Ok guys, more progress.. Please write your thoughts and advices...

The space between fuel tanks/sponson boxes is too wide, it must be narrowed a bit, I will work on that..

New deck glued in it's place and driver's hatch is opened..

Hi Cagkan,

As i said, i dont no anything about T-80's, but it looks like your making great progress. What type of putty are you useing? Keep it coming man!

Gary

Hi Gary,

I was using Vallejo's acrylic putty, it is very good but shrinks a lot.. Because of this I am using Tamiya basic, Tamiya white and Squadron green now, they are more sculpting friendly in my opinion..

CC

You are doing some fabulous scratchbuilding. Enjoying the blog.

The only problem I have is that the DML/Zvezda kits all have issues with their hull dimensions as well...they are too long and thin, so to speak. SKIF's basic (and I mean BASIC dimensions)hull is accurate, but very crude.

I promise when I am done building my SA-15 I will get back to work on my T-34/76 and T-80B. Really.

I am interested to see how you rebuild the entire area, and the associated detail, behind the turret ring. You really must be insane.

Wow!

It's been realy getting well so far!

As the English poetry William Blake said

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom'



I'm eager to see your next steps

cheers

Hi Jacques,

I noticed a big fault in my model and work about an hour ago and you mentioned the same problem.

According to the M-hobby drawing(I belive that drawing is the most accurate), and my calculations on the reference photos, the deck in front of the turret ring (including driver's hatch)is too narrow in Zvezda's kit. The hull must be longer to the rear deck about 5.5 mm's, when I compared 1/35 drawing and my model this is the result.. Also the drawing is about 0.5 - 1 mm wider than my model..

Perhaps photos explain it better what I'm trying to say,

the real thing:



my model so far:


CC

:D

Well, we will see together, will it be a work of example or an epic fail??



CC

I will look forward to it Jacques..

CC

Not being able to assemble a Tamiya "shake 'n bake" kit could be defined as "an epic fail". In your case, even if you didn't finish it, it would be defined as an interesting experiment useful for other builds and for other modellers

...you're a sort of "Pathfinder"

So carry on!

Cheers

Me too

"boldly go where no man has gone before."

I will do my best to finish this bad boy...


"T-80B/BV from DML: The two kits DML did, 3505 and 3506, seem to capture the general shape of the early T-80B/BV, but show their age badly. They have issues with:

Overall Dimensions - The hull is too short, too narrow and too compact.
Main Gun barrel is severly overscale - it is closer to 152mm caliber
ERA (kit 3505) - the Kontact -1 and -3 ERA is simplified in detail and how it is mounted
Roadwheels (too large, flat, and shallow)
Track (too wide and no hollow guidehorns)
Upper/lower hull fit (large gaps, only a problem if you want it to be)
Upper hull details - many details soft, simplified, or missing.
Fuel barrels and fuel lines
Turret shape - it seem to be too pointed to the rear (narrows too quickly and severly), missing some of the general details and overall texture (too smooth...) As many have stated, building a "accurate" T-80B/BV from a DML kit will require a fair amount of work, money, or both."

This is from Jacques Duquette's T-80 thread



CC

The more you post the more it becomes how much of an epic challenge you have embarked upon. I'm certainly not going to complain again when I have add a few details here and there to the Tamiya T-72.

Maybe i'm jumping the gun, but what are you planning on doing with the suspension and lower hull? Would it be a good idea to obtain the Skif T-80U kit which oddly enough seems to have an excellent lower hull but a rubbish upper hull (strange how they got excellent references for the lower hull...?)

Zvezda's lower hull has not any kind of suspension, I will scratchbuild them too..
I already did some surgery to beneath the lower hull, (several hatches, etc.) but not completed. I will share it in this week..

CC

Other references

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/index.htm

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/tank_t80_4.htm

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/tank_t80_5.htm

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/tank_t80_6.htm

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/tank_t80_7.htm

http://t80leningrad.narod.ru/tank_t80_8.htm

http://www.webpark.ru/comment/37981

http://otvaga2004.narod.ru/xlopotov_7/tank_t80_3.htm

Her some Russian modeller's threads

http://panzer35.ru/forum/45-646-1

You must see this one!

http://panzer35.ru/forum/22-3801-1

Is plenty of links, drawings,photos of the actual subject and pics which depict model jobs made by Russian modellers who are likely to be crazy like you

I hope they can help you more

Cheers

AH Mauro, you are the man!!!

Cagkan, Mauro will take good care of you. He's got the goods.

Gary

Definitely he is..
Mauro you are the best, even it will be a fail at least this thread will be very helpful for everyone, thanks a lot again...

CC

Hi again guys,

Please compare these photos, look to the angle of the rear hull, real thing has a wider angle than the Zvezda, so I cut the rear hull too...


Photo of Jason Woollett's model from Hyperscale Gallery






CC

I will return to lower hull part later, for now I will continue with upper hull.

As I mentioned yesterday, I cut the upper deck with the turret ring and take them 5.5 mm to the rear, I also add 5.5 mm styrene to the rear fuel depots. I think it was the right decision, overall shape of the upper hull is looking more correct to me now..




CC

My workbench...






CC

Wow,

really impressive work! I admire your scratch-skills and patience! Keep up the inspirational work!

Andreas

I notice that the shape has been getting sharper and more precise. A great job indeed so far. I think that the harder part will be the turret because is quite difficult to replicate the rounded shape

Congrats

Andreas, thank you very much..




Hi Mauro, I already begin to shaping the turret, it will take a long time. I want to be sure about the exact shape, turret rear is ok but I also have to be sure about front too, there are 2 or 3 different BV turrets, very complicated...

CC

Some other pics here

http://serkoff.narod.ru/photoalbum42.html

Cagkan,

I am impressed by your patience and determination. It is taking shape very nicely. Great job so far!

Gary