T64 MBT Mod 1972 - Modelcollect 1/72 - *Finished & in the Gallery*

[Hewy]

Coming along well ,the hull looks beautifully detailed for 1/72 I've only built a couple of aifix 1/72 tanks and it looks like this knocks those into a cocked hat,

Glynn

[Enzo the Magnificent]

4 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

If you were airbrushing (or even rattle-canning) I'd maybe suggest going the whole hog and trying my preferred 'build it first' approach

 

nodnodnod.  That's what I'm doing! It's all a bit scary. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

You'll be fine. 

 

How much slack do you have in the fit of the various wheels to the hull-tub?  If everything including the return-rollers fits in a nice positive fashion it might even be worth considering the modular track approach ie: assembling the entire running-gear on the hull tub without gluing it in place so that you can remove the track units for painting (I like the analogy of turning your model into a posh QB kit). 

[PlaStix]

On 2/6/2017 at 2:32 PM, Enzo Matrix said:

All looks good to me!    

Thank you Enzo. How is yours coming along? Did you manage to sort out the errant axles?

 

On 2/6/2017 at 3:28 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Oh I don't think the ESO 1/72 TKS is actually intended for building.....Braillers just use photos of it to scare each other on forums (then quietly sell it on eBay)! 

Oh okay!

On 2/6/2017 at 3:28 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

The tub is looking smashing.....If you were airbrushing (or even rattle-canning) I'd maybe suggest going the whole hog and trying my preferred 'build it first' approach, but with even with skill like yours, brush-painting it would probably be something of a chore. 

Thank you Sarge - the detail on the tub is very nice.

I must admit I don't think I would assemble everything and then paint it even if I were using an airbrush. I think I would find it too difficult painting things and trying not to get paint the other parts around them. I'm hoping to get some paint on the lower hull and wheels in the near future.

 

On 2/6/2017 at 4:49 PM, Hewy said:

Coming along well ,the hull looks beautifully detailed for 1/72 I've only built a couple of aifix 1/72 tanks and it looks like this knocks those into a cocked hat,

Glynn

Thank you very much Glynn and yes it is a well detailed kit.

 

On 2/6/2017 at 7:44 PM, Enzo Matrix said:

nodnodnod.  That's what I'm doing! It's all a bit scary. 

Good luck!! You'll be fine!

 

As I mentioned above I am hoping to get some paint on soon.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Sgt.Squarehead]

On 08/02/2017 at 2:22 PM, PlaStix said:

I think I would find it too difficult painting things and trying not to get paint the other parts around them.

 

Overspray is often evident on the real thing.....Have a browse through your references.   

 

IMHO modellers' road-wheels are often significantly tidier than real ones. 

 

[Col.]

Was reading a little on the T-64 and its significance as a step forward in Soviet AFV technology today, specifically the gun barrel, an interesting subject. It made me think of your project.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Problem was, by the time they got the T-64 working properly, the T-72 could do the all the same things, more reliably, for a lot less Roubles.....Pretty much exactly the same scenario repeated itself with the T-80 (developed from the T-64) & T-90 (developed from the T-72). 

 

 

[Col.]

8 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Problem was, by the time they got the T-64 working properly, the T-72 could do the all the same things, more reliably, for a lot less Roubles.....Pretty much exactly the same scenario repeated itself with the T-80 (developed from the T-64) & T-90 (developed from the T-72). 

I didn't know that, clearly need to read more on such subjects, think you boys are pulling me into the AFV world by subtle stealth 

[PlaStix]

On 10/02/2017 at 7:16 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Overspray is often evident on the real thing.....Have a browse through your references.   

IMHO modellers' road-wheels are often significantly tidier than real ones. 

Hi Sarge. I suspect, as usual, you are quite correct. I know I spend quite a bit of time trying to make sure the initial paint layers are as smooth and as evenly coloured as possible before messing them up with weathering! 

 

On 10/02/2017 at 9:25 PM, Col. said:

Was reading a little on the T-64 and its significance as a step forward in Soviet AFV technology today, specifically the gun barrel, an interesting subject. It made me think of your project.

 

10 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Problem was, by the time they got the T-64 working properly, the T-72 could do the all the same things, more reliably, for a lot less Roubles.....Pretty much exactly the same scenario repeated itself with the T-80 (developed from the T-64) & T-90 (developed from the T-72). 

 

2 hours ago, Col. said:

I didn't know that, clearly need to read more on such subjects, think you boys are pulling me into the AFV world by subtle stealth 

Hi Col. and Sarge. The history of Russian armour does make for fascinating, if a bit complex/confusing at times, reading...........and Col. yes making AVFs is definitely a way to go............ Sarge is pretty much responsible for getting me hooked! 

 

Yesterday I made a little more progress on this project. First off I got some paint on the lower hull and wheels - Humbrol 102 - thinned with water and applied by flat brushes as usual:

 

 

Then, following letting it dry, I gave everything a wash of Revell's Gunship Grey, then I did a targeted wash of Revell's Anthracite around the detail before dry-brushing a lightened version of the base coat which included a spot of yellow:

 

 

 

 

 

I spent this morning's session working on my Tamiya Panther build but I also added some oil and rust staining to the hull and wheels on the T-64. I may get the main wheels attached to the hull later.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Col.]

