reteip9 Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 (edited) Hi there For my first group build I decided to go for a bit of a challenge and build one of the most iconic world war II tank with a full interior. This is the kit I'll be building, I picked up for cheap from marktplaats (more or less the dutch equivelant of ebay). The box is absolutely stuffed to the brim with plastic which makes sense considering this kit comes with a full interior As seen on the box art this kit comes with a host of different clear parts to show of the interior detail these parts include the turret, upper hull, engine deck and lower rear hull glacis, unfortunately a piece from the upper hull clear part has been broken of but it should still be fixable. The kit also comes with a metal barrel which has some nice rifling detail, a small fret of photo etch for the engine grille covers and the straps holding the extra fuel tanks in place. As for the tracks well I wish I could say wether or not they were good or bad but the person from whom I bought this from either decided the kit's vinyl tracks were beneath the level of this kit and threw them away or simply forgot to put them back in the box because I really can't see why you would want to steal some cheap vinyl tracks . To replace the missing vinyl tracks I have ordered some Friul metal tracks which will be another first for me . I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the clear hull and turret parts clear because there are a lot of ejection pin marks on some parts which I have no clue how to fill without ruining the transparency of the parts and since you can't use regular plastic cement or CA glue on those parts I would have to use PVA glue which creates a rather weak bond. Also from looking at the box art it would seem that a lot of the miscellaneous parts inside the tank block the view of the interior. Because of this I might opt for just painting the clear parts and leaving the upper hull and turret roof loose so there will still be quite a lot of interior detail visible but I am still not 100% decided on this. Overall I'm really excited to get started on this kit, ever since I saw Andy's Hobbyheadquarters video on the Takom King Tiger with full interior I have been wanting to do a kit with an interior quite bad and this group build presented the perfect excuse to get started on this kit Edited August 13, 2017 by reteip9 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 Not seen that kit before - looks like this will be a fascinating project. Kind regards, Stix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 Welcome to your first GB. Great to see another AFV kit in the GB and it looks like a interesting build I like to pop in from time to time. Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonT Posted April 30, 2017 Share Posted April 30, 2017 I didn't know AFV did this kit either. Looks very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) <br> Update 03/05/2017 I finished the suspension and have started work on the interior. All the interior parts haven't been glued down yet as they still need paint and painting them while inside the tank would be rather challenging to say the least (even more so considering that the T-34 isn't really blessed with a lot of interior space). Also the postman came to solve my missing track problem bringing with him lots of shiny small metal bits which will eventually make up the tracks Edited August 13, 2017 by reteip9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted May 3, 2017 Share Posted May 3, 2017 Certainly lots of detail here. Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted May 4, 2017 Author Share Posted May 4, 2017 (edited) update 04/05/2017 Small update: I primed the interior bits with white vallejo primer and I added some tubing for the air tanks on the lower glacis Edited August 13, 2017 by reteip9 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimbledon99 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Been thinking about doing an interior build myself so will be following with interest 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 (edited) Hi there comrades First of I would like to apologize for the large delay between updates but unfortunately my computer's processor decided that it had enough and died on me and between exams and writing reports I didn't feel like setting up a system for uploading pics from my phone. However I have not been sitting idle and between reports and exams I did manage to find time to work on this project. So without further ado let's go to the update. When we last left off the tank was just an empty white shell without anything fixed in it. I first adressed the whiteness of the fighting compartment by spraying the floor with a ~6:5 mix of Vallejo Model Color Light Grey and German Grey Next I painted and weathered the floor boxes in which 85 mm ammo was stored for the main gun. Next I painted all the various levers, seats and other bits and bobs which make up the fighting compartment and installed those into the vehicle along with the main ammo boxes, I also added some chips and dings. After that I painted the engine compartment in red oxide primer using AMMO's Rotbraun and I installed the bottles and tubing for the air start system. Next I built and painted the engine using Vallejo Metal Color Aluminium, Metal Color Gunmetal Grey, Model Color Black Grey, Mig's Rotbraun and 4B0 Green. Then I assembled and painted the rest of the engine compartment and installed all the sub assemblies. And finally I started work on the upper hull Well that's it for today folks, I promise the next update won't take so long (unless another random bit of my pc decides to go kamikaze on itself :P) On 6-5-2017 at 00:30, wimbledon99 said: Been thinking about doing an interior build myself so will be following with interest Welcome aboard! If you happen to have anything russian you could join the madness Edited August 13, 2017 by reteip9 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 nice work, that does look a really nice kit, i shall pick one of these up ,those arm chairs inside look comfy Glynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 Wow, what an update on your build Some excellent detail painting on your interior! Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimbledon99 Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 Looking superb. Some great work here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimbledon99 Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 On 6/23/2017 at 5:54 PM, reteip9 said: Welcome aboard! If you happen to have anything russian you could join the madness My contibution is in the gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Looks good reteip9, I do like those interior builds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 Hello everyone Once again apologies for the delay between updates, I planned on making more frequent updates but life has a nasty tendency to torpedo such plans. Since the last update I have painted the lower hull exterior Vallejo 4B0 Russian Green and I painted and assembled all of the road and drive wheels. I've also assembled one run of the Friul metal tracks which in my opinion look really good on a tank like this. On a real T-34 there's quite a prominent weld seam on the area where the upper frontal glacis meets up with the side armour which is missing on this kit so I've added it by cutting up some thin polystyrene strips coated in Tamiya Extra Thin And lastly I have assembled and painted all the bits that go into the turret interior including the 85 mm ammo stored in the turret bustle and ready racks. It's a bit hard to see on the photo but I've added a rough cast texture effect to the interior of the turret by stipling some Vallejo putty on the inside of the turret, also AFV Club wants you to put the commander's seat in the stowed upright position however I thought that looked rather odd so I glued it in as if the commander was sitting on it. I still need to assemble some bits for the exterior of the upper hull and turret and I need to paint the interior roof of the hull and turret but once that is taken care of I can move on to painting the rest of the exterior and weathering. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 Great update, showing lots of attention to details. Like the way you made the weld seam. Cheers, Peter PS. what happened to the earlier pictures? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted August 13, 2017 Author Share Posted August 13, 2017 (edited) 10 hours ago, Basilisk said: Great update, showing lots of attention to details. Like the way you made the weld seam. Cheers, Peter PS. what happened to the earlier pictures? I have no idea I think imgur might be messing around with the format I previously uploaded them (imgur.com) I'll upload them again in the new format (i.imgur.com) and see if that fixes it. EDIT: All the pictures should be fixed now Edited August 13, 2017 by reteip9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Good to see that you could get the pictures back into your thread! Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted August 25, 2017 Author Share Posted August 25, 2017 Hello again I've finished up with all the exterior parts on the tank such as the external fuel tanks and tow cables, I replaced the kit supplied string for the tow cables with some 0.9 mm braided copper from eureka models. I've also added a rough cast texture to the turret and machine gun mount using some Mr. Surfacer 500 (awful smelling stuff) . And lastly I glued in the metal barrel and primed the turret with vallejo black primer. Tomorrow I'll probably prime the upper hull and maybe do some highlighting of panels using white. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonT Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 Excellent build, looking forward to your next update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Looking very nice and I am sure will look great when painted. Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reteip9 Posted September 10, 2017 Author Share Posted September 10, 2017 Well it was a bit of work but I managed to get it done before the deadline Overall I'm quite pleased with the results, I played around with some oils and pigments to try and give it a dusty faded look and I think I've achieved my goals although there's always room for improvement. I accidentally dropped the tank and managed to break 3 axles and lose 2 road wheel hubs, I managed to find one of the hubs but the other is sadly lost forever you can see this on the second road wheel on the left side. I left the roof of the turret and the upper hull loose so I did not have to hide the interior. Although gluing the top of the hull to the bottom would have resulted in a neater rear of the tank this would hide most of the interior detail and with the way I have displayed it the gap is not very obvious but I can still take it apart to see the interior. Overall I like the kit, I think it builds up into a good representation of the tank interior included but I did have some issues: - Gluing small parts such as grab handles on to the clear hull and turret was a nightmare since they just wouldn't stay on the tank. - Supposedly some weld seams are missing because of the hull and turret being clear but the weld seam around the bow machine gun mount is present so it's weird that some are there but others not. - The suspension is designed to be workable and as a result is quite a complex assembly with springs, in my opinion this is a bit gimmicky as the only time you'll see this is if you place it on a diorama of some sort also I couldn't get the front road wheels to work and with the broken axles means that the suspension on my kit is now static. - The idler wheel has two positions however for the amount of track links I used (72 as on the original) the tracks were either way too tight or way to loose, this meant that I had to cut of the locating tabs and manually set the position of the idler wheel, however this might not necessarily be AFC club's fault since it's possible that Friul got the length of the track links wrong. Overall I recommend this kit if you want a T-34 with interior however if I had to choose between the clear edition or the regular one I would pick the regular one, however since I got this one second hand I didn't really have a choice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted September 11, 2017 Share Posted September 11, 2017 What an effort The used look of the tank looks great and the internal details do add immensely to the finished model! Cheers, Peter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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