1/72 Dragon T-34/76 Mod.1941 Cast Turret - £7.25 reduced from £9.50 in Parabellum

[PlaStix]

This is my first entry for this GB:

 

 

If anyone knows Parabellum model shop, in Birmingham, then you may know that the 1/72 Dragon Armour kits are in the back left corner of the well stacked shop. I always make a beeline there when I'm finished looking around the rest of the kits - just in case there's any bargains like this. I bought it a few years ago.

 

Looking forward to getting this started at the weekend.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[Foxbat]

Nice. Polish markings too - always a bonus  (Although I have next to no idea about the history and organisation of the Poles under the Red Army beyond them using the Eagle as a marking).

 

Andy

[PlaStix]

Hi Andy. Not sure, yet, which markings I'm going to use. There's a few in the box I like the look of. I'll post some pics later in the week of the box contents - including the painting instructions and decals.

Kind regards,

Stix

 

[PlaStix]

I have made a bit of a start on this Dragon T-34 but some box and contents photos first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The detail looks okay for 1/72 and it's nice that Dragon included a bit of PE.

 

You can see though that, for some reason - probably they thought for ease of assembly - the road wheels come already paired up and not on any of the sprues. I'm a bit disappointed by this - not least because the edge of the tyres have some quite serious mould/seam lines:

It took a lot more effort to file these off compared to simple seam lines. Also, I like, usually, to paint the wheels on the sprues - so that's ship's sailed!

 

All the parts cleaned up, a bit of assembly done on the hull and ready for painting.....or so I thought. Looking at the parts for this kit and the Zvezda SU-100 kit (I'm also building in this GB) I noticed that the idlers and drive sprockets on the Zvezda kit actually had the holes clear, whereas the Dragon one's still had plastic in:

.........so out came the micro-drills.

 

The result:

 

A general comparison photo of the parts between the two kits:

 

Generally better detail on the Dragon kit:

 

Both sets of parts for the lower hulls really for some paint:

 

The Dragon parts:

 

First couple of layers of acrylic Humbrol 102 matt Army Green on - thinned with water and applied by flat brushes:

 

 

Next up I'll start my usual base weathering.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[modelling minion]

Off to just as good a start as your Su-100 mate, an equally good smooth coat of paint.

It looks to be a nicely detailed model.

Have you decided which of the options you will be finishing it as yet? My personal favourite is the Winter whtewashed one, but then I am drawn to temporary Winter schemes.

[Hockeyboy76]

Looks like a nice kit Stix, good luck dude. 

[PlaStix]

On 16/05/2021 at 22:05, modelling minion said:

Off to just as good a start as your Su-100 mate, an equally good smooth coat of paint.

It looks to be a nicely detailed model.

Have you decided which of the options you will be finishing it as yet? My personal favourite is the Winter whtewashed one, but then I am drawn to temporary Winter schemes.

Hi Craig and thank you very much for your comments. No, I've not decided at all about the finish yet. I like whitewash finishes too, but it will depend on the amount of time I get on it. The French Fancy GB starts in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to get some time to build something in that one too.

 

On 17/05/2021 at 08:41, Hockeyboy76 said:

Looks like a nice kit Stix, good luck dude. 

Thank you HB. I like these 1/72 Dragon kits. I've made a few other Dragon 1/72 AFVs over the years and got reasonable results from them. Hopefully this one will be okay too.

 

Over the past week or so I have managed to find a bit of time to do some work on both my kits for this GB.

 

This is the same text from my Zvezda build as my process was the same at this stage.

Over the top of the Humbrol 102 on all the parts from my post above, I first applied my usual washes. First to go on was Revell's Gunship Grey - which was applied very, very thinned, (thinned with water), with a medium sized soft brush. Once that was dry, I then applied a very thinned wash of Revell's Anthracite (again thinned with water) but this time applied with a very fine pointed brush - into and around all the details on the surface. To my eye it creates a sort of artificial shadow effect. Next up in my process, I dry-brushed on a lightened version Humbrol's 102 - this kind of creates artificial highlights. My only problem was that some of the raised detail isn't as well defined on this kit and so I didn't feel the results were as good as I sometimes achieve. Then the tires were painted with Anthracite using a fine pointed brush and, once dry, these were given a wash of very thinned Gunship Grey followed by a very, very thinned was of Humbrol's Dark Earth. This photo shows the results at this stage:

 

As the wheels came in pre-built pairs, they were very easy to fit. Next I started work on the DS tracks. First up they were given a coat of thinned Revell's Anthracite. Once that was dry, the tracks were given a dry-brushing with Humbrol's metallic Gunmetal. Over this I did some very thinned washes of Humbrol's Desert Yellow and Railmatch's Light Rust. I know some people don't like Dragon's DS tracks but I've usually found them okay to use. These were fine to fit but the join area isn't great and they look a little on the thick side to me, for Russian tracks. I think some careful use of some mud products might be in order. The photos here show the wheels and tracks in place:

 

 

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[PlaStix]

Quick update on this project. I have been gluing some of the upper hull bits and pieces in place and got the upper hull glued to the lower hull. I decided to try using the etched grill for the rear deck and think it looks okay:

 

 

I also assembled the parts for the turret:

 

...and checked to see how it looked in place:

 

Next I hope to gets some more painting done.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[modelling minion]

Yep, this one looks just as good as expected it to.😁

The running gear looks excellent and I have no doubt that the upper surfaces will be just as good when they are painted too.

[PlaStix]

Hi Craig and thank you very much, as always for your comments! You mentioned the painting.........

 

Over this weekend, when it was a little cooler, I managed to get some painting done on both my builds. First - thinned (with water) Humbrol's acrylic, Army Green, 102, was applied over all the upper surfaces with a small flat brush. Once dry, I did my usual overall wash of very, very thinned (again with water) Revell's Gunship Grey acrylic. When this was dry I used a fine pointed brush to apply very, very thinned Revell's acrylic Antracite, in and around all the details. The Gunship Grey tones down the basic overall colour and also gives a bit of an impression of a dusty finish, whereas the Anthracite emphasises the shadow effects. Once fully dry again, I drybrushed all the upper surfaces with a lightened version of the 102 - to which I had added a touch of matt yellow. I use an old flat brush for the dry brushing.

 

This was the result:

 

 

 

Next up I need to start adding some of the detailed weathering - plus I need to get all the additional parts painted. Hopefully some cooler weather will be on the way again soon.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[modelling minion]

Looking fantastic as always mate, your brush painting skills never fail to impress me.

The highlighting has brought out all the details very nicely.

[PlaStix]

On 26/07/2021 at 16:26, modelling minion said:

Looking fantastic as always mate, your brush painting skills never fail to impress me.

The highlighting has brought out all the details very nicely.

Hi Craig. I hope you are keeping well and thank you for your comments. I must mention that the crisper detailing on this kit means the weathering seems more effective than on the Zvezda kit.

 

Over the past couple of weekends, I have managed to find some time to get this project finished. First, I did a bit of weathering - by applying some very thinned acrylic Gunmetal, from Humbrol, which I applied with a fine pointed brush to some corners, edges and surface details - which I felt may have got worn in use – I look at photos of actual tanks, from the time, to get some ideas. Over this, I toned down the shine by applying very, very thinned Revell’s acrylic Anthracite – but I also used this thinned Anthracite to represent some other worn areas by dabbing it on in some areas – again using a bit of artistic licence. Finally, at this stage I add some touches of very, very thinned  Railmatch acrylic Light Rust to these areas. I find that this creates a nice dirt area in most places, but also gives a bit of an impression of slight rusting where I want it to. These photos show it at this point:

 

Next it was time for decals – not that there were a lot. Where I could, I cut away the backing film, to try and minimise the silvering. These decals seemed to go on well:

 

 

 

Then, finally, with all the remaining parts added – I painted some very light runs and streaking effects using very, very thinned Anthracite, Light Grey and Light rust. When I apply these effects, I often wipe some of them off, quite quickly, using my finger in the direction of the run or streak. This thins them out, making them look a bit more faded.

And this was the final result. A few photos here and the rest can be found in the Gallery and the RFI section:

 

 

Taken on an off-cut of 12mm Guagemaster Grass Mat with a sky photo background.

 

Thank you to everyone who to has taken time to comment in my build thread.

 

Comments and suggestions welcome.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stix

[modelling minion]

Just as good, if not a little better than your Su-100.

Another perfect example of painting and weathering, very realistic.

Very well done mate.

[Ravnos]

Again stunning work buddy, the weathering really makes it pop, I love the mud as well, really makes it look life size.