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Sardaukar's tank, AFV and wheelie thing factory


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Hello all

 

Since I got into scale modelling armour under lockdown Ive focused on mainly on WW2 armour and mainly British bar a panzer or two. One thing I love about the hobby is how it prompts me to learn more about the history.

 

Interest in cold war tanks had been growing at the back of my mind because mainly after ww2 most countries didn't build their own tanks and certain tanks became ubiquitous and none more so than the T-54/55 or Type 59. Ive heard it called the Kalashnikov of tanks which is cool. The number of variants is also huge.

 

1/72 T-54 and T-55 tanks kept appearing (like magic :shrug:) in my stash so it was about time to forget about ww2 for a bit and build one. 

 

I choose to start on the Ammo by Mig T-54B kit, as I liked all the non-soviet decal options it comes with, in fact is has multiple options for north Vietnamese tanks which I think is great (the kit is themed for Vietnam).

 

I took these pics a couple of weeks back and I'm largely finished the build but I thought the pics may be of interest.

 

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Up to now I've mainly been building older kits, this is my first recent mold/manufactured kit and Ive been surprised by some if its features.

 

There are jigs for the tracks which are great, but what I appreciated even more is the fact there are jigs for the photoetch hopefully we will see more of that in kits that are becoming photoetch heavy.

 

Actually having a metal thread/wire for the tow cable included is great too.

 

Decal's have multiple North Vietnamese options as well as Egyptian/Syrian for the Arab/Isreali wars (I feel an Ace IDF Centurion vs a T-54/55 standoff coming on at some point)

 

Cheers

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Fast forward almost 2 weeks and one bank holiday weekend. 2 weeks is about my record so far for actually starting a build and calling it done other stuff always gets in the way. This is one of the reasons I like 1/72, 1/35 might take me forever.

 

The kit is very nice, I wanted to try and do a good job with it and paint some sub assemblies although I've found doing so adds other problems often.

 

Some of the parts are very fine luckily I invested in some decent snips recently, far better than the army painter ones I was using which to be fair are fine for space marines and the like. Only two extremely small parts ended up with the carpet monster rendering a third pointless as it was a symmetrical detail, otherwise I built it out of the box. 

 

The photo etch has 3 parts, and in a lot of ways the headlight guard was the easiest of the 3, the jig for this part worked a treat, very nice. However the rectangular engine deck detail with rivets caused some pain, getting this on unbent would be a minor miracle. I did get it on but then ripped it off accidently the next day when trying to fit the rear mudguards, there was a moment of much swearing, however I managed to get it largely back into shape using a vice and two metal rulers.

 

The rear of the tank was a bit tricky with the suggested build order for the rear mudguards and other parts. The parts for the fuel drum brackets are exceedingly fine and easily broken even by handling. The one thing that bugs me the most is the lack of any detail on the standard issue Russian tank log and it would be tricky to paint this separately and then install it without also painting the fuel drums and fragile brackets separately. However instead of some realistic wood I decided this had been sprayed modern Russian green with the rest of the tank. I've seen several photos of Russian tanks where this is the case.

 

It has been base coated and highlighted by airbrush, a gloss coat sprayed and decals added, weathering is up next and then a final coat of matt.

 

When I built it I knew I wanted to do a NVA tank, but which one? The kit is based somewhere between the historical photographs and the museum piece tanks. I was going to go with the famous Tank 843 however I think id rather do it with a roughed up T-54B no front mudguards etc, so for another build. I went with the Quang Trung 729 tank instead. This is where I learned you cant stick a decal of that length on a T-54 frying pan turret too easily, it had to be split into 3.

 

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I'm always surprised by some of the errors I only spot (or stray hairs) when I see the pics on the screen.

 

Weathering to come.

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28 minutes ago, sardaukar said:

I'm always surprised by some of the errors I only spot (or stray hairs) when I see the pics on the screen.

I have the same problem. It normally occurs after I've posted on Britmodeller for all the world to see. :banghead:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did some more work on this, to be honest after watching lots of youtube videos I'm still not sure on the whole process, enamel wash on acrylics or on gloss varnish or satin or matt, when to do enamel streaking, pigments chipping etc, oh acrylic chips or oil/enamel. Its a minefield but I imagine I will get into a habit.

