Good afternoon,

I am brand new to the forum and to armor modeling. I've been building cars and bikes in various scales for as long as I can remember. For the better part of a decade I have had fits and starts with various 43rd scale resin car kits and I decided it was time to try my hand at finishing something, anything. After a recent visit to my local IPMS show in Houston I landed on the Tamiya Armor How-To Book and their T-55A kit. What follows are a handful of pics of the build over the last ten days.

Here is the kit in raw plastic after my first few days.


This is the kit in it's base color with a couple of washes.


Here is the kit 9 days after I first set down at the bench. I used a mixture of Hataka, Tamiya, and Vallejo acrylics along with some Mig pigments to weather the model.


Best,

Alex

Welcome to a lifetime addiction... nice, clean build.
Remember to build to YOUR taste; that said, you will surely learn a lot from builds on this site.

Welcome to the dark side...

This looks very good for a first build!

Cheers,

Adam

Thanks for the kind words gents. I will likely float around a couple of different subjects as I have a substantial portion of my life savings wrapped up in European 43rd scale resin and Japanese model car magazines. I am truly inspired by the European armor builders and the techniques displayed in magazines from England, Spain and Portugal.

That's a very nice build.

Looks great! Well done.

short coming was the lack of fuel line

Alex very nice build for your first armour subject, oh and welcome

With regards to cars don't forget we do have a section for those here too, called Automodeler

Alex,
Cool T-55! Though, I wonder how it would look in candy-apple red with some gold pin-striping along the barrel and turret?

Welcome to the forums!

Gaz

I made the conscious decision not to get to deep into the weeds on this kit. I just needed something to get me going after not finishing a car kit for a number of years. I have more aftermarket photo etch, resin, and decals for autos than I care to think about. As such I am happy to build OOB for now and just enjoy the process of gluing two parts together. I live in a city, Houston, where there are no longer any real hobby shops of significance and finding a lot of the necessary parts and accessories can be a pain. I'm not one to shy away from ordering online, as my car collection would prove, but I don't want to get into the habit of collecting again. I'm not a military enthusiast, but just a guy who thinks tanks look very cool modeled in scale.

I also build mostly OOB. There is absolutely nothing wrong in deciding to do so as you have. While I will at times opt for a metal barrel or by screens if not kit provided I rarely purchase many AM parts for a build. If that's your cup of tea fine, but copious amounts of AM parts are not necessary for building an acceptable or even an award winning model. Build for yourself and your own satisfaction and you will never tire of this hobby or get too frustrated.

Nice job, Alex...that's a fine looking T-55.

Good choice for your first armor kit...that Tamiya T-55 is a fun model to build.

Chris

Wow, great job Alex!! Welcome to tanks! You picked arguably the best possible kit for your first armor build - Tamiya's T-55 is an absolute joy to work with. I hope to grab a couple more in the future.

Thanks for sharing and hope to see more of your projects in the future!

looks like a perfect T55 to my eyes. Nice job, and welcome to the boards and to the darkside of military models.

I have seen and talked to alot of car guys about switching over, and their reason is almost the same "I'm sick of not finishing anything, and sick of everything having to be perfect"

The great thing about armor is that you weather them the way you want, decals are pretty minimal and easy, and the build process is a blast!

Check out the campaigns here as well, those are a real joy as you get to build along other guys here.

Enjoy your time here, and I look forward to seeing more of your builds, and completed projects.