Cam glad I could be of service, feel free to ask away with the questions.

Lawrence that is a dog of a kit, too bad that ACE doesn’t put more quality into their kit as they have some really nice subjects to choose from.

James your T-55 is looking amazing, keep up the good work.

I’ve finally finished the rear hull and the supports for the pots. I’ve been jumping around on the build. One area I’ve been working on is the barrel. I was going to use the Legend resin barrel, but the thing kept wrapping even after dipping in hot water. So what I did was use a metal barrel from armour scale but the base was too narrow to fit the mantle. I a graphed on the base from the Tamiya kit to make up for the gap in the two parts.

Barry , that just shows how things change with time. The surface looks incredibly smooth though

Christopher Thanks mate but I still have a looooong way to go Those smaller pots on you T54, they're smoke pots aren't they?
Or are they oil tanks that bled into the exhaust to produce the smoke?
She's looking mighty fine if I may say so

Lawrence, you see we all said it turn out great, you're doing a great job there

Noel, welcome in here and the is nothing wrong with the Enigma. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out



Paul

Thanks Christopher! should have some more progress up today.

Good to see yours moving along, the rear set-up of the smoke pots and single fuel tank is an interesting one.

Nice work on fixing that barrel, can't have been easy!

James

Hey gents,

yet another update as I've got another layer of paint on now (and then scrubbed a lot of it off!):





More pictures on my BLOG

Cheers!

James

Hi everyone. Great to see so many lovely projects slowly (and not so slowly) making progress. Ole, Barry and James, all looking like they'll be fantastic when complete and good to see a few T55's amongst the crowds of T62's!

For my part I've managed to fit both wheels and tracks to the hull. I decided that, because those Tamiya rubber bands were so tight, I'd have to fit everything in one go. I don't think I would have managed to fit the tracks if I'd left them until all the wheels were on, they're like a pair of bow-strings! Good job I've got the side-skirts to hide the upper runs.

Anyway, here's some pictures of progress so far.





Since these pictures were taken I've masked off the wheels/tracks and started putting paint onto the rest of the hull. Hopefully more pics soon.

See what I mean about the tracks? Let's hope nothing gives way!

James: looking real beaten up there This is gonna look mean when done

Jon: I know what mean with those Tamiya tracks , I have two pairs break because the tension was to high. I can't understand why they still go for the rubber band style, but having said that Dragon is stopping their Magic Track range too . Looking good there, I like the damaged rubber on the road wheels, it's something I completely forgot about

Here's my update, I started some chipping but have now stopped. I realised that I have no markings on here yet. I also have no idea how to mark it up at the moment, so a huge search is on the go to find some unit markings.










Paul

Hi Jon

Those tracks look really tight and nice camo on the road wheels.

@ Paul, sweet looking Tiran

hay all we it has been quit a week here in the great state of south Carolina first we had snow and ice that shout down the state then to top it all off no power for more then 10 hours and if that was not enough we had a earthquake as well !!!!!!! between all this I did get some work done here are some pic

















thanks dave

OK, so here’s a few pictures of the Type 69 with some paint on it. This is the first time that I’ve attempted a mixed colour camouflage scheme and, owing to my limited airbrushing skills, it’s been a bit uphill. I’m not altogether happy with the soft-edge that I was aiming for but let’s see what it looks like after some filters and washes are applied. (Better I hope!)

Paul, your Tiran looks more than pretty I’d say.






Happy tanking everyone

Wow you guys are really raising the bar. I have added the front wiring to my headlights and periscope wash tubes which I didn't know existed. I'm plunbing the external fuel tanks now. I'll add pictures later, work schedule and snow have been slowing down my building time.

Any way, very impressive work gentlemen.I'm looking forward to seeing the continued progress of all the kits.

Tom

Well, I've had enough delays from well....everything. I got some bench time. It's not as good as I was hoping for, but I'm at the point where I have to hunker down and get it done.



The Early T-62A turret is a beautiful addon. I only wish I had some brass stock to replace the horrific Tamiya grab bars.

The gallery for this campaign is going to be awesome, you guys are producing some amazing work.

I got cracking on mine today too, nothing photo worthy though, just filling some ejector marks and puttying the driver's shoulders... Man those dragon figures are a little rough but I need some life in there.

Hopefully I'll be going into the paint booth this week, then I get to see how weathered I need to make a nearly new tank look.

