Hello Karl,

Thanks for all the descriptions and photos in this blog. I just picked up this kit today and I can't wait to get started on it. Your blog will definitely be helpful. I have the same reference materials that you have mentioned in your build.

I think the toughest decision for me to make will be how to paint it, russian green or maybe a camo scheme. I've been looking for pictures of this tank in the black and green scheme that has appeared on some russian/Soviet vehicles.

Thanks again for all your work in building and blogging this build for us.

John- Thanks, glad you like it- I have some of the dio planned out already as you'll see in this post !

Mike- Many thanks for the comments- that Military Modelcraft article Mike did was in the September 2011 Issue- Volume 15, Number 11. His step-by-step explanation of Oil Paint Rendering here at ML is also worth a look.

Nathan- Very kind comments, especially about the weathering, much appreciated.

Erik- I'm very glad you like the build log and I hope it is of some help to people like yourself who are building or are about to build the kit. There is also an interested green and blue-grey camo scheme that was sometimes used on the T-64- the front cover of the Concord book has a decent photo of it.

My plans for the dio are not totally done yet. I plan to add some figures- possibly some infantry moving past but I would definetly like a crew figure or two for the tank itself but, as I've said, the funds won't stretch to those right now so I'm still mulling it over!

The base itself is going to be this:







This is, obviously, Miniart's relatively recent Country Road base- its simple with just the two part wall and the small cart (the tree is, unfortunately, not included)- here's the cart sprue:



I'm not using the cart- it'll be a nice addition to the spare's box!
At the moment I'm just cleaning up the wall.
I have to add that the first time I ever attempted a Miniart kit ended in the whole thing going into the bin- instead of going to the
Miniart Website and checking out their Assembly Guide I got a scalpel out and went to town on the vac formed parts- destroying the areas where they needed to mate- thus it ended up in the bin. I had rarely come across vac formed parts prior to messing this kit up so I thought I could cut the excess away with the scalpel- but a scalpel just isn't a manoeuvrable enough to trim the parts close to the detail- Miniart suggest a very sharp awl- this is the type I use:



Several passes with this around the detail allows the excess to be just broken away, then the parts just need some easier cleaning up before mating them. So I would suggest, from experience , to consult Miniarts guide before trying to assemble their kits!

Anyway- here's the tank sitting on the base just to give an idea of size:



As I said earlier I am cleaning up the wall at the minute and then I can move on to some paint before getting out some diorama detailing products.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

Beautiful Job on the CM and weathering. Are you going to give it a flat coat yet to remove the sheen? Just curious of what you or anyone thinks about that. I entered a JS2 at regionals once after using CM and oils and did not. The result was pretty swift from judges and I was told that was what eliminated my piece from category.

The tank is looking superb Karl!

This should end up being a nice little diorama. I've never tried a Miniart diorama myself, but they do look tempting, its just the hassle with with the clean up that puts me off. I have to say as well that I don't like all those little mould lumps which seem present all over the pieces, I notice that Miniart mention this on their website, but they seem rather extensive. Anyway, i'm sure you'll make a lovely job of this!

ET- Thanks for your comments- you make an interesting point. The sheen is always the main problem you get when using oils. I will have to consider what to do if the sheen is still present when I go back to take a look- I've had the tank set aside while I've been working on some scenery.

Rob- I hear you about the clean-up- it certainly puts me off some of their larger kits- those with a lot of buildings in them- there's just so much work to do. The wall here is fairly simple, it needs just a bit of filler and all of those little moulding lumps sorted.

I've actually been working on some scenery stuff for the dio for the tank and thats why I haven't been updating- I'm experimenting with making trees at the minute- I think I'm getting the hang of it!!

How are you making them Karl? I've seen a few tutorials online and in books, but i've not tackled this sort of thing in years. I think the last time I did a diorama must have been about 7 or 8 years ago when I was a bit younger and dived into things without a care.

Karl;
The 64 came out great.!!!! Great job with the OP Rendering technique. The finish came out looking good. You've done a great job on the finish and shading. Masterful building skills.

