The camouflage pattern is now in place on my Syrian PT-76. It is based on the picture on page 63 in Steven Zaloga's Tank battles of the mid-east wars (1) from Concord publications. A rather colourful camouflage scheme, but it is difficult to see from the picture if there are any markings on the tank. Any way I will probably dublicate some markings from other Syian armour such as turret numbers.

One picture is with flash, but the pictures without flash actually shows the colours better.

Now it is time to finish the tracks and start some weathering on the lower hull.

Thanks for looking







The picture below is with flash and shows the colours a little too bright and with more contrast than reality, but you can easily make out the pattern.

I've been trying to find this kit since it was announced! Is it available again?

Mark

Well, I am not sure. I got this kit 3 years ago in Russia for around 7 USD, but it had been lying in my ever growing to build pile for three years. Now I am almost finished with it.

Sorry, I cannot be more specific than that.

Hi again

Just made a quick search on google to help you out. You might want to check this source.

http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?EST-35171

Beautiful job Jesper. Although not my sphere of interest, I can sure appreciate the hard work and skill that's gone into this build. Well done!

Vinnie

@Vinnie: thank you for the kind words, Vinnie. They are most appreciated

Update on the project below. I apologise for the pictures. The photos without flash seem to be a little to dark, while the photos with flash seem to be to light and with too mush contrast between the colours. Reality is somewhere in between. Hope you will enjoy the pictures anyway

I have now given the turret and the engine deck some thin washes around the fine detail. A few details like the tools were also painted.





I have also added the mud to the suspension and the edges of the fenders. I am pretty satisfied with this. The mud was made from a "back to basics" recipe like the rest of the model. Fine sand mixed with a few drops of water, white glue and some black and mud brown paint. The white glue are from a hardware store and the sand is from a pet store and is the type used for pets like mice etc. For around 15 USD you get enough sand and glue to last for 150-200 tanks :-)

The mud mix was applied in several layers with washes of dark brown and black in between. The washes where applied before the mud mixture could really dry. This way it is easier to get a "blending" effect in the mud and it does not look painted. Finally a light drybrush where added to show dry mud and bring out the texture of the mud.

Pictures without flash:






Pictures with flash:






Now it is on to some more weathering and adding of markings. Cannot really decide how to mark it

Thank you for looking. Hope you enjoyed it. Comments are most welcome

It's looking good. I would like to see DML come out with one of these and a whole line of Modern Russian armor.

Looks good Jesper! If I might make a suggestion regarding the mud? Try mixing up a much lighter shade and put a thin layer of this on first, then the mixture you've got already, in that way you get dried mud around the edges, which looks very realistic!

Vinnie

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that next time. I have a Gaz truck with a ZSU-23 coming up. It just screams out for mud so I can try it on that one.

@Robert. I agree. That could be cool. However, German WWII armour seem to be much more popular, which I like as well. But instead of 457836 different Panthers, we could have 457800 different panthers and a couple of Russian vehicles like the BMP and BMD families along with some new T-72s, T-80, T-90.

Now the PT-76 is complete. A really nice christmas holiday project in between the prok roast, duck and all the other food.

To complete the model I used light earth coloured pastels to tone down the camouflage, added some arabic numbers, and added couflage netting on the back of the turret in the "BMP" style seen on other Russian build AFVs.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Thanks for looking and thanks to all the people who have commented during the project.

Very nice overall, and considering it does not seem an "expert" kit... the result is great!

Outstanding job Jesper. Like you I like WW2 armor also. But I agree can't we have some cold war era russian armor too.

Nice work Jesper!

You are a miracle worker. To transform that difficult kit into a work of art requires patience and skill that I sadly lack. Well done!
DJ

I enjoyed watching the progress on this build, and am very impressed with the end result. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate it. I am glad you liked the result and found value in the process.

I might do this again in the future with some other kit.