T-55 to Tiran 4.

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi John, 

Wow!, the level of detail is very good, and there are a lot of different materials along with the original plastic, it almost hurts to paint it ... because all that work will "disappear" under a coat of paint, even if it looks great ... lol
Cheers and TC
Francis.👍

Many thanks Francis. I'll start the priming soon, so hopefully, it will cover up  lot of the mess around the turret.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

If I'm flagging inspiration wise all I need is a quick update on your Tiran build. Outstanding scratch work, be good to see it painted. 

 

Atb

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

If I'm flagging inspiration wise all I need is a quick update on your Tiran build. Outstanding scratch work, be good to see it painted. 

 

Atb

Darryl 

Thanks Darryl. That's very nice of you to say.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Time to get this one moving again, although I still haven't received my decals from Peddinghaus. In fact, despite two emails, I can't get any reply from him.

Anyway, on with the painting. Due to the current situation, I’ve run out of my normal primer, ie; Halfords Grey acrylic auto primer, so had to resort to the back up, which is the white version. Not ideal, but needs must.

For the top coat, I used AK’s Sand Grey, which is supposed to be for 1967-73. As well as that one, I’ve got Vallejo’s Sand Grey, also for the same time period, but a totally different colour. Going by the colour profiles in the Sabingamartin book on the Tiran 4, AK’s seemed to be more correct. I’m quite happy with the result.

 

 

Next stage is to get some detail painting done.

 

John.

 

[M3talpig]

4 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

although I still haven't received my decals from Peddinghaus.

Just curious John whats the normal turnaround time on Peddinghaus stuff ....i've got there shop in my saved links and he has some stuff i thought about ordering but always a bit nervous about ordering from abroad

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, M3talpig said:

Just curious John whats the normal turnaround time on Peddinghaus stuff ....i've got there shop in my saved links and he has some stuff i thought about ordering but always a bit nervous about ordering from abroad

In the past, I've not had any problems with Ernst. I've contacted him on two or three occasions to ask if he could make some decals from drawings/profiles that I supplied to him, and the answer has always been Yes, and the decals have turned up within a couple of weeks, and he's never charged me more than 15 euros for each set. This time though, I can't get a  reply from him. I don't know if he's caught the virus or if the lockdown has reduced his workforce so that he's behind with orders. He usually replies quite promptly, but not this time. If you do want to order decals from him, maybe an inquiry would be the best bet, before committing any money.

 

John.

[Jasper dog]

Looking good there John, nice to see this back in the game.

The paint has really brought it to life, interesting tip on the colours, not that I've any use for Sand Grey yet but who knows...

 

Cheers

Darryl 

[M3talpig]

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

I don't know if he's caught the virus or if the lockdown has reduced his workforce so that he's behind with orders. He usually replies quite promptly, but not this time. If you do want to order decals from him, maybe an inquiry would be the best bet, before committing any money.

 

More than likely due to the lockdown as you say.....thanks for the heads up will shoot an email before i order.....cheers John

 

Steve

Edited July 20, 2020 by M3talpig

[Bullbasket]

52 minutes ago, M3talpig said:

More than likely due to the lockdown as you say.....thanks for the heads up will shoot an email before i order.....cheers John

 

Steve

Let me know if you get a reply.

 

John.

[M3talpig]

26 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Let me know if you get a reply.

 

John.

Will do

 

Steve

[Vaastav]

Great Work John. Very real, now all we need are some Israelis...

[Bullbasket]

8 hours ago, Vaastav said:

Great Work John. Very real, now all we need are some Israelis...

Thanks a lot Ivor. I'm afraid that Israeli figures in this scale are about as common as rocking horse droppings.

 

John.

[Vaastav]

15 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks a lot Ivor. I'm afraid that Israeli figures in this scale are about as common as rocking horse droppings.

 

John.

I am sure a modeller of your caliber will be able to create them (from maybe U.S and other figures)

[Kris B]

Nice, hope your decals arrive finally. 

[Bullbasket]

9 hours ago, Vaastav said:

I am sure a modeller of your caliber will be able to create them (from maybe U.S and other figures)

The thing is, figures are secondary. The model is the main thing. If I can add a suitable figure, I will, but if there's none available, then I'll do without.

3 hours ago, Kris B said:

Nice, hope your decals arrive finally. 

