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Hobby Boss 1/48 T-34/85


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I'm in! Better late than never so here goes.
I'm doing the Hobby Boss 1/48 T-34/85 in North Korean markings. This will be my first armour build since I was a teenager, which is some time ago, if my memory serves me correctly.
The kit comes with a ton of interior detail, I'm half expecting to find a kitchen sink on the sprues somewhere. Unfortunately I really want to model it with hatches down and so I'm not going to be ustilising all that gorgeous detail. It feels slightly sacrilegious to not take advantage of all the work HB have put into the kit but there it is! I will be making the engine compartment as that will be slightly visible through the mesh covers that they supply.
For markings I will be making stencils to spray the 3 digit number code that they have on the turret. The kit does come with a set of numbers that would work for this but I want to try and make my own, as my mother in-law got me a Silhouette cutting machine, that I am itching to try out on a sheet of Tamiya Tape. Also going to try making some masks for the wheels to make them a little less painful to paint.
So far I've only got as far as washing the parts. And reading the instructions, I thought I'd give that a go for once as there's a lot of them! Trying to work out what bits can be ignored inside without affecting the structure.
To get in the mood i just finished reading Roger Baker's account of his experience as a USMC tanker in Korea. Nice little read with some great pictures and sketches that he did out there. The only downside is the pictures are a bit grainy as they are printed on regular paper and not as photo inserts on quality paper.
cheers
Segan

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Little bit of progress. Getting the internal structure together before I zip it up. The detail is amazing but I'm still not doing it with open hatches! So far everything seems to be fitting together very nicely.

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Also started on the wheels. I wanted to start these early to get them out of the way. They have very fine tread pattern molded on but they also all have a mould seam that needs sanding off so it's goodbye to the tread pattern!

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Cheers

Segan

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This was first attempt at cutting Tamiya masking sheet using the Silhouette cutting machine, not got the settings quite right but it'll do for this. Did the first batch and they worked rather well. Using Model Master Russian Armour Green. I'll have these done in no time!

cheers

Segan

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been making a bit of progress, honest! It doesn't look much but the top half of the hull alone has over 60 pieces! Also I decided to add a bit of texture to the turret as it should have quite a distinct cast texture to it. I brushed on a little Tenax and then hit it with a wire brush, still finessing it but I think it will look nice under a coat of paint.

Cheers

Segan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Chaps!

Nice job Segan, and that stencil-making machine has piqued my interest too... B)

Cheers,

Stew

I'm still experimenting with it but I think for large serial numbers and roundels etc it will make pretty good masks. Not sure how fine i can go yet. Also it can cut pretty complicated shapes into thin sheet styrene which I think will come in very handy too. The software is a little clunky and unfortunately it doesn't allow you to cut and paste from Photoshop or Illustrator but you can open images up in it and as long as they are nice and contrasty it will trace round them, I ended up finding a few tutorials on YouTube as it has a few little quirks!

Cheers

Segan

Cheers

Segan

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  • 1 month later...
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