Rob- I was the same when I did my first small scene a good while ago now, it was just diving into things really- I remember mixing sand and PVA glue- it seemed to work...then it began to grow some wispy mould and eventually fell apart! Thats one of the reasons I'm wary about using 'natural' products like twigs from the garden! For the trees I'm doing I decided to go with a Treemendus kit.
This basically incluides a bundle of flexible wire, a tree bark powder, glue and foliage. My first attempt with their kit was awful...a turd with branches was sort of what it looked like ! But after consulting a few more 'how to's, specifically about creating the wire armature, I think I am getting the hang of it. Its really about getting the wires into a shape that approximates a tree- and since I am doing an autumn scene I'm not too worried about foliage on the branches- then the bark powder and PVA is mixed into a paste and spread onto the armature and it dries hard- a bit like wall filler bit it seems to be more durable than that. Judging by the color it goes I think I will need to paint it as it has dried too light for my liking but its not bad at all. I will try and do an SBS if I can at some point.
I must say that I always take my time when creating scenes that have grass and foliage etc, concrete and tarmac are easier to me- its the grass and mud and foliage I have trouble with so I take it slow and see what works.

Todd- Thanks a lot for the kind comments and I appreciate you taking the time to check the thread out, cheers!

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I wish you all a very productive New Year.

Speaking of being 'productive' I thought it was high time I started updating this thread again!

When I left off I was busy sorting a few things out for the scene I had planned- an autumn scene of some sort, with some trees. Thats kind of where things took a turn for 'experimentation'- namely with trees.

After looking around the internet and some magazines and books for some 'how to's' I came across a company called TREEMENDUS who produce a kit to make your own trees.

Basically it includes a lot of wire, a wall filler like brown powder, some glue, foliage, some sort of canopy making material and instructions.





The wire armatures should probably look like what I've done there. Unfortunately I am still not happy with the shape of the trees I have been making but I am getting better. I'm not going to use any I did as they don't blend into the scene in the manner I want but I'm still experimenting with shapes and the stuff in the kit. The bark powder looks like this:



My finished 'tree' looked like this- but as I said I wasn't happy with it and I decided I needed to finish this dio, tree or no tree, but the experimentation will certainly continue!





Anyway, back to the project at hand. The wall for the base took quite a bit of work- joining the two sides was simple but there were lots of gaps and then a lot of little 'moulding holes' had to be sliced off and sanded.

Magic Sculpt filled all the gaps and then a layer of Mr. Surfacer 500 brought back a bit of the rough texture to the top of the wall:



The whole thing was then primed and painting began.









As you can see I've used quite a few different grey colors, from 'Black Grey' to a rather greenish 'Field Grey'. At this point the wall looked strangely patchy but I did this so these colors would still be present even under multiple further treatments. This began with drybrushing with a light grey, followed by a glaze with Black Grey. The wall is now attached to the base but far from finished:





I've also been working on a figure for the scene (I plan to have two tank crew on the tank too but I'm waiting for a future ICM release for this) and I'll post some progress updates on that soon.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

Ok, so- on to the figure I talked about earlier. I chose an old Hornet item I had in my stash:



Detail wise this old figure still stands up quite well but there were definetly some improvements I could make.



I wasn't happy with the left hand as it is making a gesture that would be rather useless in my scene- I want the figure to be pushing a branch of a small tree out of the way so I choose a suitable Verlinden item to replace the kit one. A bare head was chosen from the Hornet range and a helmet taken from the Tamiya/ICM Soviets in Afghanistan set. You can also see a TANK models AK-47 in that picture- which I have now swapped for a TANK AK-74 which is the correct gun for the figure- there was one in the Hornet kit but it wasn't very good.

The head:



The only thing added here was an Aber etched helmet strap.





The figure had the new hand attached before it was mounted on a bottle-cap for painting.

Primer:





I used two books for the references to the uniforms and gear- one was the old Osprey Elite title Inside the Soviet Army Today' and the other was Soviet Uniforms and Militaria from 1917-1991'.

I choose Andrea Army Green for the base color of the KLMK camo smock.





For the entrenching tool I used Andrea Russian Khaki for the cover and Vallejo Old Wood for the handle (this has yet to be given a coat of wood grain) plus Andrea Leather Brown for the small strap.

