T-55 to Tiran 4.

[Bullbasket]

On the left hand track guard, between the fuel cells, there are two boxes which are different to the T-55 ones. The rearmost one isn’t too much of a problem, but the forward one has the indentations in the lid which will be difficult to replicate. I made the forward one by laminating lengths of card until I had the required width. I then trimmed it and glued .5mm card to the top and sides, finishing it off with more card on the sides and front to represent the lid overhang. Final item was a clamp taken from a Hauler set for the Crusader.

 

For the front box, I used the one on the kit as it has the indentations in the top. That meant rubbing down all four sides to remove all detail. Once I was happy with the shape, I glued a thin strip of card all round the top for the lid overhang, and then added filler along the top. Finally, two more clamps were added from the same source.

Note. After taking the best part of an afternoon on this one box, I realised that what I wanted was in the kit. I think that the Israelis swapped the boxes around as this one was mounted on the rear left track guard, and the one that I butchered would have taken it’s place. You live and learn.

 

Between these boxes and the forward fuel cell there is a nondescript “lump” that I replicated with a square of thick card. Also in this space is the anchor point for the tow rope. The Tiran 4 had a different layout for the tow ropes. Tamiya have included their usual string type of tow rope which is fine except that it’s the same thickness as the 1/35th scale version. So I made my own from several strands of wire which I clamped at one end, and the other went into the chuck of my Minicraft drill. By slowly turning the chuck, I was able to end up with a better tow rope. The two end pieces were super glued to the ends of the cable and fixed in place, one end in the aforementioned place, and the other over the left hand hook on the glacis.

 

I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

Superbly detailed!, very nice...

Cheers and TC

Francis 👍

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Superbly detailed!, very nice...

Cheers and TC

Francis 👍

Many thanks Francis. Much appreciated.

 

John.

[diablo rsv]

Excellent work John! I admire your patience.

 

Wayne

[Bullbasket]

Thanks a lot Wayne. More coming up today (I hope).

 

John.

[Hewy]

Fine work john,the details are mounting up well

[Bullbasket]

Many thanks Glynn.

 

Moving over onto the left hand track guard now. Some of it is the same. I used the front stowage box, even though it has a different pattern to the T54 box. My reasoning is that due to damage, maybe they got swapped over. Anyway, that’s my excuse!

Just behind this box are the siren and fire extinguisher controls. I replicated these by adding a small piece of card, and the siren was made up from some pieces sliced off of a length of sprue and a slice of plastic tube.

 

Just in front of the exhaust, tucked underneath the turret overhang is where the IDF stored their pioneer tools. I took these from an old Hobbyboss Sherman kit.

 

Tamiya have really simplified the exhaust. It should have a prominent lip around the outlet, so I cut one out of .5mm card and glued it in place.

 

 

The other part I wasn’t 100% happy with was the heat shield. It’s a little on the thick side and just sits on top of the exhaust, when in fact it should sit on a couple of brackets. So I made a new shield from pewter foil and marked the indentations in it using an old ball point pen. The two brackets are just two pieces of etched brass, bent to shape. They were super glued in place and then the shield was glued on top of them after first bending it to shape and curling the sides downwards.

 

I've got a couple more photos of the rest of the left hand track guard, but I'll save them for tomorrow 'cos me dinner's ready, and I don't want to upset the household authority

 

John.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

27 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

 I don't want to upset the household authority

Heaven forbid! I just did a long catch up and am suitably impressed. This would be good in 1/35th, well done you for your excellent work in a smaller scale.

[FrancisGL]

Hi John,

The exhaust looks "professional", once painted and weathered, great ...

Cheers

Francis. 👍

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Heaven forbid! I just did a long catch up and am suitably impressed. This would be good in 1/35th, well done you for your excellent work in a smaller scale.

Thanks a lot Pete. I find some of the 48th scale tanks a welcome change from the bigger 35th ones. Once the postie has done his job, I'll have another IDF Sherman to have a go at.

11 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi John,

The exhaust looks "professional", once painted and weathered, great ...

Cheers

Francis. 👍

Many thanks Francis. I just hope that I don't ruin it all in the painting stage.

 

John.

[ScanmanDan]

Super sharp and inspirational too!  loving' those tools and the exhaust ring.  Keep up the excellent work.  (How else can I pinch ideas  )  Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

[Bullbasket]

Thanks Dan. Another update coming up. I've just got to figure out how to replicate those tiny position lights.

OK. Dinner done and dusted and household authority placated.

Moving back to the rear of the track guard, I added the rear box which I believe was for storing oil in. In the Sabingamartin book, there are three different designs of box, so I went for the simplest and made it out of two pieces of 2mm card, laminated together, with the top, side edges filed round. I then added two handles made from 5amp fuse wire, bent to shape. Once glued in place, I added four brackets to secure it to the track guard. I also added two spare track links that in the kit are mounted on the front of the right hand guard.

 

One thing I found from looking at drawings/profiles/photos of early Tiran 4s, is the fact that they carried a spare track link at the very rear of each track guard. But the sad thing is that there are no spare links in the kit, so the only way out of this was to make them. I did this by using 1mm card, cut into strips and the cut the slots into each side using various files. The centre guide teeth were made from pieces of .5mm card, cut and filed to shape.

Looking at photos, not all tanks had both spare links mounted, so I chickened out after making just the one.