Lovely brush-work Stix 

[wimbledon99]

Very nice Stix!!  Still can't get over the number of parts!

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Judging by your work just there fella I merely steered you toward your natural vocation.....Now if only I could do the same with a compressor etc. Alex Clark would have some serious competition. 

 

My comment about overspray on roadwheels wasn't a criticism of your (or anyone elses) tidy work, merely a comment that one shouldn't let a bit of overspray here and there worry you too much when building an AFV.....I just aim my airbrush vaguely at the cente of each wheel and give it a shot.  I repeat this with the highlight layer and then brushpaint the rims (if present) with thinned grey paint.  Add a dust-wash and a dark-pin wash and the eye is tricked into seeing a wheel that is cleaner and fresher in the centre with grubby edges, more or less exactly what you are after. 

[PlaStix]

21 hours ago, Col. said:

Lovely brush-work Stix 

Thank you very much Col.

 

20 hours ago, wimbledon99 said:

Very nice Stix!!  Still can't get over the number of parts!

Thank you Nigel, most kind! Now I've come to check there are a few pieces that do not get used. They are probably for a different version.

 

15 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Judging by your work just there fella I merely steered you toward your natural vocation.....Now if only I could do the same with a compressor etc. Alex Clark would have some serious competition. 

You are way too kind and I know you produce superb results with an airbrush already!!

 

15 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

My comment about overspray on roadwheels wasn't a criticism of your (or anyone elses) tidy work, merely a comment that one shouldn't let a bit of overspray here and there worry you too much when building an AFV.....I just aim my airbrush vaguely at the cente of each wheel and give it a shot.  I repeat this with the highlight layer and then brushpaint the rims (if present) with thinned grey paint.  Add a dust-wash and a dark-pin wash and the eye is tricked into seeing a wheel that is cleaner and fresher in the centre with grubby edges, more or less exactly what you are after. 

Hi Sarge - I did understand your point and I totally agree. I do sometimes wonder about my sanity when I spend as much time as I do on making/painting some details that will never be seen again but I just enjoy the whole process.

 

Yesterday I did a bit more on the T-64 and got some of the wheels attached to the hull sides:

 

 

While waiting for stuff to dry I decided to start work on the turret. I was a bit disappointed about the joint between the barrel and the turret itself - it seemed a bit vague and I ended up spending a lot of time trying to make sure the barrel was aligned properly:

 

 

I also started getting some washes on the tracks. I'm hoping to get the tracks on next weekend.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Hewy]

that really is top drawer hairy stick work,,love the dry brushing too quality,

glynn

[wimbledon99]

All kits should come with metal barrels as standard. They look sooooooo much better.

 

The build is looking lovely Stix!!  

[PlaStix]

20 hours ago, Hewy said:

that really is top drawer hairy stick work,,love the dry brushing too quality,

glynn

Hi Glynn. Most kind! 

 

19 hours ago, wimbledon99 said:

All kits should come with metal barrels as standard. They look sooooooo much better.

The build is looking lovely Stix!!  

I totally agree. I think metal barrels and any major engine grills - like on Tigers and Panthers - should be part of the actual kit. I know some may disagree because of where do manufacturers draw the line, but I know I pay more attention to kits that come with a few bells and whistles such as some photo-etch and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

And thank you too Nigel for your comments.

 

I may try and do some more on this project over the next couple of evenings. I need to get some more washes on the track parts before I can get them assembled on the running gear.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

On 13/02/2017 at 10:07 AM, PlaStix said:

You are way too kind and I know you produce superb results with an airbrush already!!

 

I may have given you a few pointers in the past, but the way you've picked them up and run with them demonstrates to me that you have a real talent for this.  I think if you were to have a proper play with a good quality airbrush setup with just a little guidance you'd never look back.....Trust me, it just doesn't seem quite so expensive or inconvenient once you've pulled off your first soft-edge freehand camo, suddenly it all makes so much sense! 

 

But regardless of all that you do a beautiful job the old fashioned way and it's a pleasure to see. 

[PlaStix]

On 15/02/2017 at 1:01 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I may have given you a few pointers in the past, but the way you've picked them up and run with them demonstrates to me that you have a real talent for this.  I think if you were to have a proper play with a good quality airbrush setup with just a little guidance you'd never look back.....Trust me, it just doesn't seem quite so expensive or inconvenient once you've pulled off your first soft-edge freehand camo, suddenly it all makes so much sense! 

But regardless of all that you do a beautiful job the old fashioned way and it's a pleasure to see. 

Thank you Sarge as always. You are quite right - at some point an airbrush may be purchased and it may be the best thing ever but it's not going to be for a while - as I've said before: there's no-where currently where one could be used. I really enjoy the brush painting process - I find it quite relaxing.