The canteen and small webbing bag were both painted with Old Wood and Andrea Leather Brown for the straps. The satchel was painted with Andrea Russian Khaki and Leather Brown again for the straps.

The bayonet on this figure is the standard AK-74 bayonet with the bakelite handle and scabbard- Andrea Burnt Sienna was used for the bakelite color and Andrea Gun Metal for the tip of the handle and bottom of the scabbard.

The load bearing straps are leather items and were painted with Andrea Dark Brown Leather and the buckle was given a coat of Andrea Gold but will be dulled/subdued by green washes later on.







As you can see I have also painted the face- painting it using Calvin Tan's directions in his Osprey book 'Modelling Waffen SS Figures'- the skin is more pink than I usually like but it was an interesting process to try and quite simple.
The helmet was painted with Andrea Military Green and Russian Khaki was used for the straps.

The last thing to do was to add the camo pattern for the KLMK smock. For this I mixed 50/50 Vallejo Pale Sand and Iraqi Sand and applied it using a Tamiya HF brush.







Obviously the figure isn't finished yet but as the base colors and skin is now sorted I can move on to highlights and shadows etc. I will also be working more on the base.

More updates soon.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

Keep it up Karl! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Excellent work Karl.
The figure got some great improvements and the paintjob is great.

What is the screw in base for?

Keep on the good and productive work.

Cheers
Walter

Hey karl,

Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

Man, the tree makeing kit looks sweet....id like to look into that myself. Base and figure are very nice Karl....keep it comin' man!

Gary

Philippe- Thanks for checking out the thread mate, cheers!

Walter- Many thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to! The screw is performing two functions- one is a placemarker so I can screw the tank down into the wooden base when I come to put it on- the second function was to keep the Miniart base nice and steady while I was gluing it to the wooden base- the vac formed bases are really light and move around a lot so the screw (and some tape) kept it nicely set in place while the glue dried.

Gary- Yeah I had a nice holiday bud- how about you? Thanks for the comments!

So on the base my plans have been to add some foliage and grass etc. I had a nice grass mat from Modelscene handy so I began to lay that down in various places- the centre of the track, each side and a little behind the wall. The mat was basically pulled into pieces and placed where I saw fit, supplemented by various grass tuft products from Fredericus Rex.





Then to begin adding some Autumn touches to the scene I turned firstly to some excellent products from Armor Farm- namely their 'Bushes' and 'Shrubs'. I would advise anyone looking for decent products for ground cover to check out these- they come in big boxes and they can all kind of be cut and pulled apart to suit your needs- you can have them in large clumps or break them into smaller bits- small holes drilled into the base sit them in just fine and they are really nicely detailed.

Here's some Bushes placed behind the wall interspersed with some Shrubs:



A close up of the Shrubs:



I am also planning to use their 'Saplings'- I've already placed one to get a feel for how they will look:



The colorful ground scatter you can see under the sapling is called 'Forest in a Pot' from Reality in Scale and is a fantastic ground cover- although some of the colors will have to be dulled a little.





I'm also planning to be putting down some fallen leaves from Treemendus but I have some work to do on the wall and the mud track before I get to that.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

Very good looking vegetation Karl, What are you going to use for mud?

Phil.

Looking really great, Karl.

Thanks for sharing your information and knowledge with us.

Cheers
Walter

Karl -awesome build of the t-64

but a diorama to boot - your spoiling us !!

best
Mark

Philippe- Thanks for your compliments regarding the vegetation- this is one of the aspects of dioramas I find difficult- how to get it to look real and when to stop adding bits etc ! As for the mud I'm planning on using some AK and Mig products until I'm happy with the effect. I want a dry-ish effect- at the moment I've just used a coat of AK Earth Effects- I want to get some leaf litter down on the tracks before I continue with doing the mud.

Walter- Thanks a lot mate- to me this site is like one giant modeller's knowledge database- you can post things and learn things in such a quick space of time, I can't count the many things I've learnt from modeller's like yourself !

Mark- Your far too kind mate, thanks for stopping by and taking a look ! (By the way- you and Jacques BMP-1 blogs are making me paranoid...I can feel the kit watching me from the stash... !)

So- an update on some progress.

