nice work jon can't wait to see it together !!

i truly love this build. its so detailed. its simply blowing me away!

Hi Jon, kind of funny how all the insane people end up here, building a perfect little thing and streaching our skills to and past our limits till we are waiting for them to come take us away. Just kidding. Looks like I could jump in and drive away with your tank except your great looking figures would proably just shoot me outright. Nice job, waiting for the finish. By the way, how did you make your fir tree? looks real good.

Thanks for the comments guys and the kind feedback!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I got married on Friday so last week was rather busy!

Hope to have some more photos up soon though and some more painting done. I did some filters and oil washes to the T-55 a few days ago, but thats the most work I've gotten in over the last week.

Bob - thanks for the comments, the fir tree is a cutting from a plant in my fathers garden. I soaked it in glycerin to preserve the plant and prepare it for painting, following the guidelines on the recent fir trees feature article here.

I tried a few products to make nice fir trees but I just couldn't get anything that looked right. Make your own and pre made stuff just looked wrong. It's funny how the natural choices are often the best sometimes (and also the cheapest)!

hey jon

this is a great dio
loving the tank and the men i cant wait for a finish of this. it will look great (Y)

congrats on the marriage btw

hope to see an update soon

tony

Jon,

Just returning the kind words you made on my blog post, this one is amazing. Did you have pictures of the completed interior or did I miss that? Anywho amazing work, you are on the verge of convincing me to build my first post WWII soviet tank.

Also, how are you going to paint the tracks and rubber on the wheels? Do you have the wheels, sprocket and idler glued on? I always wondered how people paint tracks and the rubber wheels after painting the camo. This would help me alot for my next build.

One last thing, do you have an instant messaging service? It probably would be easier to discuss this

So its official, I WONT be doing a M-18 for the next project but I will be building the same kit as you in diorama fashion. I can't wait to start planning it out.

Excellent work Jon, this is a fine build

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Sean,

The interior is finished and there are soem shots on the earlier page.

The great things about the polycaps is not only does it allow you to have fully workable moving tracks if you want, but it also allows you to remove the wheels from the suspension anytime. This makes it much easier to paint the lower hull and suspension and also the wheels and tracks. As for me I will be painting the outside of the wheels in a random camo to match the hull but the rubber road wheels will be painted black rubber on the rims. I'm also going to have a lot of mud and snow effects on the wheels so a fair bit will be covered by this also.

Glad to hear you're going to try some modern Soviet armour! My next project will be a T-90 based off the Tamiya T-72 with miniarm resin update parts.

The ground in the pics appears to have 90 degree angles. That isn't too often in the nature.

Hi Joris

The hillside doesn't have a 90 degree angle, it's rounded along the top of the bank,and follows a natural curve down wards. Actually it is just a small part of an ongoing hillside that would continue off the edge of the diorama board. The outer edge facing away from us of course has a sharp corner as we are dissecting part of the bank where the board stops. This area will be covered with plasticard and painted black also to improve the exposed insulating material and tidy the edges up.

Of course in real life one would not have a single tree standing on top of a square of terrain in isolation your quite right. The assumption is its a small part of a longer bank edge.

Wow, that's some really fantastic work you're doing! Most excellent!

Thanks Scott!

I've now finally managed to take some more update pics and work a little more on the project.

Here are a few updates of the weathering on the T-55, still plenty to go. I have to weather the wheels, tracks, add thick mud, water effects, and snow!



















Internal details also primed and ready for work... stage 2 of the painting and there certainly is a lot of it to do!

Super nice job on the T-55. This was one of my first ever armour builds, loads of fun!

The only issue that i have with the CMK set is that it does not include the radiator

cheers

Thanks Rick, theres still a great deal more to do on the T-55 but its coming along well. Actually this is the first time I've worked with pure white, it was really very interesting and I was suprised how much the filters really went to work on the white paint. You don't notice it so much on darker shades but on a strong white colour you can really see how the filters get to work even after only a coat or two.

True about the CMK kit, its a bit strange! Maybe they will correct this in future versions?

I also found it odd that miniarm overlook the new style exhaust and changed layout on their modern T-90 conversion kits. It's odd how such things slip through the net.

Just a quick update with a few pics. Spent some time working on the interior of the tank, layers of white and some filters only at the moment.

I also did some work on the scenic base and the figures, quick example below. I'm finding it tricky to photograph the figures so will try to see if I can get some better shots later this evening.











Next up is blending the colours on the scenic base and giving it some light oil washes. Once the mud and earth there is done I can move onto pigments and adding scenic flock and snow effects.

Time for a quick update.

The scenic base with blending and oil washes and filters:



Snow effects:

The reference inspiration



The actual dio







As you can see in the last image I built a small campfire of burning embers that the figures will be sitting and standing around, much like in the photo.

T-55 interior, still a lot to do here and very much a WIP:

Great job Jon. Nice interior.

Thanks Martyn!

Actually I'm not too pleased with the interior, I had very a specific idea in mind when I was doing this and was folloiwng lots of reference photos from the Osprey T-55 guide, in the end though the finished result didn't really come out how I had hoped.

I also found weathering the interior very tricky as theres so much small photo etch that really is very delicate. I had to hold back a bit on the graphite weathering because I was worried that the parts would break off. Another issue was the fluff and lint that I found had gathered in corners and stuck to things during the oil washes and filters... plucking all that out with a pair of tweezers was a pain too especially on the delicate photo etch parts.

So I guess I have a love hate relationship with this interior, I'm not entirely satisfied with it, so it's interesting to hear what others think. I think it's true that we really are our own worst critics!

Particularly I'm not very happy with the engine, I think I will work on that some more tonight.

On a positive note I've been painting the Motor Rifle Troops and they are coming along well. Although I still need to finish off the Tank Crew. I plan to weather the tank some more with the snow and mud effects.

The pine tree looks good, the interior looks great (okay, I actually read your last entry)
Now, don't you have some thing on your camera that could just wipe out that yellow tint on your pictures?
good luck with the completion!
JB

Thanks JB!

The yellow tint is down to two things mainly, my yellow wallpaper and the nasty yellowish lamp I am using while painting at night! Sadly most of my recent photos are taken at very late times in the evening when the lighting in my apartment really is quite bad!

I really want to get myself one of those daylight lamps I think they are amazing and the difference in photos that I've seen with them on review articles really are striking. Hopefully I can get one shortly and get some nicer pictures for my next project a 2004 T-90.

Jon-
Best way to keep lint and dust out of a model while the oil paints dry is to put it in a box or case. Depending on the size of what I'm building I use either an old acrylic display case or a storage box (wipe out with damp cloth first).

Otherwise you've done a good build and has provided some incentive for me to do another one.

Finally had some time to do some work on the diorama and work is progressing nicely. You will have to forgive the terrible photos. The lighting in my apartment is pretty bad and it doesn't do the models and justice at all! I'll try to get some daytime shots of the finished article.

The Motor Rifle Infantry are now done and finished:













Here's a rough layout of the scene as it currently stands:







The wheels of industry grind on, but I'm confident of finishing the project off before my end of November deadline.

the figures are absolutely amazing. what do you use to paint them? specifically, the faces and the uniforms. I want to say oils on the faces but now a days you never know

Jon....this is an absolutely fantastic diorama. I build strictly WWII but I have been following this build and just had to comment on it. It's one of the most well documented and presented build logs I've seen on this site...and that's saying a lot!! There are many talented builders on this site...you have got to be one of the most talented. Thanks for sharing this...I think 1/35 suits you.

Jeff