Tiran 5 - IDF, The Negev Desert, Mid-1980s - 1/35 Tamiya - FINISHED and in the Gallery 02/01/20

[PlaStix]

This is going to be my build for this STGB:

 

When I saw the tracks that Tamiya include in the box and read some of the reviews, which suggested they are a bit too short/tight, I decided to get some of these from MiniArt:

 

Tamiya only provide some mesh for the engine grills so I also decided to get some from Eduard:

 

Really looking forward to getting started on this next weekend.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited January 2, 2020 by PlaStix

[Ozzy]

🍿🍿

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Great choice Stix. 

[Bullbasket]

Being Tamiya, it's a great kit, but as you've already found, it's missing some items.

 

John.

[Hewy]

Nice bits of kit there stix,should be good, i do like the idf ones

[modelling minion]

I sense another masterpiece in the making.

Chair pulled up and popcorn at the ready!

[Hewy]

The  Tamiya t55s ,As un refined as they are, ( fine  detail wise )taking into account the gorgeously detailed  but over engineered mini art kits, and the  very nicley molded takom kits, are still holding a decent price premium, especially as you've  pointed out "stix " extra tracks and pe grills, are required, take this kit up to the top end of the  t55 bracket,  yours will still look stunning 😋, 

[Silenoz]

Nice one.. 

[PlaStix]

On 29/09/2019 at 20:50, Ozzy said:

🍿🍿

 

On 29/09/2019 at 23:23, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Great choice Stix. 

Thank you Dennis.

 

On 30/09/2019 at 09:30, Bullbasket said:

Being Tamiya, it's a great kit, but as you've already found, it's missing some items.

John.

Hi John. Thank you and you are right there are somethings missing. Thank you for your message in the chat thread. I had a look at the deep wading set for this kit from Aber but decided mine is going to miss out on that - the PE set looked to have too many fiddly parts and I had already decided I wanted a less stressfull build for this GB. I have seen that some people have fabricated their own from card and styrene strip - I'll see what I think when I start to work on that area of the Tiran. Thank you again for the headsup though.

 

On 01/10/2019 at 10:09, Hewy said:

Nice bits of kit there stix,should be good, i do like the idf ones

 

On 01/10/2019 at 20:14, Hewy said:

The  Tamiya t55s ,As un refined as they are, ( fine  detail wise )taking into account the gorgeously detailed  but over engineered mini art kits, and the  very nicley molded takom kits, are still holding a decent price premium, especially as you've  pointed out "stix " extra tracks and pe grills, are required, take this kit up to the top end of the  t55 bracket,  yours will still look stunning 😋, 

Hi Glynn and thank you for your comments. It is odd how different manufacturers break down their kits into how many parts they think are suitable. I decided against the MiniArt and Takom kits for this GB simply because of the number of parts in the box. If you see this photo here:

...the Tamiya box looks almost empty in comparison. I'm going to save the MiniArt and Takom kits until I want to spend a long time working on something.

 

On 01/10/2019 at 18:14, modelling minion said:

I sense another masterpiece in the making.

Chair pulled up and popcorn at the ready!

Hi Craig. Thank you. And I'm hoping you might be able to join us with a build at some point in this GB?

 

On 02/10/2019 at 10:52, Silenoz said:

Nice one.. 

Thank you Silenoz - I hope so!

 

Last weekend I got all the kit washed in warm soapy water. Before doing so I took the photos below.

All the contents of the box:

 

Some closer views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decals:

 

Polycaps, mesh and string:

.....the polycaps may be the only things I use from the above.

 

The vinyl tracks that I intend to replace with MiniArt tracks:

 

Sample of the instructions:

 

 

The information sheet:

 

Extras - not include in the box - the Eduard grills:

 

and the MiniArt track links I ham going to use:

....before I opened the box I was hoping they were going already removed from the sprue runners! Oh well........

They do look nice but they also look like a lot of work. There are four quite thick attachment points for each link - that's a lot of cleaning up. Like the last sets of links I assembled I think I will assemble only 10 at a time over 18 evenings - there's 90 per side apparently.

 

There is only one version of the Tiran 5 included in the box and it's the one I'm going to make it as:

 

 

Can't wait for tomorrow morning.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited October 4, 2019 by PlaStix

[Hewy]

46 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

think I will assemble only 10 at a time over 18 evenings - there's 90 per side apparently.

That'll save track burnout stix, good idea 

[Bullbasket]

A word of advice about the decals Stix. If I were to do this one again, I would paint the gun white, and then mask off for the stripe instead of using the kit's decal. Tamiya's decals being what they are, a little on the thick side, it took a lot of persuading to get it to sit down over all of the lumps and bumps. I think painting would be an easier option.

