Too much damage???

One could imagine, based on the 'discipline', shown in the many news reels and on YouTube, by all semi-military guys, that this tank would have received a RPG rocket from every kid in the street, once it became a sitting duck by some reason.
So, I would not doubt too much to use the Verlinden kit. And otherwise, you could still fill one or two holes in the turret, could you not!

James, I would leave on the light cage and just rebuild it with wire/brass. The Tamiya piece is overscale and wrong on the bottom; its also missing the mounting points for the lights which go on the inside sides of the "cage". Maybe just beat it up and lose the lights but keep the frame (?). Love your progress so far, but im not feelin' the VLS turret.

As far as the idler mounts.... look through the T54,55 stuff in the forum and I think you'll find Mauro's excellent T55 suspension pictures that show the set up of the idler mount - as I said theres alot more to it than whats on the kit and without the fenders you'll be able to see most all of it....

Chris

Hey guys,

Pawel, ha ha, but it was worthwhile, has turned out ok I think.
Yes 2 years off hasn't been all bad, plenty of time to practice my building skills. Unfortunately not a lot of painting practice in that time but hopefully shouldn't let myself down!

Regarding the turret, I'm in agreement with Pawel and Chris, far too much damage for a vehicle in use. As you say Chris, if left abandoned would soon look very different!
I actually was planning to fill a couple of holes to tone the damage when I build my KO T-55.

Chris I've been looking for info on the mounts (both the threads on here and elsewhere online and in my references) and can't find anything definitive. I have seen some circular pieces added above the mounts on a couple of builds but can't decipher too much. Any chance of a link to the thread you mention?

Thanks for the support guys, will have some more pics for you tomorrow, hoping to move towards the final building stages now.

Cheers,

James

Hey, hey,

So after the madness with the rotary tool, I calmed down and began to focus on the 'texture' of the model. This may seem a bit wierd and not a concept many modellers spend time on, but I think the texture of surfaces on a kit is often overlooked when it is an important feature of real life AFV's. It can be difficult to produce in scale but different types of metal have very different surface textures and so emulating these can really add contrast and life to your build. Particulalry they can help add life to the painting and weathering stage of a build as a textured surface will behave very differently to a smooth one with a lot of techniques, particularly those like the hairspray method I'll be using which rely on the abrasive action of a brush scrubbing away the paint.
The key areas here are cast armour, rolled steel armour and the thinner sheet steel.

First up I applied a layer of liquid cement over the armour plate. I use Tamiya extra thin cement and use the brush that comes in the bottle lid, using a small amount first spreading it over a small part of the surface and then gently stippling it on. This gives a nice rendition of the teture of armour plate but needs to be done carefully as too much cement will result in the plastic begining to melt and if you just spread it on you end up with obvious brush strokes in the texture.
It's difficult to capture the full affect with my camera but hopefully can get a rough idea from the pic below:



Before I can start on the turret I added the cupola's for the 'C' variant with added external radiation lining. Tamiya fall short in their reputation here as there is an obvious gap between the cupola bases where they overhang the turret that isn't present on the real thing, as such I 'welded' them down using some 0.5mm styrene rod and liquid cement. Here's the loaders cupola, looks a bit rough now but will tidy up nicely later:



With that done we can slap on the first coat of Mr. Surfacer. This stuff's great for replicating a cast texture but it's not just a case of painting it on and you're done, you have to work in small areas and use the brush carefully to get a realistic finish. As it happens this is only coat no. 1 to basically smooth of the aggresive rotary tool work. A second coat will be applied later once all welded on fittings are a attached to help unify them with the surface rather than looking litteraly 'stuck on'.



Now onto the fun stuff!
I concentrated on the right hand fender, adding the fuel cells and all of the other fittings. I actually had a lot of fun doing this.
Starting from the front you can see the brackets I made that should hold the convoy lights at the front corners, possibly a little overscale but look ok I think. As you can also see the much discussed light conduit is on as is a cable hanging loose, I like this despite having scratched a light cage from styrene rod and so I'll leave as is (maybe add another loose wire). I need to scratch the little bracket at the point where the conduit forks yet. Also I chose to remove one of the caps at the front (are these for fuel?) and added some detail below (barely visible) based on some abandoned Lebanese Tiran pics in a recent AFV modeller. The keen eyed amongst you will also notice the cast texture added to the drivers hatch.