 

The past couple of days I have done some work on this project. Earlier in the week I was just adding some parts to the turret. One of the parts that needed to be added was a rail that fits on the front left side. The instructions show vaguely where it was supposed to go but there's no holes or contact points on the actual turret. When I took a look at the actual part on the sprue I was concerned because it it such a fine rail but with three (largish) sprue attachment points. Plus there was quite a heavy seam around it. Well I cut it off without breaking it but when I was  cleaning it up it went reasonably well to start with but, as I carried on, it got weaker and weaker before it broke. At that point I decided to make the rail out of 5amp fuse wire. I checked on some photos online to see approximately where the rail should fit and drilled out two holes with a 0.5mm micro-drill. This is the result:

If anyone else decides to make this kit I would ignore the plastic part and head straight for the wire. There's no way the kit rail would survive the handling while the turret is being worked on.

 

I also got the tracks dirtied up and ready for assembly:

 

 

I started the tracks by gluing some of the individual links to the drive sprockets - 6 per side:

 

Then with 6 individual links on each idler too I attached them and the sprockets to the lower hull - but without glue so I could adjust them:

 

 

 

Next I fitted the longest track run along the bottom of the wheels and then used two of the shorter sections to close the gap between the bottom run and the tracks on the idler and sprocket:

 

 

It took a while but before long I got the upper run in place and then I had both sides completed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then moved back to the turret and added the machine gunner mount and hatch:

 

I'm basically adding stuff to the turret that I think I can paint and weather around reasonably easily.

 

I've also added some of the items to the front upper hull section and cut out and cleaned up the decking pieces. As Enzo noted in his thread - the instructions with this kit are very poor. If you assemble all the hull deck parts as they suggest there's no way to fit it to the lower hull without cutting off the pegs which fit into the slots on either side of the lower hull. In the photo below I added the sponsons first before adding the aft and the fore-deck parts for a bit of a test fit - none of them are glued:

 

.....and then, obviously, I had to have a test fit of the turret:

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I will get the hull deck parts fitted tomorrow and I may start some painting.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited February 18, 2017 by PlaStix

[Hewy]

Nice update stix ,looking forward to some more of that top drawer painting,

[wimbledon99]

Coming along lovely Stix  

 

What's involved in painting the metal barrel with brushes? I'd imagine it's not the easiest part of the build!

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Those tracks look good! 

[Col.]

Everything looks to be going well for you with this one Stix.

[PlaStix]

On 2/18/2017 at 9:08 PM, Hewy said:

Nice update stix ,looking forward to some more of that top drawer painting,

Hi Glynn and thank you. I didn't get as far as painting over the past weekend so it may be next weekend before I get chance to do any on it. I did some on this yesterday morning but I ended up doing more on my Panther build on Sunday afternoon.

 

On 2/18/2017 at 11:00 PM, wimbledon99 said:

Coming along lovely Stix  

What's involved in painting the metal barrel with brushes? I'd imagine it's not the easiest part of the build!

Thank you Nigel. All the metal barrels I have painted so far have been painted in exactly same way as I paint the plastic. Perhaps I have been lucky so far but my usual method, of thinned (with water) acrylic paints applied with flat brushes, has worked okay. Hopefully this one will be the same!

 

On 2/19/2017 at 10:59 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Those tracks look good! 

They are quite nicely done. Weirdly, I found the first side fairly straightforward to do but the other side was a bit of a pain! I think I may have got something slightly out of alignment early on. It may have helped if Modelcollect had included some instructions for them but I'm not going to complain too much as these L&L tracks are probably far better than the band tracks originally supplied with this kit. Enzo's kit had both the L&L tracks and the DS ones in the box.

 

On 2/19/2017 at 0:52 PM, Col. said:

Everything looks to be going well for you with this one Stix.

Thank you very much Col. 

 

Yesterday I didn't spend as much time on this as I thought I might but I did get the hull deck parts glued in place. If you are going to have a go at this kit I would strongly recommend not following the instructions for this process as they suggest gluing all the deck parts together first and then adding them to the lower hull. If you do this you will struggle to attach it. There are two tabs on each sponson section that will not go into place without a lot of effort (probably cutting off the tabs!).

My suggested sequence would be - either of the sponson sections first - I did the starboard side:

You can see the slots for the tabs on the far side of the hull.

 

Then I glued on the port side sponson:

 

Then the rear deck:

Tamiya tape used to hold it in place.

 

Once set:

 

Finally I added the glacis plate:

 

.....and once set:

 

 

Then, of course , I had to try a test fit of the turret:

 

 

 

I thought it also might be an idea to give some idea of the size of this kit:

 

I've still got some preparation work to do on some of the smaller parts that need to be added but one that's done I will get onto the painting.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited February 20, 2017 by PlaStix

[wimbledon99]

That coin really puts things into perspective!! 

 

I'm amazed at how you paint the barrels Stix. I never would have thought the paint would have taken to the metal from the brush. That's my lesson for today 

[Cookenbacher]

That is some watchmaker's work there Stix, great stuff!