 

John.

Edited October 4, 2019 by Bullbasket
typo.

[modelling minion]

18 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Craig. Thank you. And I'm hoping you might be able to join us with a build at some point in this GB?

I hope so too, though I was much happier with the original timing of the GB as I planned on getting a kit from the nationals in November and it might leave timing a bit tight for actually getting a build done.

[PlaStix]

On 04/10/2019 at 15:31, Hewy said:

That'll save track burnout stix, good idea 

I do hope so! Having made a start on my first 10 links today I can say they are not the quickest to clean up, unfortunately.

 

On 04/10/2019 at 15:47, Bullbasket said:

A word of advice about the decals Stix. If I were to do this one again, I would paint the gun white, and then mask off for the stripe instead of using the kit's decal. Tamiya's decals being what they are, a little on the thick side, it took a lot of persuading to get it to sit down over all of the lumps and bumps. I think painting would be an easier option.

John.

Thank you John, I will now be painting the stripe. I'll probably mask off the area and stipple the paint on. It should give a worn effect without having to do too much additional weathering.

 

7 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I hope so too, though I was much happier with the original timing of the GB as I planned on getting a kit from the nationals in November and it might leave timing a bit tight for actually getting a build done.

I know what you mean. I was more geared up for it being later on - but it is what it is. I hope you do get chance to take part. 🤞

 

I do love starting a new project. Tamiya suggest starting with the wheels but I decided I wanted to start on the hull. These are the parts I cleaned up first - there were a few seam lines and ejector pin marks to sort out:

 

........but it wasn’t long before everything was together:

 

 

There was some swearing this morning with a couple of parts - they were so tiny and of course I managed to drop one. It's the two tiny welded blocks in the photo below. They are separate pieces which have to be glued in place! What a faff!! I managed to find the one I dropped on the carpet but it was so small, at first, I though it was a piece of fluff. I couldn’t even feel it between my fingers! Anyhooo...

It was also difficult to get them neatly into the holes.

 

I also decided I wanted to have a go at some of the track links from MiniArt. This was the result - 10 links in about 40 minutes:

 

.......so that's a link taking 4 minutes to clean up. The problem is that there's four attachment points on each link and they attach on the curved front and back edges:

So some filing, some scalpel work and some wet'n'drying was needed. Hopefully I will get quicker with practice! MiniArt claim I'll need 180 links - 90 per side!

 

I was also disappointed with the links in that they do not actually click together - I'm going to have to glue them. I would have hoped they would be workable links. I'm going to have to make them up like link'n'length tracks - in sections.

 

Finally today I started work on the wheels. Normally I like to brush paint the wheels while they are still attached to the sprue runners. Tamiya make their sprue attachment points very small - which is good - but this means, for my purposes they are too weak. So I have had to remove them because they require quite a bit of cleaning up - there's a noticeable seam round every wheel which required filing and sanding.

With seams:

 

Without:

 

I've now got to find a secure way to hold them while I brush paint each wheel.

 

Despite the minor niggles I have really enjoyed starting work on this kit.

 

More tomorrow I hope.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

Edited October 5, 2019 by PlaStix

[Hewy]

3 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

quickest to clean up, unfortunately.

Yep,  every link needs doing , you mustn't leave anything to chance  either, or they won't join right will they ?I've  done a t55 b miniart tracks build, and the cut off and prep are not a pleasing task, but the end  result is worth the time spent , they are quality when built ,i have faith in you stix peck on pal 👍

[PlaStix]

On 05/10/2019 at 18:33, Hewy said:

Yep,  every link needs doing , you mustn't leave anything to chance  either, or they won't join right will they ?I've  done a t55 b miniart tracks build, and the cut off and prep are not a pleasing task, but the end  result is worth the time spent , they are quality when built ,i have faith in you stix peck on pal 👍

Hi Glynn. Thank you for your thoughts on the tracks - you are quite right - if I don't clean everything up correctly they don't fit together or line up properly. Hey ho......I got another 10 links done yesterday - so that's 20 already!! Only 160 to go............

 

I did a bit more on this yesterday but there's not a lot to show for it. 

 

The first photo shows all the parts for the lower hull and running gear that have been cleaned up - seam lines, etc. removed - ready for some paint:

 

I was thinking of starting the painting but decided I might be better off finding out if the upper and lower hull parts could be better painted with them joined - so I started adding some of the parts to the upper hull:

 

I still may end up painting them before joining them but we'll see.