 

Anyway some washes and pigments later. 

 

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  • sardaukar changed the title to Sardaukar's tank factory in 1/72

Hello

 

Ive quite enjoy joining in with group builds, however my attention does flit all over the place when ever a new shiny thing turns up, so builds stall but so far Ive managed to get the group builds finished.

 

However other stuff gets done too although it doesnt all make the Ready for Inspection pages.

 

Inspired by @badger  I thought I'd repurpose this stalled WIP where I can show some of the stuff Ive been working on, if anyone is interested. Its likely to have a T-54/55 focus too as well as anything else I may work on along the way.

 

But first I thought Id share what is on my shelf(s) of doom. This includes all models that are in a finished construction state waiting to get paint applied or at some point in the painting progress.

 

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I wont go through and list them, this doesnt include started but unfinished models which will be in boxes.

 

Everything is 1/72 scale even those two cute ones at the front.

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where are the T-54/55s?

 

I kept theses separate

 

PXL_20210816_214321318.jpg

 

An Ammo T-54B that was the original subject of this thread, I never finished weathering this one, I was waiting on some enamel weathering washes and pigments and never went back.

A Revell T-55 AM/AM2B built as a T-55AM2B basecoated only, it's missing its second row of launchers on the turret.

 

Sneaking in at the back is a partial pile of parts for a T-55 Enigma, Trumpeter T-55 plus BlackDog Enigma conversion kit. More on this to follow.

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Great factory!

I have a factory that is a bit like it, although there is no modern armour in production at present; but seeing yours there might be soon.

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5 hours ago, echen said:

Great factory!

I have a factory that is a bit like it, although there is no modern armour in production at present; but seeing yours there might be soon.

 

I started focusing on ww2 British armour but a few favourite panzers snuck in. However it wasn't long until I was admiring the cold war tanks.

 

A lot of the British armour especially is old classic kits, esci/italeri, hasegawa and revell. Building the ammo t-54 was a bit of an eye opener at what modern kits can be in 1/72. Now I have a bunch of kits in the stash from the 'newer' manufacturers. Modelcollect, takom etc plus the likes of vespid and flyhawk. Too many kits and not enough time :)

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6 hours ago, sardaukar said:

Too many kits and not enough time :)

Know the feeling well! 🥴

 

And this isn't all of them.......

y4mnCDPksPRVjiYf_l8SAJ11Y5OyhETrEvhcBKFd

Edited by echen
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Looking great and I'm glad I've been able to inspire you to pick some of them back up again.

The Ammo T-54 is a stunning kit - one of the best 1/72 out there in my opinion!

 

Like yourself I have a lot that I've built but not finished off (probably 50+) and many many more part built.

 

Following with interest to see what you get up to

 

All the best

Ben

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Hello troops

 

Not much modelling this week so far however some aftermarket goodies did appear in the post from France.

 

I finally got my latest order from Model Miniatures, they do some interesting stuff in 1/72 covering French, Arab and Israeli armour mainly.

 

The star of the order was their South Lebanon Army Tiran (T-54-55)

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Im surprised they chose to mould the turret and barrel as a single piece. I'd be annoyed that the barrel came broken at the extractor but I'll replace this with a metal barrel anyway. (It does look like it would glue together ok)

 

The turret detail is interesting, does anyone have any real life pics of this configuration of Tiran?

 

It comes with a set of worn wheels.

 

I got some other bits and bobs but this might be interesting.

 

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One of their technicals, ever since watching Black Hawk Down years ago I've been interested in these and also I'm a bit obsessed about scale and I think this gives a great scale reference to the rest of my collection, we all know the size of a toyota pickup right?

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7 hours ago, sardaukar said:

Im surprised they chose to mould the turret and barrel as a single piece. I'd be annoyed that the barrel came broken at the extractor but I'll replace this with a metal barrel anyway. (It does look like it would glue together 

Looks a nice haul and decently moulded (unlike the blackdog one!). Not familiar with the details I'm afraid but I like the inclusion of the engine deck (wish they sold that seperately!).

