Hi Karl,

nice trick with nice results. now ill put it in my box of tricks, if you dont mind?

Gary

James- The slow drying medium seems to take about an hour, but it really depends how much you use. 1:1 seems to take an hour or thereabouts, less dries quicker. It seems to dry a whole lot quicker than Vallejo's glaze medium. Having said that I'm still experimenting with it!

Gary- NO, ITS MY TECHNIQUE- YOU CAN'T HAVE IT...ITS MINE...ALL MINE! Use away at it bud, thats why I posted it- its always good to experiment...though I often do it on stuff I have painstakingly built and painted...yeah- living on the edge! (Just don't hold me responsible if it goes wrong !)

I've finished the figures now:

The tank Commander, as you've seen earlier, was wearing a Flora camo jacket and pants but his overcoat was a tan/khaki affair. This was phased out by the Russian military around the time of the Second Chechen War but it was not uncommon to see soldiers wearing items of tan uniform well after this. (The scene I'm doing is 2008.)

I sort of wanted to use the jacket to add a bit of variety to the uniform but also to perhaps mark the Commander out as a veteran who has held onto the old jacket.

The initial color of the jacket was Vallejo Old Wood. However, I wanted to impart a very well worn look, suggestive of lots of use and some dirt too. The best way to do this is to use a color shift (see above for an explanation of this).

I started with three applications of Beige Brown, followed by two of German Camouflage Brown and finally two very restrained coats of German Cam. Black Brown- concentrated on the deepest folds and areas in shadow.







Once the color shift was dry it was time to do some highlighting which would suggest wear and tear more than a build up of dirt. I was aiming for three applications of highlights using an old 10/0 brush and a very light and controlled drybrushing. The first color was about 8 parts Old Wood to 2 parts Off White:





This was applied to all the high points of folds, creases, pocket edges, cuffs- essentially those places that would see a high degree of wear and tear and places that would catch the light.

The second highlight was about half Old Wood and half Off White, applied within the areas already covered by highlight one- so building the contrast.





The light color of the second highlight now allowed me to use Pale Sand to apply a final highlight, concentrating it within the areas covered in the second highlight. I also like to then apply a glaze over the whole area using the base color diluted with glaze medium- this homogenises the whole area.






Final work on the figures was just some shadowing and highlights on the boots, tanker caps, jumpers and fur collars. The figures were then given an airbrush coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish before the leather belt on the Gunner was picked out with Future to give it some leather sheen.






The Gunner has been placed in his hatch along with his AKS-74U and the Commander has his place on the base sorted.

I've started to add the final weathering to the tank, which was some mud and fuel stains. The base has also received more work to finish it off. More on this soon.

Thanks for reading.

-Karl187-

Hey Karl,

The figures look great man. well done. really looking forward to see it all come together.
My birthday is the 24th of next month and i really love the T-90 kit...hint, hint!

Gary

Karl,

How do you do it??

Those figures look so real!!! I wish I could get somewhere close to that standard!!

Nige

Hey Gary- thanks a lot man- you better start leaving hints about the place so everybody knows what to get you...then just hope you don't end up with several kits of the same tank!!

Nige- Very kind of you Nige, that means a lot to me. Honestly though, there is no great magic to figure painting. My early figures looked like fleshy-green blobs and I really wanted to improve so I just started doing figures alongside armor builds, to practice and I took advice from anyone who would give it and just developed a real love of doing figures. Russian ones especially due to the variety of camo and uniform differences in the modern era. It sounds like a bad cliche but practice really is the key !

Really GREAT !!!!
nice paint !

Olivier- thanks for stopping by, glad you like the build!

So I'm finally finished! This thread was only supposed to be a review with a few scattered 'here's some progress' updates but it has kind of turned into an impromptu build log!

The completed scene:
































































Apologies for some of those 'half in the photo box' pics, the base just about fits in side on!

So this is how the ending went- the base was relatively easy to complete, simply gluing the sign and pole into drilled holes and then using a grass matte (Stony Steppe) from Modelscene to create the groundwork. It was augmented by tufts and various bits of foliage from Fredericus Rex and The Army Painter. The mud on the edge is simply plaster and AK enamels and some dry pigments, as is the dirt on the road itself.

The mud on the tank took a while to do, mainly because my first attempt went a bit awry- I went a bit overboard in some areas and there were a good few instances of over-scale splashes. Luckily a mud mixure made up of plaster and AK enamels is very easy to remove- once dry a stiff brush will have it all off fairly quickly with no effect on the finish beneath.

At the second attempt I went a bit slower, used a thinner plaster mix and a smaller brush and ended up with a better finish. The side-skirts on a T-90 do a great job of keeping much of the mud away from the upper skirts and lower hull. The tyres, front and rear of the skirts and the rear and front of the tank are the main places to focus on, with some splashes on the skirts but not too much.

A little bit of streaking grime and AK water effects were added.

Then came getting the tank on the base...which was almost a disaster. Usually you want a tank sitting flush on a buse, so it is not 'floating'. Well, there I was, pressing down a little on the rear and front of the tank to ensure it got a good grip on the base with no floating and crrrack!

