Tamiya T-34
Kommentit
Paul MooreThose little commie bastards look a little too real! To say you've "improved" on this second build is an understatement! It looks fantastic Claude! Congratulations. What's next in the queue?
Paul
NeulingWatch out Claude! Glues, paints, modelling fluids and vapours can make a faster fire than a paper towel. - 👍
Claude Nolen kirjailijaThanks Paul! My next build is a 1/400 scale ship. The Potemkin. It should be easy and quick. It has a low parts count.
Album info
This is my second build, since I took the last 40 years off. It’s the Tamiya 1/35 T-34/76 with the ICM Soviet Tank Riders kit. There are also a few war trophies included from the MB German Infantry Weapons WWII kit. It took me a bit over a month to complete.
The short version is that I improved dramatically. I really think I knocked it out of the park with this effort. I certainly have room to improve, particularly when it comes to painting faces. There are about a dozen other things that I wish I had done better (or differently). For the first time I played around with the techniques of doing washes, weathering, rust and mud. Immediately, I noticed that this Tamiya kit was easier to assemble than the Academy MiG-29 I was finishing. I wasn’t surprised.
The base color I used was Rustoleum Satin Eden 334065. I knew it was a bit bright for my needs, but I wanted to use something to dramatically set it apart from other tanks I plan to build. Other colors I used were mostly Vallejo acrylics (which I have come to love), with a couple spots of Testors here and there. There were a few different decal options. I went with the one saying Khabarovsk Communist Youth League. This was special to me because my three kids were all born in Khabarovsk, and my wife and I had lived in that city for a month during the adoption.
I did install the tank driver. I fabricated a couple steering levers for him to grasp, even though they’re difficult to see. I tried to improve the view of him through the hatch by painting the forward interior area white, but I don’t think it made a big difference.
About a third of the way into the build I was heating and stretching some sprue for an antenna. While I was focusing on doing something else, a paper towel got too close to the candle and caught fire. It was fairly spectacular, and caused some damage to my model and the work area. Another mishap involved the two topside tank crewmen. I had decided that their positions in the turret didn’t make much sense, as the infantry behind them would be staring into the smalls of their backs. Additionally, my paint jobs on each of them was very poor. So, I removed them and shut the hatches. Thinking I would chuck them in my spares box, I looked up a YouTube video describing how to remove acrylic paint. Following the advice I soaked them in acetone-free nail-polish remover. I guess I missed the part where the guy said not to leave them in the stuff for long. I went off to work and left them soaking. Eight hours later I returned to find them essentially melting. Not gonna lie… I find immense humor in my screw-ups.