mywifehatesmodels Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 (edited) As the title says, I haven't built any armor in at least 15 years. Things have really progressed in the hobby and I've also developed a few techniques in working with aircraft that I wanted to try on a tank (namely, oils for weathering and filters, but also in the base painting techniques). My favorite tank of all time is probably the T-34 and since I don't have the initial 1940 production version in my collection yet, I thought that would be a good one. This will be a rather anonymous tank, but inspired by the many different photos of this variant that I could find. In addition to the CH kit, I'm using parts from the Eduard PE set, as well as an aluminum barrel from Armorscale (and it also comes with a very nice resin mantlet, but I messed mine up, so I ended up reverting to the kit parts, which aren't that bad, either). I decided to leave off the long stowage boxes, as many photos of these tanks show them missing. I also cut off the front fenders to give it a meaner look (to my eye, anyway). Unfortunately, I have to box this build for a bit and knock out a couple of quick commission builds. However, I'll be coming back to do the wheels/tracks and the rest of the hull equipment, as soon as possible. There is still a ton of work to be done, but it's been very enjoyable so far and has certainly rekindled my enthusiasm for armor modeling. Here's what I have, so far.... Happy Modeling! John Edited June 20, 2019 by mywifehatesmodels Daniel Leduc, LSP_K2, Rick Griewski and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 great finish you've got going Rick Griewski and mywifehatesmodels 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Agree with Shawn, great finish......Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 John, Fantastic! mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Paul Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Very Very Cool John. Keep at it. Paul mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomber_County Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 John, fantastic camo, also the whole weather beaten look is brilliant, never built a 34 maybe time to...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tucohoward Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Looks great, John. Been having similar thoughts. Jay mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted December 14, 2017 Author Share Posted December 14, 2017 Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I can't wait to get back to this and get it finished. It will probably be my first completed build for 2018, though. Oh well. Thanks again, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslakh Posted December 25, 2017 Share Posted December 25, 2017 Lookin' good. I have a dozen or so of the M40/41 DML kits. Good eggs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Cross Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 Very good start. Keep it comin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 OK, I'm calling this one done. I was almost afraid to look at the date of the last post in this thread, but.....life happens. The tracks were very difficult for me. It's been far too long and I think I could have spaced the drive/idler wheels differently and it would have helped to get the track spacing right. Next time I'll pay closer attention to that and hopefully not work myself into a corner. Aside from that, everything else went fairly well. For the remaining equipment, I decided to leave the large tool/equipment boxes off the sides of the hull. Many of the photos I was able to find show these boxes to be missing and other items are often attached. I used the kit's tow cable ends, but replaced the middles with cables I made from wire. The log was the result of digging through my brush/burn pile for some candidate sticks. I also used extremely small twigs to make a bundling of kindling wood. The rolled tarp was from my spares and I made it years ago from facial tissue and painted it. I added the straps from the PE set. All along the build process, I was adding oils and pastels here and there and worked some silver pencil chips into a few spots, as well. Everything was sealed with a final coat of flat lacquer. Even with it's many warts (pretty much all my own fault), it's still probably the best looking tank model I"ve ever built, finish-wise and it was refreshing to get back to some armor after all these years! Thanks for all of your encouragement! John steinerman, LSP_K2, Out2gtcha and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyChris Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Very nice build and subtle weathering. Last photo looks very convincing! mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Wow, amazing paint and weathering work John! Good to see you back at the bench mywifehatesmodels 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steinerman Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 Amazing, John!! That paint job and weathering is beyond awesome! That last picture is so real you would expect to see it in front of your local armory! Great work! Lar mywifehatesmodels and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringleheim Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 Very nice! The rolled tarp was the first thing that caught my eye. That is really nicely done. I see what you mean about the idler spacing; it looks like you have 1 link too much on your track run, but from your comments, it sounds like removing 1 link would have made the track run too short! I've been in that boat myself many times! As you point out, you can usually solve that problem by playing around with idler spacing. Regardless, your T-34/76 looks fantastic and the track slack is a minor thing that really isn't noticed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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