Evening folks,

Just thought I would post a few pics of my latest build, Trumpeters T90sa. It's a nice model of a great subject the variants of which have been reviewed a number of times on here. Still working slowly but surely on it. Having retired from the army after 28 years and got my feet planted firmly in my new job I now have the time to get back to modelling.
Anyway here it is, please disregard the various paint splotches just trying things as I go along otherwise I find I get stuck at a stage in a build and I'm a pretty slow builder. Any thoughts or suggestions please pipe up.

Well a bit of a lack of interest, however here are a few more pics showing the major sub assemblies together. Sections of the etch aren't completed such as the fuel tank straps on the sponsons as they attach to the hull and so will be completed once the tracks are on and the sponsons fitted to the side of the hull.







The pipework added is for the aircon unit which is situated in the left hand turret bin. Condensor and compressor will be in there and the pipework running to the left of the gunners sight I assume will be for the evaporator inside the turret. Really quite hard finding pics of the aircon pipework but managed to find some really high res ones eventually.

Really nice work Max. Having overlooked the Trump T-90's given the hype with the Meng offering (which had awfully fiddly running gear when I built and abandoned mine) I may get one of the Trump T-90's next.

Look forward to seeing your progress mate.
Gary

Looks like you're building quite fast in fact. Nice additions with the piping from the cooler unit.

Olivier

Nice. I am watching all of these T series builds as I hate stowage and US armor has so much of it. Soviet/ Russian stuff doesn't seem to have junk all over their AFVs.

It's a really nice kit which builds easily, however some of the parts are crazy small and the carpet monster tried to claim a lot of them. Good thing about it is that a lot of the sprues are repeated and so there are multiples of just about everything. That includes mantlet covers, there are 3 in total in the box!! The radiation cladding fixers are really challenging as well but again plenty of spares. One thing to look out for though which I didn't realise until quite late is that there are two types of fixers. 2 hole and 4 hole, be careful which ones you use.

For anyone else planning on doing this kit the link below has some really nice pics of the T90SA including the aforementioned aircon piping.

http://topwar.ru/4056-tank-t-90sa.html

There are 4 pages of them, each page link being at the bottom of the picture column.

He he he - these little discs are annoying. I use only liquid cement for softening the surface where they have to be positioned and push them into... As you said fortunately there are enough. I also want to add the piping for the a/c - so thanks for the link.
One question: did the russians use this T-90 SA also, or is it only an export version? I would like to paint a more "greenish" camo than the sand/brown scheme from the boxart. Read about some T-90 used in Georgia some years ago.
I am following your build with interest

I haven't come across any pics of Russian T90's with the aircon other than vehicles which seem to be doing sales/export shows. Algeria uses T90's with aircon and they do seem to have either 2 colour or possibly 3 colour camo schemes.




The colour scheme in the kit is very close to the Turkmenistan T90's in this photo, but they don't have the aircon unit.

Latest small update, commanders hatch done and also commanders HMG added. Plates added to the side skirts and some of the wiring to the spotlight and smoke grenade dischargers added. As usual if anyone sees any problems please let me know.

Another brief update, road wheels, sprockets and idler's now painted and fitted. Track being put together, but what a pain that is. Once it's all done I can fit the hull sponsons properly, complete the etch on the fuel tanks and start undercoating the upper hull and turret. I'll be fitting the turret spotlight and right hand hull headlight lens before I start painting as they are have IR lenses in a lot of pics I have seen and so will be pained gloss black once done.

Hi
Just bean browsing your build and i think when painted
and camo on it will look grate you must admit you get
a good kit from Trumpeter
yours cyril

Max, for someone who is just getting back into building after being away for so long, I'd say you are doing an incredible job! With all those small fiddly PE bits, your T-90SA looks fantastic. Well done and I can't wait to see how it turns out with paint on it.
Terry

Good build
but you may wish to check the Kontakt V blocks on the turret as it looks like they are not set quite at the right angle and drooping a bit.
Perhaps it's a small engineering issue and the top mounts need to be shortened a bit ?

Well just about everything done buildwise. I'll be going through the instructions again because some parts are best left off until later or at the end of the build and they will need fitting. Although not visible I have done the wiring on the commanders HMG, on the MBSGD and turret spotlight and turret mast. The tracks were primed with Vallejo primer then painted with Vallejo oily steel and finally covered with Tamiya smoke. To my eye it gives quite a good representation of steel tracks. Although glossy at the moment it will be dulled when the model is overall dull coated & weathered.





The front reactive armour does indeed seem to be set at a shallower angle than on the real deal. It would probably have been possible to rectify this early in the build with some adjustment to the kit parts and the plates themselves, however now I think that it would do more harm than good to try and prise them off and re-set them. Lesson learnt for next time, however by and large it still looks like a T90.

Now I've got the main colours on it's looking a little better. I've painted it in the colours depicted on the sheet in the instructions which is very close to the Turkmenistan T90's. Washes to be done and other sections to be painted, also the commanders cupola isn't permanently attached to ease painting.







The paint is glaringly bright at the moment but should calm down with the washes and weathering.

Max

Well the T90 is progressing albeit very slowly. I've got pretty much everything on there less the antenna base as I'll be fitting and AM base. Washes are done and flat coat applied. Got to dust it up a little now, add fuel spillage stains and exhaust soot marks.

Excellent T-90 Max!
Gary

That's 'cos there's no room for stowage with all those gizmo's bolted on to the turret

Looking good Max and will be even better once you grubby it up a bit. Oh and I agree with your 'cavalry add panache' sig...(Ex 13/18 Hussars here..)

Thanks Gary, it's a lovely kit really, goes together really well. Just a shame it is missing some of the parts for the aircon unit. I had to scratch the piping and a few others bits.

Hi Steve, It's certainly a small world. I'm ex 15/19 Hussars who became a Light Dragoon on amalgamation. Although it was cracking changing to recce (Scimitar & GW Troops)I still miss my MBT days. Actually I don't miss Cheiftains 'cos they were a pig to work on, I most certainly miss the gun though!!
I agree on the stowage as well, the Russians never seem to hang much kit on their wagons and having been inside a Polish T72 on Drawsko Pomorski training area there certainly isn't any room inside. I'm 6ft 1 and couldn't close the hatch because my head protruded too far!

Max

Well calling this one finished. I find you can look too much for extra things to do. I still have to fit the antenna and base as still waiting for them to arrive. Dusted it up a little and added fuel stains but other than that I haven't weathered or chipped it too much apart from the mud flaps and side skirts.












As always any feedback is welcome.

Max

Max,

What paints did you use for your T-90SA? The kit painting guide calls for Gunze Sangyo colour which I cannot find in my local shops anymore.

Trumpeter calls out for the following 3 Gunze colours but only was able to give suggestion for one Tamiya match

Gunze H37 Wood Brown
Gunze H19 Sandy Brown - Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow
Gunze H79 Dark Yellow