognition stripes and messy hand-painted numbers...
So far it's received some pigment and oil washes on the running gear, and oil-dot filteirng on the whole thing which, like most good initial treatments has been mostly covered up by subsequent layers of work. I also did some very light drybrushing on the hull to accentuate the cast textures, and did the initial chipping work. It's a boring design in boring green, so I'm spending my time on serious surface color variation and weathering... both the hull and running gear have a long way to go, including lots more oil and pigment applications, and painting the tracks, neatening up the chipping, and adding rust streaking.

Looks pretty good to me Buddy.
Nice job on it.
Can't wait to see it done.
And Welcome aboard.
So what school are you taking?

Thanks for looking... and yeah, it's reaaall big I just finished my first year of school, studying Biology.

This is a nice looking build.

I have one bit of constructive criticism and/or comment, though. If the numbers were handpainted, it is likely the recognition stripes and other markings were handpainted as well. Therefore, all the markings would probably show general uneveness and paint drips, not just the numbers.

Just my two shekels. The big kit looks good.

-YL

Thanks for the response... I thought about that as I was doing it, but I've seen a few reference pics where the numbers were sloppy and the recog stripes were neat, so I'm thinking the stripes may have bee painted on earlier with some templates or such, and the numbers painted on by hand after the tanks are assigned?

That's outstanding! Well done, Sir.

Cheers
Scott Fraser

Hey Ben,

That's a great-looking T-34. I have one of these puppies in my stash and your work is quite inspirational.

Especially the interior - superb job there, Dude! Just a pity that after all that work, hardly any of it will be visible (or am I wrong?).

And you do yourself an injustice by describing Russian green as "boring". You seem to be doing an excellent job of bringing it to life very nicely!

- Steve

Likewise Ben,
Beautiful work on the interior. I particularly like the rust on the engine.
I've one is my stash and will be referring to your beauty once I eventually start building it.
Keep up the good work.
John

My God !!!!! Looking at that engine compartment and drivers compartment,you would swear you were looking at a photo of the real thing !!! That has to be one of the most convincing weathering jobs on the inside that i have ever seen.and the photos are excellent

Looks great Ben!

I just recieved mine in the mail today. Now I'm really stoked to get it started!

LOOKIN GOOD ! WOW, that inside detailing is AWESOME.

I see Warhammer paints

Looks great! I have the T-34/76 in my stash, but have not had the courage yet to start building it.
I hope I will be able to do the interior as well as you.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for all the nice feedback... the kit is done, but I'm waiting for a nice day to take the final set of photos... You guys are right tho, that not a great deal of the interior is visible once everything is assembled.. that's part of why I'm glad the photos came out well. The fighting compartment is easily visible bc/ the turret comes right off, but the engine compartment is only visible thru the top hatch, thru the ventilation vanes, and the rear access hatch.

And I still think Russian green is boring... it's part of why I haven't built any Shermans yet either I do have a Tamiya 1/16 R/C Tiger I kit on the way tho, so that'll be my next large project... I really wish I could switch over to the larger scale exclusively, but the selection of models just isn't there (especially not with my being a closet Paper Panzer nut)




Yup... I started out in miniature painting, and still do some occasionally... i switched over to scale modeling when I realized all I liked about miniature gaming was the modeling

All done!