Not strictly Russian/Soviet, but close enough! Early stages so far, the Finnish Marksman were built on Polish built T-55 hulls from what I gather, so just began with converting the Tamiya hull right now. Lots of work ahead! Using the Accurate Armour turret - also needs work to make the proper Finnish one.





Cheers,
Jim

Wow, I'll be following this. This was one of the things I wanted to build, but went with something else. My thing was, how to do the guns?

Great build!

Have you already seen these pics?

http://blog.yahoo.com/_HGNUMYCCU3KTANSRWITLK5WLDQ/articles/482513

http://blog.yahoo.com/_FG63YU3JX7P3AYLTLENAALM3DM/articles/488526

http://blog.yahoo.com/_BI4HZVADSU6BCR56RCSMXLS654/articles/78891

http://blog.yahoo.com/_BI4HZVADSU6BCR56RCSMXLS654/articles/80962

http://blog.yahoo.com/_BI4HZVADSU6BCR56RCSMXLS654/articles/76307

congrats, i'll follow for sure

Oooh this looks cool.
I'll be following this!!

Hi Mauro,
Those photos are all new to me, except these ones:
http://blog.yahoo.com/_BI4HZVADSU6BCR56RCSMXLS654/articles/80962
They are all mine! Funny where photos can end up on the Internet - I can't even recall where I posted them originally (probably from Missing Lynx). Oh well, at least they're being used, but some acknowledgment would be nice!
Thanks for the interest!

Jim

Yes Jim, I agree, at least some acknowledgment

Great pics anyway. Where have you taken them?

I love ANYTHING T-55..... Engine deck looks great!

Chris

Strange looking vehicle ! I'll follow the build with interest.
Good luck!
Olivier

way cool !!! i'm going to be waching this one
dave

This sounds like a pretty cool build, I'll be following- good luck Jim!

My Wife is Finnish, so we travel over there to see her Family every couple of years. That means I can go to Parola quite often and if I time it right there are usually a couple shows/parades in June/July, so I was able to see the Marksman one year. Wish I would have taken more photos of some areas!
Still working on the engine deck...lots of little details to add.

Jim

Lucky you! I've been to Helsinki this Summer but unfortunately I couldn't go to the Parola tank museum. As you know is quite far from Helsinki and you can't get there without a car I've just taken some pictures in Suomenlinna war Museum. Anyway I think i'll return in Finland soon

I think you have enough reference pics but anyway if you need something about the Polish T-55 let me know

I'm looking for your next steps

cheers

Thanks for the offer Mauro, I think you have sent me a lot of stuff previously and I was able to pick up the Rossagraph booklets.

Just some small technique stuff; some of the fender stampings have to be turned from 'outie' to 'innie'



I first drilled shallow holes on each end of the stamped strip to mark the location (not too deep, just enough to be visible when sanded off).


Then, file/sand off ridge and with straight edge scribe in between holes.


I use a micro-chisel with the rounded tip to carefully scrape out the scribed area, again using a straight edge. The tip should follow the pre-scribed line fairly easily.


The area is then softened up with a brushing of liquid cement. If the drill has gone too deep, fill in with some Mr. Surfacer.


I also decided to add some detail under the rear grill - I think the fan at least would be pretty visible, so I made on based on the CMK engine set, but with almost the correct number of fan blades (16 where it should be 18)



Almost done with the engine deck, then on to fender areas...

Jim

Really nice jobs
Very useful your advise for the rear fenders

Little more done, engine deck and rear hull details. Now on the fenders and thinking about the side skirts. I'm going to have to extend the front and rear mud guards by the looks of it.





Cheers,
Jim

Nice work there Jim .

Good scratch building and detailing
Look forward to seeing more .

Michael

Nice work Jim,
Can't wait to see it in April, if you get 'er done... I love to see your scratch, white plastic work, it is so clean... that was a cool technique for the outie - innie conversion. I may gave to give that a try that myself one of these days.

John

A little more; decided to get the various stowage(?) boxes done on the back end. Took a couple tries to get them right.





And some work on the turret. I epoxy puttied some Evergreen tube into the turret so I can have positionable guns.






I also put a .015" ring around the turret base to fit into the hull, it was a little loose.




So, coming along




Jim

Looking very nice! Some motivation to keep up the good work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7uWhp_aMZg

Stunning job so far Jim!

I'm really interested to see more of it

Cheers

Jim,
it's great to see how this is building up. The scratchbuilt parts are superb.
Keep on the good job!

Nice to see the turret on, great job Jim.

Awsome Jim, I´m speechless!

Andreas

First class work Jim,
Been watching this since your 1st post
Looking forward to more.
Rog.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their positive comments, it really helps with the motivation. Those are great videos Petri, love that sound of the guns firing! Here's what I did on the weekend.

Turned these:


Into these:


Took longer than I thought, the more I studied photos the more I found I had to do to the kit pods to get them right! Still maybe not 100% but close enough. I just sanded off stuff that shouldn't be there and added new stuff! Built up the parts with styrene strip and accelerated super glue, filed and sanded to shape.





I just got the Voyager p.e. for the hull in the mail today (to help with some of the smaller details) so I will resume work on the hull.

Cheers,
Jim