Thanks Chris. I'm at the point now of giving up on Peddinghaus, and having a go at making my own.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Well, I’ve given up on Peddinghaus coming up with the decals, in fact, I’ve given up on them even replying to my emails. So with that in mind, it was down to me to come up with an alternative. Fortunately, the one that I chose has simple markings. A simple inverted V on each side of the turret which looks as if it was hand painted, so that helped. It’s painted with ExtraColour’s matt white using the hairy stick. It took a couple of coats until I was satisfied with the result. The gun barrel was masked off and the white stripe sprayed on. Then it was given a coat of Vallejo’s gloss varnish and left to dry.

 

 

The only other markings are the registration number 109158, front and back. For these I first applied a strip of black decal. The numbers came from a couple of sources. 10915 came from a Hasegawa sheet for the F5F Panther and the 8 from the Airfix Banshee. At the end of the number there is a dash and the Hebrew letter Tsadic. The only way that I could achieve this was to “paint” them using a very pointed cocktail stick. It came out a bit thick and indistinct, but in this scale (and with some mud and dust thrown over it) who’s to know?

 

 

Most IDF turrets had their own registration number, a practice that started in the late 1950s. The number for this tank is supposed to be 6826, but anyone with perfect eyesight will be able to see that that’s not what’s on this turret. I was lucky just to be able to find numbers this small, and again they came from the Panther kit. It’s followed by what looks like an upright 7and Tsadic. Again, the cocktail stick came into play.

I also added a couple of washes to bring out some of the detail.

 

 

 

24 hours later, the model was sprayed with a matt acrylic varnish and left to dry. Then I'll be moving onto some detail painting and working on the wheels and tracks.

As always, thanks for looking and any comments are welcome.

 

John.

[Hewy]

Looking really good john, i love those extra details

[BLACKCODE]

Superb !

[MikeR]

Looking good so far - nice save with the markings too!

 

I have my own Tiran near the finishing stage - a 1/35 Miniart T-55 mod 1963 (the non-interior version) cross kitted with their Tiran 4 Late (also the non-interior boxing) to produce a SLA Tiran 5. Fairly easy conversion to do but it does require some forethought and jiggery pokery here and there! Best thing is, apart from the turret shell, the Tiran 4 kit has the same sprues as Miniart's T-54A kit so I think I'll be building one of those in Egyptian colours, probably a 1967 one with the later twin light cluster and fuel tank fittings on the rear plate.

 

Mike.

[Jasper dog]

Hi John, nice to see this one back, I seem to be developing a soft spot for the T55 and its variants. 

 

Good work on the markings. I always think painted markings look better than decals anyway, almost impossible for the smaller details like the number plates unfortunately. 

 

Cheers

Darryl 

[Bullbasket]

12 hours ago, Hewy said:

Looking really good john, i love those extra details

 

12 hours ago, BLACKCODE said:

Superb !

Thanks a lot for your comments, they're very much appreciated.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, MikeR said:

Looking good so far - nice save with the markings too!

 

I have my own Tiran near the finishing stage - a 1/35 Miniart T-55 mod 1963 (the non-interior version) cross kitted with their Tiran 4 Late (also the non-interior boxing) to produce a SLA Tiran 5. Fairly easy conversion to do but it does require some forethought and jiggery pokery here and there! Best thing is, apart from the turret shell, the Tiran 4 kit has the same sprues as Miniart's T-54A kit so I think I'll be building one of those in Egyptian colours, probably a 1967 one with the later twin light cluster and fuel tank fittings on the rear plate.

 

Mike.

Thanks for the comments Mike. Yes I've also got a Miniart Tiran 4 along with a Takom version. When finished, one will be original 100mm gun armament and the other 105mm. When I get around to them.

 

John.

[M3talpig]

Thats coming along well John....lots of scope for weathering on this project especially chipping and paint wear and soot and oil around the exhaust....really looking forward to seeing your process with this.

 

Steve

[diablo rsv]

Very nice work John.

I've been using a desktop cutting plotter to make vinyl masks in place of decals where possible. those turret numbers would be pushing it's limits though.

 

Wayne

[Bullbasket]

8 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

Hi John, nice to see this one back, I seem to be developing a soft spot for the T55 and its variants. 

 

Good work on the markings. I always think painted markings look better than decals anyway, almost impossible for the smaller details like the number plates unfortunately. 

 

Hi Darryl, and many thanks. Yes, I agree. I'm getting a real liking for the T-54/Tiran 4 and T-55/Tiran 5. I just need to find someone to make a 105mm in 1/48th scale. And those markings were quite reasonable to do, so long as I have enough old decal sheets with the correct size numbers.

 

John.