Hello

this is my newest build

Its UMmt's kit number 622, 1/72 scale PL-43 Armored Car with T-34/76 Turret.



A number of pictures of these can be found in russian publications. These were built in soviet factories as an expedient measure, and the hull's vary slightly between different plants. Photos of some of these cars show later model T-34 turrets mounted (twin round hatch type).

This kit has few plastic pieces, I think the brass etch pieces outnumber the plastic !

Overall this looks like being the best quality UMmt soviet rail car I've made to date.

Admittedly I've only made one other UMmt soviet railcar , and two soviet draisines, but this one seems to have all the required rivets (though I need to check references a bit more yet).

The upper hull is a good fit on the lower hull, and the etch is nice and thin & lightly attached to the etch sprue, which makes it easier to cut neatly and to bend, where bending is required. Some etch has rivets moulded on also.

below are two shots which is where I'm up to so far, will post more when more progress has been made

cheers
Neil

Hello

this one now about finished

I had to cut some vision slits into the side of the upper hull, & had to fill and sand the area above the hull machineguns as the etch plate doesnt fully cover the too large recessed area above the MGs

Next post I'll have it undercoated

cheers
Neil

Hello

I now have this one undercoated in a 'primer'.

Next job will be to do some pre shading on it

cheers
Neil

That's lookin really cool already.. can't wait to see the paint on it!
dR3w

Hey Drew

thanks !

I pre-shaded the model with black, but took no pics, camera had flat batteries, & when they were recharged I forgot I hadn't taken any. Doesn't much matter as the pre-shading shots were nothing out of the ordinary.

Here are some shots with a light top coat. I kind of like the effect.

Still have to put a russki in the turret, and need to do some more painting, weathering, washes, maybe streaking, and apply the coupling hooks

cheers
Neil

Hello

Its been almost a year since I started this build and did any more work on this build.

I decided to do some progress on it.

Build wise its 95% complete. I just need to make some coupling hooks and links and a brake pipe airhose for each end.

Painting wise I have tweaked it twice - and am not sure that the second tweak is the last

First tweak was to give it a wash with burnt umber oil paint, diluted in oil based thinners. After that dried I gave it a wash of acrylic black, diluted with water This gave it a dark hue, which I liked, but thought maybe it was a bit too dark. A little dry brushing of the base colour improved the look, but still a bit dark for my liking.

So I gave the panels a spray with a different shade of green, concentrating on the upper areas and avoiding the edges and joins, to accentuate the darkness in the areas where natural shadow would occur

You can see the difference below, even though light conditions are different in both pictures, the colours of the model in the pictures are close to what they were to the naked eye.

Its much lighter now, so I may darken it a bit more yet with another wash, I'll post more pics when the last 5% of the build is done and when I'm happy with the final finish..

cheers
Neil

Cool project and well done too. Top of the "You don't see that everyday" list

Wow, Neil, I totally forgot about this one! It's looking very good and a nice change from all the German track bound examples. Hmm, can we look forward to a full Russian armoured train in the future?

Cheers,
Jan

Nice model Neil. Curiosly, last saturday a friend showed to me the same mode. It look a good kit.

Regards. Pedro.

G'day Neil.
Nice build, it's looking good. I've never seen one of these before, it certainly is an odd looking beast. Looking forward to seeing it finished.
Cheers,
Tim

@Korpse – Niel,

Long time since I last saw this build. You did a clean job on the build. I read about your paint predicament with the dark washes. White, Black and dark colors applied over lighter colors will usually darken them far more than expected. White having the opposite effect. Depending on the model I have used an extremely diluted black oil wash to represent diesel or gasoline soot. I hardly notice any color change during the process. It is tempting to add a second wash but instead I wait until the wash has thoroughly dried overnight at which time I notice that the color has slightly darkened enough to be noticed against the base coat. You cannot see the effect this has on the model when you photograph it and post it online but in person you can see it under all of the subsequent filters, fading and weathering. Professional modelers paint their models to look good when photographed but these models don’t look that way in person!

Although your train is not sitting on rails I really like the last picture you posted because it appears to be passing through a battle damaged town with some light snow on the ground.

Anyhow, I’m glad to see you back at work on this build, waiting to see the end result.

Happy Modeling,
~ Eddy

Hi to all, thanks for your comments

Eddy I sometimes use Burnt Umber and / or Lamp Black oil washes, depends on the colour of the paint scheme and what I want to achieve.

I recently happened on some acrylic wash from Citadel called 'Badad Black'. Its very good, the pigment is extremely fine.

I'm calling this one done, though it could maybe do with a couple of small tweaks. I made the coupling links and screw from fine wire & stretched sprue, and the air hoses from wire and spare brass etch.

It had another wash or two, & some drybrushing.

Its sitting on a new diorama I have started which will be a ruined train factory. Dont know if it will have a permanent place on this diorama, the diorama is in the early stages still much to do on it, and decisions as to its final form are underway

cheers
Neil

G'day Neil. Nice work! I think a figure for the turret would look great if you can find a good one somewhere. I think AB figures do some nice russian tank crew?
Cheers,
Tim

Hi

Very nice model. UM have some very rar vehicles in store. Because of this it is very interesting to see what you build. Thanks for show it....

Cheers Daniel

Nice job. I wait the scene. Big, big, big?

Regards. Pedro.

In my opinion, the turret should be replaced by a corrected turret made of resin + metal barrel.
Paint color is too dark.

look:

Topic T-34/85

Sorry to intrude but I'm scratching my head is it correct to compare T-34/76 and T-34/85 turrets? The railcar is clearly stated "with T-34/76 turret" or I've missed something?

Model "T-34/85" is an example.

Hello Adam

Thanks for your interest and comments

The russian greent paint colour is always an interesting topic.

Like Dunkelgelb there are lots of opinions as to what is most correct.

There is an interesting thread (probably one of many on the web) in the Russo-Soviet WWII Soviet Armor forum about russian green

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/176492&page=1

Seems the common opinion is there is no definitive proof of whats right and wrong when it comes to 4BO green.

As a result I paint almost all my russian WW2 vehicles a different shade of green every time. That way at least one will be correct or almost correct

About the turret. I didn't know there were big problems with the UM early model T/34/76 turret, I'm interested to hear if you know its not right. I may pick up a brass barrel for it, that one is an easy fix

cheers
Neil