Moving along the fender (or track guards if you prefer!) we'll see the front fuel tanks fitted and 'plumbed in' and fittings added for the missing stowage box and the unused tow cable brackets.



Further back we can see some of the remnant pluming for the missing rear fuel tanks and the retaining loops for the rubber straps that would normally sit underneath them. You'll note the grey residue on the fenders which is heavily diluted mr. surfacer. I have two bottles, one thinned down with Mr. Thinner to use for smoothing out surfaces that need to remain smooth. The dents added with the rotary tool were sanded out with P180 and then P360 paper and then painted with this thinned mixture and finally a light sanding with P360. This keeps the dents looking smooth and real, again, hopefully show up better post painting.



So, here's the story so far:





Pretty pleased with how she looks so far!

Cheers,

James

Excellent, the detail level is very good and the empty fenders will be a great weathering area! I must try one day this tamiya glue technique. It would do a good effect on a KT front plate.

spit

Hey mate, glad you approve!

Yes plenty of scope at the weathering stage, lets hope I make it that far!
It would be ideal for a KT or most ww2 armour, particularly soviet subjects. I first used it on a Churchill and it looked great (particularly with the contrasting sheet steel fenders and cast turret). Any liquid cement will work if you have some, I've used EMA plastic weld in the past but the Tamiya extra thin (green lid) is readily available and the brush saves you ruining one of your own!

Cheers,

James

Never fear, I'm still here!

Didn't want you to think I'd lost interest so just a quick one to say things are progressing very well. I've been delayed getting photos up as here in Australia we've had a long weekend and I took an extra day off too, therefore the build has progressed significantly but I've got behind with my posts. Hope to have one up tomorrow so you can see how she's shaping up!

Cheers,
James

Ok, as promised heres some progress for you guys.

Almost didn't happen again as I've just got home from work as I seem to be coming down with the flu, but not ready to head back to bed yet so figured I'd post an update instead!

First up a bit of a rewind....



Remember I beat the wheels up with a rotary tool early on in the blog? Well, having spent the last few weeks looking at beaten up T-55's (from conflicts all over the world) I noticed that the outer edge of the road wheels seems to display significantly more wear than I've portrayed (despite me thinking I'd gone a little mad with the rotary tool again ). Given the look I'm going for I went back to work (in a controlled manner for a change) and used a burr on the outer edges to make them look more in keeping with the real thing.



You'll see that the outside edges are far more 'eroded' now! Again, I tried to keep the technique a little different on each wheel as I want a bit of variety down there (wheels of various ages and conflicts is the theme!) and you'll notice the one on the left is fairly 'fresh' in comparison.

So when I left you last we were working on the turret and had the 'base' layer of Mr. Surfacer applied (remember me banging on about textures....)
So next up I applied all the fittings, mostly went with the Tamiya parts as they're all pretty good, but no-one likes cleaning up mound seams on grab handles and the like when wire and plastic rod is easily available! I went with some 0.6mm copper wire as it's easier to 'damage':







Forgot to mention the Aber MG barrel (middle pic), a beautiful bit of turned brass and easily added by adding some scrap styrene behind the MG opening and drilling a hole for the barrel to fit. The amount the barrel protrudes seems to vary on builds/reference pics I have seen, but given the quality of the Aber part I let it stick out a bit to show it off in all its glory!

Meanwhile, at the hull....

The time finally came to glue the bugger together (was waiting to work out what I was doing with the fenders first) and so it underwent the elastic band treatment:



The 'eye ninjas' amongst you may spot the second wire added to the headlight electrical conduit and the PE number plate taken from MIG's excellent 'Middle East Licence Plates' (MPE-35-501), a must for anyone keen on middle east armour. These aren't actually Syrian but are listed in the kit as 'Arab WW2' and therefore are fairly generic. Not 100% accurate (hopefully not becoming too much of a theme!) but to my mind add a nice additional level of detail to the build.

