Jump to content

Ethiopian T-55A


Foxbat

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, Hewy said:

Setting up for a really nice camo  and weathering job,  i like those white stripes

I should see if there's a Pan-African option, that would be a seven nation army 😂

 

White Stripes

 

Andy

Deliberately misunderstanding

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just been rifling through the box ready to take sprue shots and I'm now looking at Hannants wondering if I can justify spending more on bits than I spent on the kit, or whether I should just get on and build it. Decisions, decisions...

 

Andy

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Foxbat said:

Just been rifling through the box ready to take sprue shots and I'm now looking at Hannants wondering if I can justify spending more on bits than I spent on the kit, or whether I should just get on and build it. Decisions, decisions...

 

Andy

Andy that was my problem too  alas i chose a really nice 72nd model ,i I recently built (not quite finished yet) a mini art t55b in 1/35, 

I picked this up not from an auction site, but a proper online retailer for  £32-99 not that far off the price of a tamiya kit , 

An incredibly well detailed and modern tooled kit with track links and  pe included, over engineered a tad yes , but still  a very well fitting kit , my point is, as good a fit the tamiya ones are, they are lacking a little  in finness now, tracks, grills ,for a start ,and like you point out  and @PlaStixtoo ,aftermarket is needed to bring them up to the higher bar set by more modern tooled kits,but the price of the tamiya kits is a major hurdle for me ,and it all ends up costing more than a standard modern kit, i say build it , or stash it and get a miniart or takom,don't  spend another penny on it ,

Sorry bout that 🤗

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Andy that was my problem too  alas i chose a really nice 72nd model ,i I recently built (not quite finished yet) a mini art t55b in 1/35, 

I picked this up not from an auction site, but a proper online retailer for  £32-99 not that far off the price of a tamiya kit , 

An incredibly well detailed and modern tooled kit with track links and  pe included, over engineered a tad yes , but still  a very well fitting kit , my point is, as good a fit the tamiya ones are, they are lacking a little  in finness now, tracks, grills ,for a start ,and like you point out  and @PlaStixtoo ,aftermarket is needed to bring them up to the higher bar set by more modern tooled kits,but the price of the tamiya kits is a major hurdle for me ,and it all ends up costing more than a standard modern kit, i say build it , or stash it and get a miniart or takom,don't  spend another penny on it ,

Sorry bout that 🤗

Took your advice. Found a Miniart T-55A Mod 1965 on eBay but from Creative Models for less than I was looking to spend on bits for the Tamiya.

 

It'll be here in a couple of days but I'm in no rush as I have a couple of other models to finish first.

 

Andy

Happy. For now :D 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Foxbat said:

It'll be here in a couple of days but I'm in no rush as I have a couple of other models to finish first.

Clear the bench ,incoming ,It will take the full gb time up I'm sure, they are complex kits but so complete,and don't be daunted when you open the big box to find a mountain of sprues, a lot of parts wont be used , miniart usually  pack most of the variants parts in the same box, put these in the tamiya box 🤗😋 save a few bob for a future build ,a tip (you probably already use) a big bit of masking tape with the sprue letter on in big black ink ,there will be lots of sprues, magnificent but time consuming  kits built up,unfortunately  for tamiya's simplicity and lack of modern  fine detail still commands a  price premium ,which when the price of all the bits is taken into account mini art and takom can't be beat  in my opinion with this kit ,all the best on this andy 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hewy said:

,a tip (you probably already use) a big bit of masking tape with the sprue letter on in big black ink ,there will be lots of sprues

That's a damned good idea, especially when there are 74 sprues in the box, and you can't find the letter very easily on each one.

 

John.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Bullbasket said:

That's a damned good idea, especially when there are 74 sprues in the box, and you can't find the letter very easily on each one.

 

John.

Been there john👍

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it arrived yesterday and to be honest I'm still in a state of shock.

 

The box is the size of a small suitcase and weighs about the same as my house - understandable given there are 898 parts inside 😮😮😮

 

Included in that number are 145 pieces of PE. That's 141 more than I've used on all my other models put together. A quick scan of the instructions suggest they're not replacements for plastic either, it's PE or nothing.

 

There's no way on earth I could complete more than 10% of this in a GB (and that 10% would be all plastic). It's going in the stash while I ponder plan C 😕

 

Andy

Should have read the label

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ohh dear, i hope i haven't been in  part responsible,i did say it was going to be time consuming  and its a tad over engineered ,but   i have today spotted a nice su-122 54 in 35th scale for cheap! A few quid under £30 But alas thats miniart too, ok I'll  shut up 🤪

Edited by Hewy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Ohh dear, i hope i haven't been in  part responsible,i did say it was going to be time consuming  and its a tad over engineered ,but   i have today spot a nice su-122 54 in 35th scale for cheap! A few quid under £30 But alas thats miniart too, ok I'll  shut up 🤪

It looks like it will make a beautiful model, but I'm used to kits where the total parts count is less than this one has just for etch. Plus I don't do etch.

 

On the plus side it was well under £30 with free postage and my kitten loves the box 🤣

 

Andy

  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Time to get this road on the show. I've mithered long and hard. The MiniArt kit will be for sale any day now - it will never get started let alone finished so it's just dead space. I have a couple of 1/72 options, but I'll save them for another day which means I'm going to do what I intended somewhere at the top of the page and just build the first kit I bought. This is the box, looking all mean, moody and magnificent. 

 

spacer.png

 

Inside are some sprues, two big old hull pieces and a couple of rubber band tracks that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 70s vintage kit. 

 

spacer.png

 

These are the decals I'm using - mine is the stripy fella towards the bottom left. 

 

spacer.png

 

Creative's eBay store came to the rescue again. I picked up some replacement tracks for many cheapness. They will be only replacement - no PE or metal barrels for me.

 

spacer.png

 

Even though there are 4 attachment points per link they actually clean up quite quickly so I've thrown the first two sprues worth together already. They just clip together, but I think I'll run some extra this over them once it comes time to permanently attach them.

 

spacer.png

 

So there we go, another build underway :)

 

Andy

Edited by Foxbat
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Foxbat said:

The MiniArt kit will be for sale any day now - it will never get started let alone finished so it's just dead space.

You and me both. I'll ry and get shot of mine at Telford. They are beautiful kits, but sooooo over engineered.

 

John.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, PlaStix said:

Good to see this project is going to move forward and good work on the tracks - you obviously have more patience than me!

Kind regards,

Stix

Heh, what you can't see in the photo is all the swearing, dropped links and broken lengths it took to get those two done. 

 

A sprue a day still means 10 days before I even get to the point of trying to make two tracks out of it all. That promises to be 'fun' 😂

 

Andy

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Foxbat said:

Heh, what you can't see in the photo is all the swearing, dropped links and broken lengths it took to get those two done. 

Been there too andy , had the links pinging all over the toy room (mrs hewys description of my modelling room):dull:

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...