Thanks Jon, I was trying to acheive that multi-layer earth look. Ranging from fresh mud, to dried dirt. I'm really wanting to jump into painting this thing. I may finish off the rest of the front hull and build the plough at a leeter stage. I'm still trying to work out the details on the plough and want to finish the tank up sometime this year. Besides the plough is going to be painted a different color from the rest of the tank.
Chris

Chris,
Just found your blog-impressive!
Dan

Thanks Dan, I still have a long ways to go before I'm finished with this build. But thanks for checking it out.
Chris

Well just a small and simple update for today. Things have been slow on the build progress with it being summer and the weather being nice, I’ve been spending most of my time with my boys while my wife is at work. I’ve been stalled on the build due to some issues I’ve run into with the mine plough and needed some help from a fellow modeler. I’ve had to make another order for some more plastic tubing and had to wait for it to come in. But in the mean I’ve move back to working on the rest of the tank it’s self while I work out the details on the plough. I’ve added the double row of welds at the front of the hull and shifted up the two tow hooks. I cut away some of the electrical conduit and replaced it with sharpened plastic rod hollow out ends. A retaining clamp has been placed at the joining section of the conduit with stretch sprue blots. To round it off I’ve added basic weld seems to the mounting bosses on the hull. I lost one of the mounts during assembly and had to build a new one from four pieces of plastic rod. Fortunately lot of this will be hidden by the mounts for the hydraulic rams. I still have to fill in some mounting holes, place the lights, wire them up, and then make a new brush guard for the lights. I should have all this done this weekend if I’m lucky.
Chris

Hi Chris got to hear you've been enjoying the summer with your kids!

It's pretty hot over here in Minsk too!

I'll be interested to see how you mount the plough on your T-62. I got my KMT-7 from Mig yesterday and the instructions really aren't that helpful. The pictures are colour and very small, which gives two problems. Resin parts on Resin parts (cream on cream) make it hard to distinguish the parts or detail, especially when the pictures are so tiny. They basically stuck their intruction sheet on the back of the blister pack insert...

I'm going to see if Mig have the instructions in a bigger format as a download, failing that I'll be relying heavily on a KMT-7 walkaround!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I think its official now, I’ve completed the hull for my T-62. I’ve just finish putting the last of the details on the hull and can now concentrate my attention to finishing the turret. I completely replace all the electrical conduits at I didn’t like the look of how trumpeter model them. Just didn’t like actual conduits and more like lumps. Over at the driver’s station I had lost one of the periscopes, so I decided to close up the port with an armor cover that flips down when the scope is removed. Also in this area I added the wiring the defroster for the scopes with brass wire and tiny bits of plastic rod. Over on both fenders I added the spring retaining latch for the front flap. For this I used plastic strips, homemade punched disk, and fine wire wrapped around a small piece of rod. One side of the fender I decided to leave one of hand operated lifting devices for the front flap, again done with bended brass wire. The biggest problem I had with this build was the brush guard for the lights. On the real tank the lights are mounted to the side of the brush guard and not to the hull like trumpeter has supplied in the kit. For this I had to build a new cage and this was I real pain in the butt to make as I could never seem to make are the parts the same. Next time I will make a jig for the process, but thankfully I was trying to achieve a battered look and this is how it turned out for me. I still not too happy with the look of it, but the kit part was just too thick and not the right shape I was trying to model. The shape may look strange to everyone, but I modeled it after a particular vehicle from my references. Next up I mounted a small piece of plastic strip to the sides of the cages at angle. The lights received a new swivel mount from punched plastic, rod and wire. The last thing I did was make retaining clamps for the extra fuel tank that would be carried over the exhaust port. I didn’t want to use the extra tank and instead used plastic strips, and rod to represent the clamps. For now I’m very pleased with how everything turned out and hope everyone is a joy as I am. Now I can build the last of the armor for the turret and its supports.
Chris

Well everyone, I’ve started working on the bar armor for the turret this weekend, here’s what I’ve managed to build so far. Right now the armor panels are just resting on the supports and top of the hull so I can get an idea how it will look and make any adjustments to the supports brackets. This area of the build is probably the most questionable part of the build for me as I can’t seem to find any clear shots of the support brackets. The two rear panels gave me the most problems since they hang from one bracket with an angle metal piece coming from one support. But with some trial and error I’ve manage to make the supports work. For now I plan to leave the panel off just like I did with the hull to make painting easier for me. Still need to add the tie down loops to the turret and a couple of other small parts and hopefully I can start painting by mid next week. I’m still waiting on some resin rivets and bolts to come in the mail. I also plan to start back up on the mine plough now that I have all the reference pictures I need. It still looks like I’m going to be scratch building most of the plough and using some of the kit parts for examples.
Chris

For those who are looking to attempt to scratch build your own slat armor for the T-62, I have taken some pictures of the supports I have modeled. The setup I have on my turret is the close example I could find of the real thing. I can’t provide exact measurements as the contours of the turret kept me from making multiple parts. I made the ones located by the loader’s hatch and the commander’s hatch first and built the rest from those with a few adjustments at the other three points.