My t-55 is going to be portrayed as nearly new, maybe a year or two in service, should I put any rust on the tracks, or just NATO black and some worn metal and grime?

Dave,
I know...I'm in Aiken County.

Got to hand it to the power company guys, they are really handling this one great. Still a lot of work to get everyone back on the grid. Even with the power outages, I was able to get a good bit of work done...just on different campaigns.

A couple of progress picks
The parts all cleaned up, I like to get a lot of this out of the way first and then a shot with the lower hull done.

Cheers Rob.

Ole: thanks mate . Hows the Enigma coming on?

David: Hope the quake didn't do structural damage. Or worse affect the build . Imagine cleaning up the turret, getting a quake and through that discovering you have chopped the barrel off
I also don't know what is worse all your snow or the water in southern England , I hope that clears up soon the people there have been suffering since December
The build is looking good I like the lenses, how did you make them or are AM?

Jon: thanks also to you. Your Type 69 is looking real killer now . I'm looking forward to seeing it done

Thomas: stick in there dude, there is still plenty of official time left

Dan : Looking good there, are sure you have no brass or copper wire lying around .

Barry: I sure hope the gallery gets full too . As to your question about the tracks I can tell you this much, they only look new and black for about two or three days. If your vehicle is supposed to be a year or two old then hit them with all the dust, rust and dirt you have

Alex: how far are you with your '62? Oh no, the poetry is coming back, I hope Mike doesn't notice

Rob: nice to hear from you my friend, and you have some build pics . I hope you're going for some AM tracks, those monster things supplied with the kit are just

Ok I have some info on the markings for my Tiran 6, I shall start painting the affected areas tomorrow, or maybe today.
You'll see some pics definitely tomorrow though.



Paul

Paul,
I've got the tank painted boring overall green. It's waiting final paintings (washes, drybrushes, etc.). Tracks need painting. And finalize assembly.

Some really great work going on here, everyone is make go progress so far.

Well I'm getting closer to starting to apply paint to my build. I keep bouncing around on how I want to paint the tank.....Lebanese, Chad, Syrian, Somali, Morrocan, or Libyan. I'm trying to base it around the figures I have in my stash.

I've finished adding the fuel tanks and plumbing. I used both the early tanks from legend and the front tank from trumpy's t-62. I still need to add the clamps to the tanks. I've also pretty much finished the front hull even though I still need to add the light cage.

Alex
way don't you come up to one of meeting one day we would love to see some of yours builds!!!!
Paul those are the kit parts with some masking on them
thanks all dave

Alex sounds fine

Christopher looking fantastic, nice to see a decent
coax MG on there .

Dave now you mention it, I sure didn't recognise
the maskol




Paul

Wheels.

Thanks, I know I'm not up to the level you guys build at by any means.

Paul, All I have right now is solder wire. I might be able to fit in a visit to a hardware/hobby store tomorrow...maybe. The grab bars do look so iffy.

Everyone's picking up the pace it seems, and the T-54/5 variants are certainly fighting back!

A bit more progress on my build HERE





Keep up the good work guys!

James

James - I love that weathered finish that you are achieving.

Christopher - That T-55 looks sweet, makes me want to try a T-55

Paul - Have te Tiran 5 in the stash and hope that I can get it to look as good as yours

I'm just about ready to paint, I have to make and tie down the sandbags that the Syrians draped over the fuel tanks during the attack on The Golan Heights. I always make notes to myself that I need to add this or that detail, and then promptly forget about it till the end of the build. The memory willing I will add those.

I am a little late, but I may have enough time to finish a Trumpeter T-54 that is my really depleted stash.

Bob

Howdy all, well I'm still here and about ready to re-start on this project again. I had been building Trumpeters T-59D and called it quits until I could get some "better" parts to complete with. Decided to go the whole hog after I picked up Tamiya's Tiran 5 for less than $30, so I picked up the Legend conversion set as well
So I have Tamiya's Tiran 5 as the base kit to convert (as the Hull is the same as their T-55 and the Turret is not that different it should work).
Legend Type 59 Iraqi conversion set.
Trumpeters Type-59d to supply some basics like frontal ERA on Hull and Turret, canon barrel
Plus using ABER's T-55 PE set and trumpeters T-55 series workable tracks

.

Should be back into this in a next day or so.