outstanding work! the colors and over all subtile shades is great. Very nice work!
Andy

That is simply outstanding

Thanks guys. I can recommend this kit to anyone, it's very well moulded and detailed, and the PE bedsprings just add a lovely touch to DML's already fantastic T 34/85 kit. Here are the rest of the final photos. I was going to use the one i posted earlier for the Dragon Model of the Month competition but if anyone thinks one of the others would be better suited please say.

Luke your last photos didn't come out. There not here.

Hi Luke,
I love your T34. The weathering is very subtle yet convincing. Can't wait to see it on its base!

Thomas

ah i see the problem with the pics. i believe this is because i moved the pics to an new photobucket album. i will try to correct this.

Luke,
Fantastic build, I really enjoyed going back through and reading about your research/build process. Can't wait to see it on the base!
One request though, any way we could see some detail shots (close-ups)?

sure thing tskross, I should be getting my new camera in the next few days. I will probably only get a compact superzoom but this should be a slight improvement on my old one, which refuses to focus at very close ranges. Alternatively, i have 12 MB copies straight from the camera which i could zoom in on a fair bit and still get good quality. was there anything in particular that you wanted to see close up?

I really like your weathering- can you go into better dtail on how you did it?

Hey Luke,
You've done a great job on your T-34/85.
I like the way the air recognition stripes are kinda crooked on the LHS of the turret.
Cheers

jjumbo

Thanks John. The turret numbers are from the decal sheet but the thought of trying to manipulate the decal stripes around all the tarp tie down straps was too daunting for me so i decided to just paint them on with a small brush. The stripes were painted out in the field by the crew anyway so i thought hand painted marking would look more realistic than the decal ones.
For weathering, i airbrushed the whole tank with tamiya XF-67 toned down a bit with black, then used a little thinned flat earth to fade it a bit. I then used black and yellow ochre oils in random dots, then blended them vertically with a brush slightly dampened with turpentine. I prefer using only a little turpentine because this keeps the patterned effect that can be lost if you mix everything together. Next I installed the wheels, which I pre painted with black and used a circle mask to fill the insides. after this i used a small peice of scouring pad dipped in dark oils to make small chips at corners and edges. Unfortunately i think this step got blended into the base coat a little too much by later stages. I then installed the magic tracks, which i love because they don't have contact points to fill. i left 2 links on each run unglued so that i could remove them afterwards and paint them with tamiya red brown. i dry brushed a little enamel steel onto the parts that would make contact with the ground. I then glued the tracks into place and painted the hull details and turret markings. At this point i installed the bedsprings after a coat of dark brown and some rubbing with graphite and then rust pigments. after this i gave the tank a fairly weak burnt umber wash around all the details and then a much thicker black and burnt umber wash with more precision. i also used an even thicker black oil mix to make oil stains around the engine. after this dried i gave it a coat of humbrol acrylic matt varnish, which worked but lightened the base coat a lot. It didn't neccesarily make it worse though. then i put a load of dry mud pigment on the tracks and used turpentine to wet it. after this dried i went over the tracks again and the wheels with dry mud pigments. i used more of the dry mud to dust over thte hull, and in a few places i used quite a bit to leave a stronger mud mark. i used my finger rubbed in graphite to add some metal wear to the hull, bedsprings and tracks, and then i put rust pigments on the outsides of the exhuasts and on the spare tracks, as well as a few other places. i used black pigment for the gun muzzle, and the insides of the exhausts. Thats pretty much it. i used several coats of future brushed on during the process, but i can't really remember where.