Not knowing what the crack was I lifted the tank up and one of the suspension arms dropped off! I thought the whole tank was going to collapse like a house of cards. One of the wheels at the back left was loose and the one with the lost suspension arm was rolling in place in the tracks. I managed to glue it back into place but I didn't dare try and push the tank down any more, hence I have ended up with it slightly floating at the front left and back right.

There's not much I can do about that, the running gear is very fragile so be extra careful with it. I actually went into my cabinet and applied pressure to a finished tank, quite a lot and no crack, but it seems just a little exertion on the T-90 can damage the running gear so please watch out for this!

Lastly the Commander was added to the base along with his AKS.

So that is it done. Thanks to everyone for their comments and views- its has been great having you along for this build !

-KARL187-

Hi Karl,

Dude! That is BLOODY FREAKIN AWSOME!!! It has really come together beautifully. I suck at dios. i usually place my models on stained or painted bases. so a question if i may?
did you use grass tufts or you make them yourself? if you did, how? what did you use to make the little flowers?

I have really enjoyed following your build and you have made me drool for this kit. remember...Birthday coming! hint hint! On the Floating track can you fashion a crushed bucket or the like to slip under? just an idea.

Thanks for shareing this build with us Karl. Bravo man! well done.

Gary

I'm considering getting the T-90 in the next month but I'm not sure about the Miniarm sets (tracks,wheels,hull & turret ).. from the reviews & pics so far it looks like a pretty decent kit.
Is it worth getting those sets ?
Is Zvezda T-90 such a bad kit that needs all that improving ?
To me a bad , faulty kit is a Tamyia's T-62 for example...

Karl,

That little set up you have there is simply awesome!! I can only dream of painting figures as you have.

Thanks for the heads up on the suspension parts. I must admit, as i build this kit it does seem very weak indeed!!

Nige

Gary- Thanks for all the support throughout the build mate, its been great to have you along. As for the grass- most of it is a grass mat from Model Scene- it has stones, tufts, clumps and yellow flowers already on it- you just cut/tear it to shape and glue it down- it is much easier and looks better than using flock (which I can never get to look right). The yellow flowers are from Fredericus Rex's Greenline- they are little clumps with colored bits and you just stick them on with glue. There's also a few smaller 6mm self-adhesive tufts from The Army Painter. Using this kind of product makes groundwork quite easy, in my opinion anyway!
Here's a few links:



Model Scene

Fredericus Rex Greenline



The Army Painter

I hope these help Gary.

As for that bucket- thats a good idea, I never thought of that! I will see what is in the spare's box, thought I am still wary of touching the running gear...just in case!!

John- The kit is definetly worth getting!

Nige- Thanks for the compliments bud, much appreciated.

Hi Karl
Very beautiful dio, "handsome" tank crew , great tank,... what a great job you've done!

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the links man! that takes the pressure off me thinking i was gonna have to place weed and grass piece by piece. wheew thank goodness!

Gary

Wow Karl!

What an impressive job!

Mai-Thanks for taking the time to have a look, glad you like the scene!

Gary- Yeah the matts really speed things up, part of why I use them.

Mauro- As ever my friend, thanks for all the support, it was a pleasure to have you along for the build. Have you managed to get any more work done on the BMD?

I second that question. ME WANTS SOME MORE Mauro!

Gary

Thanks guys for your interest, it really means a lot to me

Unfortunately I couldn't make any other progress on it

I'm too busy this period. Anyway I really hope I'll be able to make some progress soon...at least I hope so...

cheers

Wow Karl !
I loved how this tank turned out.
I rolled a crack dealer and went out
and bought this model. I will try and copy your example.
Thanks for sharing.

John

Well I hope you enjoy the kit, it sure was a fun build. I'm glad you like how it turned out. Good luck with the build!

Guys- my apologies- photobucket has yet again decided to axe my photos because of their stupid bandwidth limits. They will be up again on the 3rd April.

Karl, my man, you are one popular guy! You that popular with the ladies? Thats what happens when you have the hottest T90 build on the internet!!! I started useing Flikr. I like it much better.

Gary

I might start using flickr aswell, its rather annoying this stopping and starting thing photobucket have.

WOW! I enjoyed so much watching this thing progress, I'm trying to get into modeling more and I thought this kit looked very interesting, the only other ones I've done before are a tamiya sherman, and a BTR-80A and BMP-2E, both zvezda. They were kind of a mess, this kit sounds a lot better. But is it to hard for a pretty new modeler? I just ordered and airbrush set and compressor, and with them a couple of armor modeling guide books, but I just don't know where to start, yours looks truly great, my goal is by the end of this summer to get a decent looking model done. So any advice? On if this kit would be alright for me or modeling in general. Thanks much!

Howdy Karl,
The tank really turned out great and the base just makes it come alive. Well done! Tank, figures and base seem well-balanced.

Will I get the chance to see it live on IMSS next weekend?

Cheers,
/E