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Tamiya T-55A 1/35 (WIP)


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Great job, well done. 

 

I would like to do a suggestion...In my humble opinion it is necessary to cement the links over the first and last road wheel to give a natural look (weight).

 

Cheers

 

Edited by Carius
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I agree with Carius.  This is a problem with vinyl tracks on many tank types: they don't sag properly.  Vinyl tracks also tend to shrug off most forms of adhesive and pop loose over time.  Old School ways of dealing with this included using black sewing thread or nylon fishing line to tie the top and bottom track runs together between the inner and outer wheels.  Another method was to drill small holes in the lower hull sides and insert black-painted dressmaker's pins (with the heads clipped off) above the tracks to hold them down.

 

Top tips. weld metal doesn't rust - ever.  It remains bright shiny silvery metal for ever.  Armour plate is a dark chocolate brown colour so you won't find shiny silver wear here - ever.  Areas like fuel tanks and trackguards that are mild steel will show shiny silvery wear, but will rust quickly.  Armour plate contains many corrosion-inhibiting elements like nickel and manganese and rusts only very slowly.  Russian tracks have a high manganese content and therefore do not show orange rust.  Their tracks rust from mid to dark brown.

 

Your unditching log isn't held on by anything.  It would have 2 straps. A glass window was often fitted to the sight aperture to the left of the main gun.

 

The T-55A re-introduced the DShK AA MG (it was dropped on the T-55 initial model 1958), although it wasn't always carried.  Usually it was, or at least the empty mounting.

 

The kit has some issues you can't correct now.  There is none of the very obvious fuel piping between the fuel tanks.  The front wheels are wrong as the T-55A introduced a larger, longer-lasting hub which Tamiya missed.

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4 hours ago, Carius said:

Great job, well done. 

 

I would like to do a suggestion...In my humble opinion it is necessary to cement the links over the first and last road wheel to give a natural look (weight).

 

Cheers

 

Thanks mate! Hmm, do you think there isn't enough sag on the tank? I was basing the track tension on photos like this showing the tracks coming into contact with only the three middle roadwheels:
spacer.png

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2 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

I agree with Carius.  This is a problem with vinyl tracks on many tank types: they don't sag properly.  Vinyl tracks also tend to shrug off most forms of adhesive and pop loose over time.  Old School ways of dealing with this included using black sewing thread or nylon fishing line to tie the top and bottom track runs together between the inner and outer wheels.  Another method was to drill small holes in the lower hull sides and insert black-painted dressmaker's pins (with the heads clipped off) above the tracks to hold them down.

 

Top tips. weld metal doesn't rust - ever.  It remains bright shiny silvery metal for ever.  Armour plate is a dark chocolate brown colour so you won't find shiny silver wear here - ever.  Areas like fuel tanks and trackguards that are mild steel will show shiny silvery wear, but will rust quickly.  Armour plate contains many corrosion-inhibiting elements like nickel and manganese and rusts only very slowly.  Russian tracks have a high manganese content and therefore do not show orange rust.  Their tracks rust from mid to dark brown.

 

Your unditching log isn't held on by anything.  It would have 2 straps. A glass window was often fitted to the sight aperture to the left of the main gun.

 

The T-55A re-introduced the DShK AA MG (it was dropped on the T-55 initial model 1958), although it wasn't always carried.  Usually it was, or at least the empty mounting.

 

The kit has some issues you can't correct now.  There is none of the very obvious fuel piping between the fuel tanks.  The front wheels are wrong as the T-55A introduced a larger, longer-lasting hub which Tamiya missed.


Thanks for the exhaustive feedback! I really appreciate this. 

For tank sag, I posted a photo above. Would it still be reasonable just to have the tracks touching the three middle road wheels?

For the chipping: I was thinking of applying a lighter green to simulate the scratches, and then a black-brown color to simulate the deeper damage (thanks for pointing this out btw! I was not sure what color the metal used for armor plate was. I assumed that they were a silvery color that quickly rusted into a brown tone). I'll try applying the chipping later with a sponge and a fine tipped brush

Ditching log: yeah, thanks for pointing that out. I had someone else point the obvious flaw I neglected to notice. The only fix I can think of now is to paint two rings around the log to simulate the straps (but the woodgrain is textured on the log so I might have to sand a bit of that off). Or maybe I can add some tape. I'll see.

As for the MG: Is it right to assume that there was an initial batch of Russian T-55As that did not receive the mounting? I can see from the instructions that Tamiya does include the T-55A cupolas with mounting but tells you not to use them for the Russian Marking options. 

All of these feedback really makes me want to purchase a Miniart T-55 though. I keep hearing it has all the bells and whistles out of the box. Thanks again!

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13 minutes ago, James Nigel Panganiban said:

For tank sag, I posted a photo above. Would it still be reasonable just to have the tracks touching the three middle road wheels?

I think that it's not so much whether or not it's touching the 2nd/3rd/4th road wheels. That's fine. It's the angle that the track comes off of the drive sprocket and the idler. It should be horizontal or dipping down. Because of the nature of the material that the tracks are made out of, namely vinyl, they are stiff and therefore are still slightly on the upwards instead of dropping down. I hope that makes sense.

 

John.

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1 hour ago, James Nigel Panganiban said:

As for the MG: Is it right to assume that there was an initial batch of Russian T-55As that did not receive the mounting?

One of the key differences between the T-55 M1958 and the T-55A M1963 was the re-introduction of the AA MG previously carried on the T-54s.  So I would say no.  Of coure the user unit might have removed it for peacetime training. 

 

Unfortunately Tamiya's T-55 kits are somewhat muddled with their features, inaccurate in some respects and lacking in detail by the standards of later kits such as those from Takom and MiniArt.  Even the Esci ones were better. 

 

The MiniArt kits are very much state of the art and the level of detail is fantastic.  But they are not for the faint-hearted, with a high parts count.  They use non-workable individual link tracks, which solve the sag problem but can be a pain to assemble.  However they offer after-market workable versions of the tracks which are easier to assemble, paint and fit.  This might be a solution for your T-55: remove the Tamiya tracks and repalce with MiniArt.  Trumpeter also make workable (and non-workable, so beware) T-55 tracks.  Yes many people swear by metal tracks but they are ferociously expensive: often as much as the kit.

 

MiniArt prices are also coming down to levels cheaper than the Tamiya kits if you shop around.  You don't say where you are in the world, but MiniArt kits can be had very cheaply directly from the Ukraine (import duties notwithstanding).  I can recommend a store called Hobby.Dn.UA in Kiev.  I've bought from them many times with no problems.

Edited by Das Abteilung
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