Bullbasket Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Finally reached saturation point with the pigments on another build, so I thought that I'd drag something out of the stash cupboard and try a quick build. I can hear my wife laughing saying "You! Quick build! Your builds are similar to the gestation period of an elephant!" Well, that is true, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. Hobbyboss produced two versions of the T-34/85 and I built the other one about 10 years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail that they had crammed into a kit of this scale. A full interior, including engine bay for the princely sum of around £15, although I picked it up from a dealer at Telford for £10. The 21 stage assembly instructions are well laid out and easy to follow. One thing that I did find strange are the decals. Hobbyboss include a sheet with five colour profiles of one of the tanks included on the decal sheet, but looking at the decal sheet, there are what appears to be five separate tanks included on it, but no drawings/profiles of these tanks. Daft or what?? All the parts are contained on ten sprues, plus a separate engine intake which incorporates an etched brass mesh, two clears sprues with the headlamp lenses and a length of metal wire for the tow rope. Finally, the upper and lower hull parts are packed separately. I can't fault Hobbyboss for the way that they pack their kits, but those decals are just plain stupid. So now I'm off to wipe the smirk off of my wife's face and get started on this build. (Hopefully) I'll post some progress soon. John. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Looking good! Go on prove SWMBO wrong, I dare you! So, and ready to watch battle commenced. I think the decal quandary might be clarified by the presence of two sets of production serial numbers on the bottom left-hand side of the sheet. Perhaps the other kit covered by this dual decal sheet was intended to cover other nationalities that used the T34/85, (looks like North Vietnam and Syria/Egypt to me), ? Christian, exiled to africa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin56 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Nice one John, never let yourself be intimidated by SWMBO. Have a nice leisurely build, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaubar Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Good luck with your quick build may you prove her wrong,or build extra slow for the sake of her happiness and joy^^ /Stefan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 An artist needs time to give the best of himself ... Cheers John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 4 hours ago, wyverns4 said: Looking good! Go on prove SWMBO wrong, I dare you! So, and ready to watch battle commenced. I think the decal quandary might be clarified by the presence of two sets of production serial numbers on the bottom left-hand side of the sheet. Perhaps the other kit covered by this dual decal sheet was intended to cover other nationalities that used the T34/85, (looks like North Vietnam and Syria/Egypt to me), ? Christian, exiled to africa 4 hours ago, Gremlin56 said: Nice one John, never let yourself be intimidated by SWMBO. Have a nice leisurely build, 2 hours ago, Blaubar said: Good luck with your quick build may you prove her wrong,or build extra slow for the sake of her happiness and joy^^ /Stefan 45 minutes ago, FrancisGL said: An artist needs time to give the best of himself ... Cheers John Shhhh! She reads all my mail! Seriously though, I've made a start on it and I'd forgotten how many small parts have to be fitted within the hull. There's quite a lot of flash on some of the parts and things like the 85mm shells were misaligned during the moulding process, so a lot of scraping with a knife blade. The simplest way will be to build this in modules, allowing the painting of the interior to be done easier. You're right Christian. I checked the other T-34/85, and the markings fit with what's on the sheet. If I can't find suitable alternatives, then I will go with what's in the kit. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 When I said a quick build, choosing this kit wasn't the best choice. There is so much to cram into the interior of the hull, but I will probably gloss over a lot of it as once buttoned up, 80% won't be seen. I should have picked the KV-1. Oh well! I got most of the crew compartment done, minus most of the small fittings that could get damaged painting and weathering. These smaller parts will definitely be easier to paint separately. Some painting an weathering next I think, before moving on to the engine compartment. John. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Hi John. Looking good so far. I will definitely be following your build as I've got the T34/85 1944 Flattened Turret with interior version plus a Hauler detail set to build in the future - so I will be looking for pointers and taking notes! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 A little surprised, a kit to 1/48 and has interiors ... and could note other manufacturers to 1/35 ... , cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 14 minutes ago, PlaStix said: Hi John. Looking good so far. I will definitely be following your build as I've got the T34/85 1944 Flattened Turret with interior version plus a Hauler detail set to build in the future - so I will be looking for pointers and taking notes! Kind regards, Stix Hi Stix. Glad to have you following. Both versions that Hobbyboss do are very well detailed and can build into a nice model. I'll post photos of my other one when I get time. There was an article in MM by Jay Laverty some while ago where he built on of these two and really went to town on it. Let me know if you're interested and I'll email it to you. Regards, John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 13 minutes ago, FrancisGL said: A little surprised, a kit to 1/48 and has interiors ... and could note other manufacturers to 1/35 ... There is more detail in this kit than there is in most 1/35th scale kits. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 I have one of these (different mark) on the shelf of doom. Left a lot of the interior out to save my eyesight and sanity. That came with a decal sheet for several vehicles, and painting instructions for just one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 Hi John, Yes, as Christian said earlier, the decals are for both kits. They just don't point that out to you in either kit. I'm doing all of the interior, but a lot of it is a waste of time as even with every hatch open, most can't be seen. It's a great little kit, but don't think that it's anything like a Tamiya product. It's not. Fit of some of the parts is very iffy. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 9, 2017 Author Share Posted April 9, 2017 Day 7 of this "quick build". I believe that this is a scaled down version of Trumpeter's 1/16th kit, and it shows as they crammed so much into the interior. To speed things up, I decided to just install everything, paint it and just give it a dark wash, otherwise I'd still be here this time next year!. This decision came about after laying the top half of the hull over the lower and seeing what could be seen, and the answer was, not much. So that's where I am with this at the moment. After spraying the parts with Games Workshop Skull White, all of the individual parts were painted with Vallejo acrylics. I also didn't bother to do any chipping as again the places that I'd have done it on are all under the cover of the upper hull. So now it's time for the upper hull to go on and get some wok done on that. Thanks for looking. John. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancisGL Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Impeccably detailed for such a small scale, well done..., cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 9, 2017 Author Share Posted April 9, 2017 2 hours ago, FrancisGL said: Impeccably detailed for such a small scale, well done..., cheers John Thanks Francis. Sometimes think that there is just too much detail in it, especially when it's all going to be hidden. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin56 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Nice progress John, The size of that diesel engine the Russians "shoe horned" into that tank always amazes me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 12, 2017 Author Share Posted April 12, 2017 Many thanks. Yes, it must have been a hoot trying to carry out maintenance on it! John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etienne Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Well, very nice tiny thing ... I'm always reluctant to launch a full interior tank project in 1/35th scale, never mind in 1/48th scale Let's see the next steps E 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 Thanks Etienne. Yes, my reluctance is growing by the minute. I started off with the intentions of doing a lot with the interior, but the further I got, the more I realised that it just wouldn't be seen on the finished article, so what was the point. Plus it was turning a "quick build" into another marathon. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Great job with the interior John - your 'quick version' looks damn fine to me! Well done! Hope you have a great Easter Weekend. Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 2 hours ago, PlaStix said: Great job with the interior John - your 'quick version' looks damn fine to me! Well done! Hope you have a great Easter Weekend. Kind regards, Stix Thanks Stix, and the same for you and Mrs. S. Regards, John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 22, 2017 Author Share Posted April 22, 2017 Well, the grass has been cut, I don't have dogs anymore that need walking, so I've had some time to get on with my "quick build". But I've given up trying to make it quick as the modeller in me keeps finding things to do with it. First job was the three side fuel tanks. The bands around them were rather indistinct so a few passes with a sanding stick to reduce them down a bit, and then I added some new bands made from strips of 5thou card. The sanding also removed the filler caps, so I made new ones from 10thou card using a punch and die set. I also replaced the engine louvres with 15thou card ones. I thinned the front and rear track guards with a scalpel blade. At the front, I added new weld beads around the MG casting, where the glacis plate joins the side of the hull, around the towing hooks and a couple of other locations. I ut off the kits plastic MG an replaced it with .5mm stainless steel tube. I added some texture to the MG's cast mount by covering it with MEK and then using an old small brush to stipple it. The original intention was to replace the grab handles with brass wire, but the kit ones don't look too bad , so they stayed. I'd built the other version of this kit some years ago and was happy with the kit handles. So he next job will be to get some paint onto the lower hull and the running gear, then assemble the tracks, paint them and install them. While that's all coming together, I'll make a start on the turret. Thanks for looking. John. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin56 Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Nice improvements John, looking very good. Julian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted April 23, 2017 Author Share Posted April 23, 2017 Many thanks Julian. Much appreciated. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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