 

As to the barrel that looks like the early T-54 type which is the same as the SU-100 (apologies if you already know this). RB do a reasonably priced metal one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100mm-D-10S-L-53-5-SOVIET-SU-100-TURNED-METAL-BARREL-56-1-72-RB-/361851001539?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

Be watching this with interest 

 

All the best 

Ben

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12 hours ago, badger said:

As to the barrel that looks like the early T-54 type which is the same as the SU-100 (apologies if you already know this). RB do a reasonably priced metal one.

 

 

Hi Badger, this is what I thought at first as well, but I've never seen that early a T-54 as a Tiran. But if you look at the below, that thing on the far right of the pic is the end of the barrel, it seems there was a bubble in the mould. I more than likely would replace the barrel anyway.

 

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Apologies - missed that. I'm struggling to find any T-55 metal barrels at present.

 

There are some from china on ebay at the moment under Type 59 barrels but they're a bit on the expensive side.

 

I have a stack of plastic Trumpeter ones - you'd be welcome to these if that would help?

 

Be interested in seeing some photos of that extra armour (?) in use. I've checked AK Interactive's South Lebanese Tiran but can't see any.

 

All the best

Ben

 

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I have a few metal ones I've picked up along the way, thanks for the offer on the plastic ones.

 

I think I got some from Zedval and also one of the German modelshops, panzerfux maybe. Ok as part of a bigger order otherwise postage can be a bit expensive. Tracks n Troops

if you dont mind waiting.

 

The only thing I have seen close to those things on the turret are jerry can holders so far, I need to exercise my google-fu more to see what I can find.

 

Cheers

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Hello

 

Ive been spending time on my Revell T-72 M1 that I'm doing for the less than a tenner group build, it is being built out of the box.

 

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There is a build thread on this over in the group builds if anyone is interested.

 

However I have managed to progress my T-55 BlackDog/Trumpeter Enigma

 

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This is my first time building the trumpeter T-55 kit and it seems decent. I removed a good bit of the mould line detail from the wheels with a file and a knife, I have aftermarket wheels but not sure they are any better than the cleaned up trumpeter ones.

 

While I've done a few wire replacement grab handles and stuff on other kits this is my first time doing a proper multi material conversion. Got in my fuel lines which seem to be a must these days, it helps that the enigma only has the rear two tanks. I used 0.4mm copper wire, which is quite forgiving given that I had to re-bend almost every angle twice to get it right.

 

This resin takes the superglue really well, you dont get much working time with it but that could have been the superglue I was using, It is gorilla super glue gel. Also debonder would seem to have its limits. I think I'll stick to the little £1 tubes for super glue in the future. 

 

Thats an RB barrel, I had to ream out the barrel mount with a 3mm drill bit and thats still a very tight fit.

 

Still plenty to do, the tie down brackets on the turret are broken in a few places so I may replace them. There is a lot more to do here than just gluing plastic.

 

The enigma once painted up should make a good duo with the T-72 M1.

 

Cheers

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Looking really good and great work on the fuel lines.

 

Once cleaned up, the Trumpeter wheels don't look too bad in my opinion and some of the aftermarket ones are much worse. Barrel looks good - I tend to always replace kit barrels where possible as I can never seem to clean up kit ones and keep them circular sadly.

 

I haven't fitted the turret grab handles as most of the Enigma reference photos don't seem to show them.

 

The T-72 is a blast from the past - strangely enough I have been restoring one I built 15ish years ago over the last few weeks as it had been damaged in a house move. Yours has turned out very nicely.

 

All the best

Ben

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Just a quick thought. I found the etched brass very thick and hard to fold when making the searchlight shrouds. Annealing it helped enormously as it was then soft enough to curve nicely.

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11 hours ago, badger said:

Looking really good and great work on the fuel lines.

 

Once cleaned up, the Trumpeter wheels don't look too bad in my opinion and some of the aftermarket ones are much worse. Barrel looks good - I tend to always replace kit barrels where possible as I can never seem to clean up kit ones and keep them circular sadly.

 

I haven't fitted the turret grab handles as most of the Enigma reference photos don't seem to show them.