As mentioned before, due to the long weekend, I'd progressed the build somewhat and so managed to make more progress on the turret:



Here the IR light brackets are fitted, a hole drilled in the conduit and some 0.3mm copper wire inserted. Nice messy wiring is good for the look of the build I reckon!!



At the rear you can see that the second layer of Mr. Surfacer has been slapped on to 'blend' the fittings in with the cast turret.Looks a real mess right now but should come good in the end. Texture of the turret is now less 'pockmarked' from the rotary tool and more 'cast' looking (at least I hope!)

The turret progress doesn't stop there:



As mentioned I sawed off the tip of the MIG 'burn-out' barrel and used the Tamiya kit muzzle, then drilling out the MIG barrel when the glue had set. The Tamiya part seems a little wider in diameter than it would on its own barrel, but that may be because of the missing fume extractor?

This obviously leads into the mating of the barrel to the turret:



So the final combo of the CMK mantlet and LRF was mated with the MIG barrel and the MIG burn-out IR light was fitted to the tamiya parts (with a hole drilled in the IR light base as per the real thing), and without boasting, I'm pretty pleased with how it all looks!

With that in mind, lets check out the 'big picture':









Not too far to go now!

Apologies for only photographing the left side (must be her 'good side'?!)

Hopefully you're enjoying this at least as half as much as I am!

Cheers,

James

lookin' good Jamesite

hope mine turns out half that good

Hi James,

She is looking like a thoroughly perfectly "yes I will kick you were it hurts" hooligan!!

Just the way she should!!

Cheers Mike

Thanks Mike,
Hooligan, I like it! Certainly does fit the theme. Especially the figures I've got planned - stay tuned.





Cheers mate, appreciated!

James

Moving quickly along.....

Time for some rebels to populate the build!

Here they are:







Not my finest work (although I haven't finished yet!) but from what I had in the stash I think they'll do the job. Not 100% happy with them as neither are really designed to fit into tank hatches so I've basically got a couple of odd upper torso's:



The main source is Masterbox's brilliant 'Iraq kit 2' which I've already plundered for other (unfinished) builds:



Although the torso of the commander is from Miniart's equally good Close combat U.S. tank crew:



This guy here:



As I liked the idea of him 'lounging' out of the hatch with pistol in hand. The M1911 is timeless and the tanker jacket is a similar style to modern sports type jackets too so it was an easy enough conversion, simply filed away the shoulder holster and added the masterbox head.

Hope you like 'em.

Cheers,

James

Well I found the words of Darth Vader being most suitable here

The tank looks really great and the figures... will make it even more attractive. Can't wait the paint!

spit

Excellent work James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha,

Thanks Pawel much appreciated!

Cheers Jose, glad you like it so far!

James

Right then, time for the final bit of progress, the build is complete! Of course plenty still to go on the painting and weathering fronts!

So the final major thing I worked on was the commanders cupola hatch. Unlike the loaders hatch Tamiya have neglected to add anything in the way of detail, however a bit of scratch building using some references soon gave a good rendition of what should be there without spending days and days of work on it:



Handles were made from plastic sheet/rod and wire, then cast texture added with Mr. Surfacer. Finally I added some Archer 3D transfers from their casting numbers set.

You'll notice I haven't bothered with the periscopes, partly a time thing, partly because they'd get in the way of the figure and partly because they are often seen missing, especially on a tank of this pedigree!

Here we see the hatches in their resting place:



The commanders cupola is still loose at this stage until I fit the figure.

This effectively finishes the construction phase, the only other real addition was the convoy lights added to the rear hull sides which I replaced the Tamiya parts with Trumpeter offerings and plastic rod and wire. I drilled out one of the trumpeter lights to give the impression of an empty light fitting. Hence not using the Tamiya parts which will help upgrade the Trumpeter kit when (if) I get around to building that.

So with everything put together I took some final shots before the painting begins!!




























Wish me luck with the airbrush..........


