Coming along great Gino, will be a good one.

Nice painting.

Cheers

Jeff

Nice results so far
I think I will choose the kit without the interior .....

/ Robin

So would I.

Way too much stuff.

Now that Trumpeter 1/16 scale King Tiger maybe so.

Sorry Gino getting off track.

No issues. Thanks to both of you for checking in. I hope to get some more work done on it this week.

Looks great so far, Gino! Keep up the good work!

Yes, the added wire details to the engine really paid off. The color and wash/weathering looks good too.

Thanks guys. It has been fun, yet tedious. There are some really small parts in there. Of course, a few flew off the tweezers into oblivion. This kit looks awesome, but I think it is over-engineered. Some of the tiny, individual parts could have been molded onto other parts and it would have been fine without loosing any level of detail. For example, there are four tiny hold down clips for some of the rounds in the rack to the right of the driver. They are maybe 3mm long and paper thin. I managed to get them all in place after loosing two and remaking them out of sheet styrene. I looked back a few minutes later and two had disappeared; gone. These could have easily been molded onto the edge of four of the rounds and would have looked fine.

I have slowly been continuing this project. This spring and summer so far have been hectic.

I have completed the lower hull. There were a bunch of rounds to add in there. I also added the engine in it's place. As usual, you can't see most of the details on it, but I know they are there.





Next up is to start on the turret. Lots of little greeblies in there too.

Looking good Gino.

Keep after that deal.

I am (slowly) continuing to plod along with this one. I have completed through step 65, which completes the hull. Only about 60 more to go (yeah!!). I have had no major issues up to this point. I did omit some of the minuscule PE parts that secure the screens over the radiators/cooling fans on the rear deck. I sent a couple flying off into oblivion while cutting them off the fret. After that, I was done with them. So far, that has been my only real complaint with the kit. It has some extremely tiny PE pieces and plastic parts that are a pain to keep track of as you snip or cut them off the sprues, no to mention attaching them to the kit. Most of these parts could easily be included as part of a larger plastic part/assembly. I feel they are unnecessarily over engineered. Just my two cents. It does look great so far though.

On to the pics. I left the top panels loose so I can build it as an exploded view so you can see all the details. I also am building an Iraqi Army version from Operation Desert Storm ('91, Gulf War), which did not have the fuel drums, unditching log, nor barrel cleaning rod tube on the rear.

The exhaust outlet is really nice and was easy to build. The details on the stowage boxes is very nice as well. Unfortunately once the rear deck is installed, you can's really see any of the engine details except for the top. This panel can not be left off since there is nothing below it. You would need to scratch the radiators, cooling fans, transmission, etc., etc.... Too bad Mini Art didn't include these parts to make a complete interior.


I really like how they handle the fuel lines on the fender fuel tanks. They are all individual pieces in the kit and added to the tanks. They really look nice and were easy to install.


The rear deck screens came out nice. The PE fins were a royal pain in the a$$ though. Another area I think would have been better done in plastic.


Here it is with the hull top panels on. It really cuts down what you can see, which is why I am doing an exploded view.

Great work Gino! I'll be following your progress for sure.

Good Deal Gino getting better, a friend of mine suggested, that I cut the small PE parts inside a plastic bag, so in case they decide to take a trip, not far to go, heck might of been on here, but I think my bud in the UK.
Again looking good you going to be using metal tracks?

Cheers
Jeff

Looks good-wish that someone would come out with these light guards in 3D.
Dan

Thanks for the support guys.

The PE cutting in a bag is a good idea. I may have to try that one. For tracks, I will be using the ones that come in the kit. They are indi-link plastic ones and look to be very nicely molded, just like the rest of the kit.

The light guard was a bit of a pain. I replaced the cross bars with plastic rod as the kit pieces broke when I was cutting them off the sprue. The outer rings also broke into about four pieces each when removing them from the sprue. I was able to get them glued back together pretty squarely though. The guard came out pretty good, but could be more square. I guess it took some hits and is a bit worse for wear.

They do get dinged up Gino.
Looks good.
Dan

Exactly what I was thinking.

The latest update. I have basically completed all major construction and am ready for paint.

I built the turret interior parts in sub-assemblies to make painting easier. I had no real issues with this part of the build and there were no major PE assemblies to deal with. I did have to think through it and pick out the parts that remained white like a radio shelf that was shown attached to the radio first and other shelves and fittings.

All you see below will be white on the turret interior.






Here is the main gun. It gets a coat of dark green paint.


The turret exterior. I had to replace the grab rails with 0.020 brass rod as the plastic ones were too fragile and broke into multiple pieces as I attempted to take them off the sprues and clean them up. I also had to add a small strip of plastic on top of the sight on the right as the PE cover was too short.



Just like in the hull, there are a bunch of extra detail parts that need to be painted individually and installed after the main painting is done. These are just a few of the pieces to paint and add.


Off to the paint booth (garage).

Really nice work Gino, I'll be using your build as a guide when I get my hands on the 1981 version!

Thanks John. Painted the larger parts last night. Now on to detail painting.

Watching with interest as I'm thinking of getting one of these kits.

Thanks Darren. Hope the build log helps out when you start building yours.

Coming along fine Gino, almost at the finish line.


Cheers




Jeff

Just your average work, Gino (which is VERY good!) Awesome looking kit. Your build has sparked my interest in getting one. Question about the 12.7mm MG in the hull. Is that a storage location? Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Thanks Jeff. It is getting there. I am almost done painting all the detail part for the turret and installing them. I should have some completed turret pics up soon.



Thanks Thomas. As to the MG, no, it was a hull-mounted MG on the early T55s. They were found to be ineffective and removed on later marks.

I am in the final stages now. I completed the turret interior painting and assembly. It all went together well with no issues. Here it is.



I should get it closed up today and its on to final painting.