 

That's the vast majority of the hull work done now. Last job is to modify the rear hull which means making the distinct IDF stowage bin. See you when I've got that done.

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

The stowage bin on the rear of the hull seems to have been made in two slightly different designs. Looking from the side, one has slightly angled side plates, whilst the other had a flowing round sweep upwards. All of the photos in the book are of the latter, so that’s the one I went with. The former appears to be of a later design as it seems to be on most, if not all, Tiran 5s. I cut the side panels and the curved panel for the base/rear of the bin from .5mm card. Once it was glued together it was a bit flexible, due to the thinness of the card. To give it some strength I glued some lengths of brass U shaped channel along the top edges of the sides and back (I knew that those items from my model railway days would come in useful someday).

The five ribs on the back are 10x20thou strip, super glued in place. On the RHS is a square of plastic, representing a first aid box with a fastener from the Hauler set for the Crusader.

The whole item was glued in place on the rear hull plate, along with the two towing hooks.

Final couple of jobs on the hull (apart from those pesky position lights), was to add some bolt heads to the bracket holding the rubber skirts at the rear, and a couple of bolt heads each side of the stowage bin.

 

There are a couple of flaps that go over the right hand, rear grill, but they will go on after painting as they are prime candidates to get knocked off!

So that's the hull finished (almost), and now it's time to move on to the turret.

 

As always, thanks for looking and any comments.

 

John.

[Pete in Lincs]

Lovely scratchbuilding and detail.

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Lovely scratchbuilding and detail.

Thanks a lot Pete. It'll probably slow down a bit now as the T-34 GB is coming up soon.

 

John.

[ScanmanDan]

Nice bin there John.  Lots of space now to add heaps of stowage and widgets    

Keep up the stellar work, I'm loving the additions.

 

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, ScanmanDan said:

Nice bin there John.  Lots of space now to add heaps of stowage and widgets    

Keep up the stellar work, I'm loving the additions.

 

Thanks a lot Dan. I don't know whether fill it with kit, or just add some "lumps" and then sheet it over with a tarp.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Moving on to the turret now. The first job was to remove the large periscope (I think that’s what it is) in front of the commander’s hatch as this is purely a T55/Tiran 5 item. My original idea was to just remove it and fill in the resulting hole and then make a new, smaller one, identical to the one on the other side of the turret. But this is where I went from being a paramedic to being a full blown surgeon!. I decided that it would be easier to remove the whole of the left side on the turret roof, remove the hatch, make a new roof from card, and then replace the hatch. That’s the plan, so it might take a while to do this work. Either that or I’ll make a complete dog’s breakfast of it and bin it until I can get a replacement turret. At the same time, I’m going to attempt to make the domed vent, common to T54/Tiran4s.

 

See you in a few days time (or not!).

 

John.

[phildagreek]

This is looking fantastic, with some really nice (& neat) scratch building & a keen eye for detail. Good effort! 

[Bullbasket]

13 hours ago, phildagreek said:

This is looking fantastic, with some really nice (& neat) scratch building & a keen eye for detail. Good effort! 

'Morning Phil, and many thanks for the comments.

 

John.

[beefy66]

Just catching up and it looks like you have been very busy with all the details I keep forgetting this is quarter scale amazing stuff  

 

beefy

[Bullbasket]

3 hours ago, beefy66 said:

Just catching up and it looks like you have been very busy with all the details I keep forgetting this is quarter scale amazing stuff  

 

beefy

Hi Beefy. Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. This has been one of those builds that I've really enjoyed, and I have to say that I do like this scale.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

Hi John,
the hull aspect, it looks fantastic, full of details, very good ...
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

[Bullbasket]

18 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi John,
the hull aspect, it looks fantastic, full of details, very good ...
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

'Morning Francis. Thanks for the comments. Hopefully, there will be an update later today or tomorrow.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Well, that worked out far better than I had anticipated. After removing the whole of the left hand turret roof and cleaning it up, I drew the shape of the hole onto a piece on 1mm card using the turret as a pattern.

 

Once it was cut out and cleaned up, I cut a hole where the commander’s hatch will sit. It was then glued in place with some filler added and put aside to harden. Because the hatch has the full thickness of the turret, it had to be rubbed down until it would sit on top of the new roof. Just like doing an old vacform kit.

 

At the same time, I made a start on the main gun. The one in the kit is the one with the fume extractor at the end. The one that I was building had the earlier gun, sans extractor, so it was removed with a saw. I didn’t have any tube of the correct diameter, but did had a piece of sprue that fitted the bill. I cut a piece to the right length and drilled and hollowed out one end. This was then glued in place and some filler added and then left to harden. I’ve had to include the turret in the shots of the gun because my camera, for some strange reason, wouldn’t focus on the gun alone!

 

Back to the roof. All rubbed down and reasonably happy with the appearance. I’ll apply some paint later to make sure. By looking at the RHS, I was able to gauge where the left hand periscope would go, and marked it. I then drilled a hole and enlarged it up to 5mm diameter. I used a piece of plastic tubing to make the periscope and glued it in place with some backing.

The mushroom dome for the ventilator was made from a piece of card, approximately 1.75mm thick, cut into a circle 8mm across. I sanded the edges until I had a flat topped mushroom and then glued that in place.

The completed gun with the filler rubbed down and a muzzle added using plastic tube.

 

OK, so that's the state of play at the moment. Thanks for looking and comments are welcome.

 

John.