 

I have to say that, even though this is a Tamiya kit and gets good reviews, I don't think this one is up to the standards, in terms of parts fit, etc. as some of their 1/48 kits. Some joining areas are a bit wishy-washy - with location holes either a bit too big or not quite in the right place - ie a bit too far from surfaces other areas of the part are supposed to be joined to as well. It's not a major problem but the few Tamiya kits I have built before - including aircraft kits - have been far better with very precise location of parts.   

 

As I mentioned to Glynn I also got another 10 of the track links cleaned up.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Bullbasket]

I think that it's becoming a bit long in the tooth now as I believe that they based it on their original T-55. Hence the fuel tanks included on one of the sprues.

 

John.

[Hewy]

I'm  positive you'll club this into shape stix, best of luck with the tracks

[modelling minion]

I too have no doubt that you will master this kit, unusual that there are issues as you mention on a Tamiya kit as even their older kits are known for their good fit.

[Foxbat]

Scalemates says this is based on the T-55A I have which was a new tool in 2002, so not ancient in Tamiya terms. From fondling the sprues, it still feels more akin to the 1/35 kits I built decades ago than the 1/48 ones I've concentrated on recently.

 

Andy

 

 

[Robert Stuart]

On 04/10/2019 at 14:44, PlaStix said:

I think I will assemble only 10 at a time over 18 evenings - there's 90 per side apparently.

You could go a bit faster on the tracks, surly ?

 

Looks promising Stix, are we going to see a bit of the Golan Heights here too?

[Hewy]

9 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

are we going to see a bit of the Golan Heights here too?

I bet we are 

[vppelt68]

On 09/10/2019 at 23:09, Robert Stuart said:

Looks promising Stix, are we going to see a bit of the Golan Heights here too?

 

On 10/10/2019 at 08:26, Hewy said:

I bet we are 

With a low-flying Mystere or something like that added for fun

[PlaStix]

On 07/10/2019 at 14:37, Bullbasket said:

I think that it's becoming a bit long in the tooth now as I believe that they based it on their original T-55. Hence the fuel tanks included on one of the sprues.

John.

Now I'm getting further into the build I'm finding the newer parts are better in terms of fit and detail than those from the original.

 

On 07/10/2019 at 15:48, Hewy said:

I'm  positive you'll club this into shape stix, best of luck with the tracks

I'm hoping so!  I think I'm about halfway with the tracks now.

 

On 07/10/2019 at 18:34, modelling minion said:

I too have no doubt that you will master this kit, unusual that there are issues as you mention on a Tamiya kit as even their older kits are known for their good fit.

Hi Craig. Thank you and yes I was surprised by the wishy-washyness of some of the joins.

 

On 07/10/2019 at 19:39, Foxbat said:

Scalemates says this is based on the T-55A I have which was a new tool in 2002, so not ancient in Tamiya terms. From fondling the sprues, it still feels more akin to the 1/35 kits I built decades ago than the 1/48 ones I've concentrated on recently.

Andy

Hi Andy and thank you for the info and odd - isn't it?

 

On 09/10/2019 at 21:09, Robert Stuart said:

You could go a bit faster on the tracks, surly ?

Looks promising Stix, are we going to see a bit of the Golan Heights here too?

I am trying the best I can with the tracks but I do get bored quickly with the repetativeness! If I get chance there may be a bit of a scenic base.

 

On 10/10/2019 at 06:26, Hewy said:

I bet we are 

Maybe.........

 

On 11/10/2019 at 09:43, vppelt68 said:

With a low-flying Mystere or something like that added for fun

Nope!!! Not enough time!

 

This weekend I have been doing some more on this project. First off I decided to assemble and clean up some of the parts which will be attached to the upper hull after painting:

 

Then I decided I needed to try and do some painting so I started with the wheels. I used thinned Revell Aqua 86, Olive Brown, as the base coat - applied with a medium flat brush. As I mentioned above - I prefer to paint everything on the sprues where I can but, because these wheels needed a serious seam removing and the sprue attachment points were quite small and weak - I had to remove them from sprues. My solution was to find some of my older brushes for the inner wheels:

 

...and as can be seen in the above photo I just held the outer rim on the outer wheels and tried not to get much paint on the outer rim:

The fronts look fine!!

 

This was the first coat of paint on the lower hull - the coverage was not great:

 

....but after a bit more work:

 

 

I think it will look okay after one more coat.

 

This is everything I got painted yesterday:

 

I have also been doing some work on the tracks each evening this week and, if MiniArt are correct - I have completed one side's worth:

 

More next weekend.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[modelling minion]

Very nice paint work on the hull and wheels Stix, as usual, it will make a great base for your further colours and weathering.

[Bullbasket]

Only one suggestion Stix, carry on as you are, You're doing a fine job (as usual).

 

John.