Great work Chris, that slat looks awesome. Must have been tricky to get it all perfect!

I was at the Stalin Line Museum yesterday and took some photos of the mine clearing equipment they have there, they have KMT-6 through to KMT-10, certainly is an impressive collection seeing it all lined up. I took some photos and thought they might be helpful. I'm not sure how super detail you want to go with the KMT-6 but I've included a few closeups of the serial numbers and other stamps found on the front of the device (copyright me! hehe):

Thanks Jon, The armor panels weren’t as bad as trying to get the supports to work right was bit more mind boggling. I would get the supports set and try to see if the panel would fit right and I would have to remove the support to make adjustments. Thank god I cut my parts longer than needed as it made adjust all that much more easily instead of having to make all new parts.

Thanks for the pictures; you have some outstanding pictures you took. I especially like the last one you posted as it shows the full length of the top of the blade. By the way, you would happen to take any pictures showing the bottom of the blade by any chance? This is another area of my concern I don’t have anything showing were the rakes meet the blade, if it a flat bottom or round. I’m kind of guess at this point and went with a semi-flat / round bottom.
Chris

Well I’ve moved back to working on the mine plough today now that I have plenty of photos to work with. I’ve constructed an all new hydraulic ram used to raise and lower the plough. I wasn’t real happy with the details or should I say the lack of on the kit part. The first shot shows the in progress construction and gives an idea of the scale of the parts I’m working with. I’ve added a ruler into the picture just to show the size of the parts. At the top of the first picture is my homemade punch set, nothing more than scrap plastic and drill bits for the punches. Also I started to construct the mounting plates for the rams and just waiting for the glue to set so I can shape them. Some of the close up shots of the ram look ruff, but once the glue sets on the parts I plan to go back and blend everything in more. I had to modify the ram just a bit as I plan to have the blade in the raised position so I needed to extend the cable system just a bit. Now I just need to construct the second ram and move onto the blade mounts.
Chris

Speechless outstanding details
congrats
Seb

Thanks Seb There are some aras I'm not happy with, but overall I'm very pleased with how my work is turning out. By far one of my most ambitious builds yet. Just working out my methods for my next build when I get to tackle two T-80's at the same time as I work my way into a fully scratch built model.
Chris

Just an outstanding scratchbuild! great skills with some plastic.

Good afternoon, Mr. Сhristopher. Looked over your blog on building of tank of T-62 and came in a complete delight! Allow to put question you. The plastic of what thickness did you use for making of fenders?

Thanks Anton, I believe it was .15" that I used for the fenders. I have to start back up on finishing the model, just got pulled off onto other projects to finish

christopher, first, sorry I haven't seen this brilliant post earlier,your way of showing us what is wrong and how to fix it is great!

been reading and making notes in total awe, nice build!

Hey Chris, any updates on the fantastic build. Lots of great info and reference photos on this blog. I really enjoyed it. Would like to see the finished product. Sometimes I get burnt out on a long project like this and have to take a break I am guessing something along those lines may have happened here. Great work.

Roy

I have to say first this kit and extra detailing is stunning an inspiring and keeping me focased on my t62 I got the edwuard photo etching an the MIG production tailban m 1 update but my real question is how do you know how big and how much an where do you know how to build the parts you need to add so it looks so accurate and amazingly super-detailed.

Any help would be appreciate an any reference materials or books or cd's I could buy

Happy modeling
William DeCicco

Hi William,
not Chris but I'll try and answer your question. Hopefully we'll hear from him soon as I'm enjoying his build as much as you are. First of all you obviously want as many photos of the element you want to scratchbuild as possible. If you're lucky enough to have access to the real thing or can get reliable measurments it's as simple as doing some math to get the size of the part. If not you can go with proportioning your new parts based on the features already molded onto the kit. For example, if you want to add a bracket next to an existing hatch size it from a photo of the hatch .
I'd highly recommend getting a copy of "Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles" by Shep Paine. I'm not sure if it's currently in print but I think it was not long ago so shouldn't be too hard to find. It's from '82 and the information on finishing is pretty dated but the chapters on research and scratchbuilding are excellent.
Good luck, and start with something simple to keep from getting frustrated

Sean

WoW I love this build!!

This build is truly inspirational. Thanks

Christopher, excellent scratchbuilding on the mine-plow. Looks really good - much better than the SKIF product ;-)
I wished I had all these pics available when I built mine.

cheers
Walter

amazing details