James

Hi James,

Looking really fantastic!! Hope I can do half as good on my crusty critter!!

Can't wait to see the paint!!

Cheers Mike

James, this looks fantastic. I for one can't wait to see the finished result. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words gents!

Mike, much appreciated, I was contemplating the version you're building so will also be keen to see how your comes out.

Barry, thanks very much! Just starting to realise what I've let myself in for with the paint scheme, going to be fairly complex for sure, but hopefully the finished result is worth it!

Cheers,

James

Great build James. Finished very rapidly. I hope that the paint job is going well. Any progress? What will be the paint scheme you have chosen?

spit

Thanks mate, more importantly it was FINISHED!

Just need to see it all the way now! Yes I have made some progress, and will post the initial stages below. The paint scheme is actually extremely complex, I perhaps didn't give enough credit to this when I devised it.

The plan will basically be several layers of paint showing the progression of the T-55 through countries and conflicts all seperated by hairspray and a lot of chipping with a rusty 'undercoat'. Difficult to explain it all in one go but ultimately, a lot of layers of paint, each one very chipped, followed by a lot of dust!

Fingers crossed!

James

Ok as promised, the painting shall begin!

First up some prep:



Mounting all the wheels up makes painting a lot easier, particularly as I will be varying the paint layers of different wheels.



Next up I coated the rubber portion of the wheels with a 'rubber' mix of tamiya acrylics. I'm afraid you'll find I have a lot of these homemade mixes and the exact amounts of paints and thinner are a mystery even to me. Some have been around for years and change whenever they need topping up but I try and keep with the same rough tone. This one started life as a fairly even mix between Tamiya nato black and dark grey but don't hold me too it!
The idea being to show an old worn distressed rubber tone - just what I need. I painted the rubber first as I'll mask the edge and paint the centres later rather than having to paint the rubber by brush after spraying - always a massive pain and condusive to me losing interest - can't let that happen!

In hindsight I should have primered the wheels first (no idea why I didn't actually) but never mind.

Talking of primer:



The kit got a coat of Tamiya XF-24 dark grey and I can hand on heart say that is the exact colour! The only reason I use this is that it's the same colour as a lot of real primers (ie. fairly neutral) but no specific benefit with this colour. I'm not into all that pre-shading stuff so this will be as far as undercoats go.

While I was spraying I also primered the figures and some of the stowage:



You'll notice the loader has found a helmet, a russian steel one with camo cover, from an ancient dragon set (can't remember which but it was re-boxed by Italeri at some point). Thinking he would look good as more of a deserter from the Syrian army, hence the balaclava.

I'd also hollowed out some shells from Tamiya's older US modern equipment set to use as spent cases for the engine deck and so gave them a coat of flat aluminium for a nice even steel finish (I often find brush painting metallic colours doesn't work well). Not 100% with these as they look a little 'grainy' but will see what magic I can work on them.



Thats all for now.

Cheers,

James

James, good start. I like a lot your custom rubber paint. I'm one of the laziest modellers out there and bought the panzer aces rubber color... I find very difficult the preshading thing. I think I'm too clumsy as any time I tried to use this technique it was disappearing after the base paint or camouflage. So +1 with you about it. The figure with the helmet looks good.
Keep up the good work.

spit

Cheers mate!
Ha ha, I know you like your 'pre-made' paints and weathering products. In fact I'm coming around to that side of things with the weathering side as I've used some AK products and been impressed at the time savings. With paints though I like Tamiya as I can screw the bottles directly onto my airbrush which makes life easy too, of course they have a great finish too.

Agreed, I found the pre-shade disappears pretty quick under layers of paint so have used the 'post shade' method instead in the past.

Thanks again mate,

James

Hi James,

Looking really nice, can't wait to see more paint on her!!
I agree with you thoughts about the shell casing's, at least from the photo's it does look a tad grainy.

Like you thoughts on the tank crew, especially the "deserter", as you would know with 'rebels,freedom fighter's & deserter's" being in short supply, I too have to use at least one of them...or maybe one & a half

Cheers Mike