I have basically finished the outside corner of the base- the bit behind the wall. All I added here was some moss to the wall (it still has to be treated to a wash and some other effects to blend it in) and some small autumn leaf litter from Treemendus.



I've also been working on the other side of the wall adding small shrubs and bushes- I still have to get some small leaf litter on this area and some moss on that side of the wall.





I put some Treemendus large leaf litter down aswell, just to see how it would look.



In addition I have been working on a couple of pieces of scrap metal I am thinking of adding to the scene- one will be on the track side of the wall and will have some paint on it pointing to 'Control Point 12' in Russian (can any of you Russian speakers out there help me translate that correctly?) to kind of give the scene more of that 'On Exercise' feel. The other piece I might leave covered in some moss on the other side of the wall to add a bit more interest there.





These are just bits of Evergreen card painted with Vallejo Rust colors and then I just used AK Chipping solution- they still have some work to be done on them.

The figure has been receiving some attention to while I've been waiting for bits and pieces on the base to dry. First off I did some color shifting using Windsor and Newton acrylic retarder and some Middle Stone for the first coat and two subsequent coats of Iraqi Sand to give the uniform a bit more of a faded look.





I began to do the shadows after this- I went for three coats of shadows using the base colors and German Cam Black Brown for the 1st and 2nd Shadows and then Black for the 3rd Shadows- really just concentrating on the very deepest recesses and folds for the 3rd coat. If it is a small area I tend to just use water to thin the paint so it sits nicely in the recesses and doesn't overpower the base color. For larger areas (like the overalls) I use Vallejo Glaze Medium as this eliminates pesky water marks and helps the paint flow nicely.





The highlights are up next and I'll obviously be working more on the base while I get on with that.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

Great update Karl! Things are comin' along very nice...indeed. Love the ground work...looks fantastic fella!

Gary

This is going to look stunning Karl, top work fella. you were also the inspiration for my T-64 build

Regards

Dan

Karl,
Everything about this build is awesome, I've actually been watching this sense the beginning, and loved every minute of it. I can speak some Russian, but I want to check to make sure точка is the right "point" for your need, I'll check when I get home. I'll definitely use this log as a reference when I build mine. Keep up the awesome work!
-Seth

As usual, a stunning and very inspirational project Karl

Karl,
You may want to ask someone with more experience to make sure, but "контрольное место" or "сектор" may work for you.
-Seth

Gary- Many thanks about the groundwork bro- it feels like I always take ages with it...should I add...just...one...more...leaf !

Dan- I'm honored I provided some inspiration for you !

Seth- Thank you for following along and taking the time to leave a comment...and for being mega-helpful with the Russian translation- great stuff !

Mauro- Thanks for the kind words my friend !

So a bit more progress then.

First thing up is the finished figure after some highlighting- here I use lightened versions of the base color (usually using Pale Sand or Off-White) applied via drybrushing with a small brush so I can control it better.





I was also doing some more work on the base. Firstly I wanted to darken the moss to look more natural and I do this by putting a dark wash on it- then gently taking the majority of it off with a clean, dry brush- this ensures the wash doesn't cover all the green color- it ends up darkening it nicely.



After that I thought I would drill soem locating holes for the figure (cocktail stick with the yellow tape on it) and some for the saplings and put cocktail sticks in place so I could find the hole again but also get an idea how it might look.



I was going to put some saplings on the front left of the base too but I decided to put some smaller ones here- I thought taller ones might just obscure the view of the diorama a bit more than I wanted.

Mud work continued too- using AK Earth Effects I laid down a layer of mud on the tracks over the leaves (suggesting they had been there a while as opposed to having freshly fallen- I will add those later). I also brushed it on the grass edges and put a bit on the leaf litter to tone down some of the colors.





It was time then to add some larger leaf litter and, again, this was from Treemendus. The figure was also give hin AK-74 and placed on the base.







In addition to this I also decided to start adding some variation to the mud tracks- I used Dark Mud and Europe Dust pigments fixed with thinner to add a somewhat darker hue to the tracks.





Last night I actually started working on the tank again...yes...can you believe it ! I have to tie it into the base so I'm working on that now.

More updates soon.

Thanks for reading.

-KARL187-

You did a really nice job on the tank.. and the road scene is coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing come together.

Hisham