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T-34- The Litezh Bridgehead


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Hi all

 

May I present the latest off the bench and into the cabinet- Tamyia's 1/48 T-34/76. 

 

Built oob but apart from some small details like the headlight wires, antennae and some battle damage to the turret. Typical Tamiya fit, only wish there was a bit of sag in the tracks!

 

I finished the tank quite a while ago now but the scene took a while to finish. I chose to try and replicate a scene from one of the bridgeheads on the Dnieper crossing in 1943 after the Battle of Kursk. A bit of history- In a risky move, Vatutin chose to reinforce a bridgehead held by a rifle division by sending in the 5th Guards Tank Corps to cross the Dneiper in the marshy area around Litezh (I added a raft and a discarded maxim to hint of the rifle divisions previous crossing). Many T-34s were lost in the bogs but some managed to forced their way through by keeping their speed up.

 

My intention was to leave the sides of the resin free to see through the marsh a bit, but it was in such a mess after I removed the walls that I then boxed it all off with balsa. The marsh vegetation was a mix of home made and shop bought. All in all pretty happy with it.

 

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Edited by GRK
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Excellent presentation, a diorama where the more time you spend looking at it the more individual details start revealing themselves and a comment that wouldn't normally be made about model armour: that's the best representation of water in model form that I think I have ever seen.

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39 minutes ago, Richard E said:

Excellent presentation, a diorama where the more time you spend looking at it the more individual details start revealing themselves and a comment that wouldn't normally be made about model armour: that's the best representation of water in model form that I think I have ever seen.

 Thanks very much Richard, i did enjoy doing the water although i need to get myself a heat gun to stop pesky bubbles from forming in the resin!

 

22 minutes ago, echen said:

Great T34 and riders and a fabulous diorama. The water looks so real. 👏

Thank you!

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Wow that is some build! Excellent all over but I have to say that water is perfect. From the foam under the rear tracks to the drips at the front 👌

 

Andrew 

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2 hours ago, Stef N. said:

Absolutley brilliant diorama. Everything from the tank to the water is expertly done and a special mention to the cracked mud.👍👏

 

Cheers Stef, the mud took a few attempts to get the scale of the cracks right but i got there in the end! I actually used some flory model wash to make the cracks stand out a bit- who says aircraft modelling and tanks don't mix?

 

1 hour ago, APA said:

Wow that is some build! Excellent all over but I have to say that water is perfect. From the foam under the rear tracks to the drips at the front 👌

 

Andrew 

 Thanks Andrew, glad you liked it

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3 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Excellent model, and very well presented. Great work.

 

John.

 

13 hours ago, Longbow said:

Superb work !!

 It an easy subject to capture, with the water, but you’ve done a fantastic job !!

 

Thanks guys, really appreciate it

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38 minutes ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

Wow, what a fantastic diorama! How do you make water like this? It's so realistic.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

 

Thanks Nenad! 

 

This was my first attempt at making water but I really enjoyed it even if it did throw a few problems my way. I might even make a ship just so i can do some more water modelling!

 

So here's the model pre resin pour:

pre

 

and this was the not so impressive result:

 

resin

 

So I'd used my lighter to pop the bubbles as they appeared but there were so many forming, particularly around the reeds (agapanthus husk from the garden) and after leaving it overnight more bubbles had appeared and cured. So i did a bit of sanding a drilling to remove the worst of it and then poured more resin into the holes.

 

I then sprayed some brown so simulate a bit of churned up mud and then put several layers of Winsor&Newton acrylic gel down, splodged and stippled. The foam was good old cotton wool mixed with more acrylic gel and the drips were thin lines of still water effects.  

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6 hours ago, GRK said:

 

Thanks Nenad! 

 

This was my first attempt at making water but I really enjoyed it even if it did throw a few problems my way. I might even make a ship just so i can do some more water modelling!

 

So here's the model pre resin pour:

pre

 

and this was the not so impressive result:

 

resin

 

So I'd used my lighter to pop the bubbles as they appeared but there were so many forming, particularly around the reeds (agapanthus husk from the garden) and after leaving it overnight more bubbles had appeared and cured. So i did a bit of sanding a drilling to remove the worst of it and then poured more resin into the holes.

 

I then sprayed some brown so simulate a bit of churned up mud and then put several layers of Winsor&Newton acrylic gel down, splodged and stippled. The foam was good old cotton wool mixed with more acrylic gel and the drips were thin lines of still water effects.  

Just an FYI, which may help out next time...

Clear resin molders tend to mist the surface with alcohol, while the resin is still curing, which gets rid of all the bubbles that form. 
 

You may want to run tests though, prior to committing. 
 

Lee. 

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16 hours ago, Longbow said:

Clear resin molders tend to mist the surface with alcohol, while the resin is still curing, which gets rid of all the bubbles that form. 

 
thanks for that tip, that would certainly be easier than burning my fingers with a lighter!

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2 hours ago, moondrome said:

Are the figures from tamiya too? Very nice composition, and the scenery details. I like the cracked mud effect too


thanks very much, yep Tamiya figures. I’m hoping that one day 1/48 resin figures will start to appear more and more but I’m not holding out! I don’t know how all these 1/35ers have the space !!!

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That's a masterpiece. I second all the comments above. The water is great, the idea is creative, the details are smashing. I loved the photo looking down barrel of the rider's SMG - dramatic!

 

I do see what you mean about the tracks. With a rear mounted sprocket powering the tank through the mud, the top run wouldn't be bar taut like that. It's not something I'd have noticed if you hadn't drawn my attention to it though. Perhaps if the joint in the track was made below the waterline with a link or two extra spliced in to give you some slack, you could then have glued the top track down to each roadwheel from say, 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. That might give you a wavy looser looking track? It's very easy for me to speculate after the fact, of course, and rest assured, that minor detail doesn't detract from the diorama at all.

Edited by Bertie Psmith
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Great dio. Resin is a bugger to work with. Youve executed that one bang on. Top drawer stuff. Did a similar scene a few year back and nearly melted half the base due to a tiny pin gentleman's parts letting resin into the foam base. 

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On 21/07/2021 at 18:49, Shalako said:

I don't know how you did it BUT the realism of the stirred waters is phenomenal !!!!

 

On 21/07/2021 at 20:11, Bertie Psmith said:

That's a masterpiece. I second all the comments above. The water is great, the idea is creative, the details are smashing. I loved the photo looking down barrel of the rider's SMG - dramatic!

 

I do see what you mean about the tracks. With a rear mounted sprocket powering the tank through the mud, the top run wouldn't be bar taut like that. It's not something I'd have noticed if you hadn't drawn my attention to it though. Perhaps if the joint in the track was made below the waterline with a link or two extra spliced in to give you some slack, you could then have glued the top track down to each roadwheel from say, 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. That might give you a wavy looser looking track? It's very easy for me to speculate after the fact, of course, and rest assured, that minor detail doesn't detract from the diorama at all.

 

On 22/07/2021 at 23:22, Red Five said:

Great dio. Resin is a bugger to work with. Youve executed that one bang on. Top drawer stuff. Did a similar scene a few year back and nearly melted half the base due to a tiny pin gentleman's parts letting resin into the foam base. 

 

Thanks all for your kind words. Really enjoyed the build and have just received the Ruben Gonzalez FAQ diorama book for my birthday so cannot wait to start the next scene! I've also got some metal tracks for the next build so get some nice sag next time!  

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...wait this is 1:48 ! - that sound you can hear reverburating around the internet is my jaw hitting the keyboard !. Incredible workmanship (and from my part of the world, well, just up the A59 !).

 

 

 

Ian.

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