 

The T-72 is a blast from the past - strangely enough I have been restoring one I built 15ish years ago over the last few weeks as it had been damaged in a house move. Yours has turned out very nicely.

 

All the best

Ben

 

10 hours ago, badger said:

Just a quick thought. I found the etched brass very thick and hard to fold when making the searchlight shrouds. Annealing it helped enormously as it was then soft enough to curve nicely.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Some plastic barrels are better than others and I dislike two piece barrels, however I think this kit deserves a metal one and yeah it looks good.

 

Good tip on the grab rails as I had noticed them on the Black Dog pics and did wonder as there is no mounting point for them. I am pondering how far to go with turret, possibly replace the loaders hatch etc.

 

I'll keep the annealing in mind, the photo etch does look sturdy.

 

The T-72 aint done yet still a WIP, it has sparked an interest in me for all cold war and modern soviet/russian armour, mainly tanks for now.

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This week I've managed to finish my T-72 M1 for the less than a tenner group build. There is plenty of pics of it in the gallery etc.

 

But I'll post this pic, this is both my entries for this group build side by side.

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BT-2 and a T-72 M1 showing about 50 years of soviet tank development between them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its been a while since my last update. Too much procrastination on several fronts. I did get a very nice black A1 sized cutting matt, the plan is not to use this one for pools of superglue and the like.

 

However some progress has been made to my T-55 Enigma.

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Ive done some work to the turret removing the existing loaders hatch and replacing it with hatch with the MG mount. The replacement hatch came from the modelltrans 3 variant turret set however it had a great big air bubble which became apparent as I trimmed it to fit, this required fixing with epoxy putty and some liquid putty, I may texture a bit more of the turret.

I removed the bolts from the bracket at the rear of the turret for the rear armour, I'm planning on replacing these as I thought they were a bit messy, so plenty more work to do.

 

I also finally received the Tiran 4 turret I ordered from Hobby Den and decided to use one of my PST kits to build a Tiran 4.

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There is only the two parts, the turret and the rear hull storage bin, the moulding isnt too bad although the base of the turret needed some clean up.

 

The PST kit comes with a fair number of options. However also a fair number of flaws. On the plus side the kit It has all the engine deck, hatch and turret options for both a T-554 and a T-55, the only difference being the early wheels in the T-54 kit.

 

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The PST turret reminds me of a beaky mk6 space marine helmet from years gone by.

 

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Ive put together the lower hull for now, but the upper hull will possibly need a major adjustment before I proceed with detailing.

 

The turret ring diameter on the Tiran turret is just shy of 23mm where as on the PST hull the hole is 20mm. The difference seems massive on the tank, only 3mm? The hobby den turret does seem to have been designed with the trumpeter kit in mind, however I'm saving the trumpy kits for bigger things.

 

As I see it I have two choices.

 

A/ remove the 'plug' on the bottom of the Tiran turret and glue on the trimmed down PST 'plug' to the bottom of the Tiran turret

 

B/ ream out the hull turret ring to accept the unmodified Tiran turret

 

It seems either approach has its own pro's and con's, any ideas on which is best? I'm leaning towards plan B although achieving a smooth enlarged turret ring on the hull might be easier said than done.

 

Also I think the centre point of the turret should probably sit a mm or two back.

 

cheers

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Sorry for late reply - busy week at work.

 

Great progress and as a long term 40k fan I especially appreciate the Space marine reference!

 

If it helps I have removed the plug entirely on several of my turrets then simply glued them straight to the hull top using plans and one of the trumpeter kits. 

 

Hobby den turret looks interesting - might investigate that as still not entirely happy with the blackdog one. Looking forward to see8ng how your tiran progresses.

 

Good work on the Enigma - I swopped the loaders hatch with one I cut out of a spare Trumpeter T-54 turret as I wanted the machine gun fitted.

 

All the best

Ben

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7 hours ago, badger said:

 

If it helps I have removed the plug entirely on several of my turrets then simply glued them straight to the hull top using plans and one of the trumpeter kits. 

 

I dont think my modelling OCD :frantic: would allow a fixed turret, I never even considered it but a definite 3rd option.

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