I hear you about vinyl tracks that are too stiff and thick. Very difficult to get those to cooperate. And wise decision to not go for AM replacement parts for a $12 Trumpeter kit.

The pictures are a little dark but over all looks like a clean OOB build. I don't see any seam lines anywhere they usually would be on a T-55. 

Great looking anti-ditching log! 

Thanks Sprue, sorry that the photos are a little dark- it's been overcast and raining here for about three weeks in a row.

So should it have seams? Did I sand them off? 

Lol the anti-ditching log is a twig from the backyard, I can never paint these things so they look right so I went for a real piece of wood there! 

Umm, you know some of the wheels are floating, right?

LOL! Just kidding! It really did turn out very well! And the anti-ditching log is fantastic!

FLOATY FLOATY!!!

Thanks Bruce!

Now I'm thinking I should start bagging all the twigs in the yard and selling them on Ebay for ten bucks a pop as un-ditching logs...

I do know a guy who used to go down to Radio Shack and buy a three buck spool of wire and cut it and package it to sell for five bucks a bag to auto modelers as ignition wires. I think he said you can get about fifty sets of 'ignition wires' out of one three dollar spool plus the price of  the bags and printing- he made a pretty nice profit.  

Well, you managed to make a hell of a build out of it regardless of whatever rough spots it may have had!

Same here.

Considering what you had to work with, it turned out pretty darn decent.

Oh yeah, the smileys helped.

that turned out really nice. i like the camo pattern. to hide the floaty track/wheels problem you could get a small cheap plaque, stain it, slap some modeling clay on top and make ruts  maybe 10mm deep, paint the clay dark brown with super cheap artist paint and glue dried used tea leaves for the ground cover. not counting drying time would take maybe an hour.

I think it is great just to see one of the old Trumpeter T-XX kits being built. The one I first bought was the Type 59B (Chinese copy of a T-55 with a 105mm gun). That darn thing was molded in a dark green plastic that was virtually impervious to traditional model glue. I started to try 5 minute epoxy and super glue before someone told me about Ambroid proweld.

The second one I got was given to me by a friend who only wanted the mine roller that came with the Finnish T-55 w/KMT-5. That one I plan to build as a carpet crawler with my son when he's a bit older.

Thanks guys! Frankly the kit itself was fine except for the darn tracks! Squadron did have the correct link tracks on sale for Labor Day for less than twenty bucks and I did think about picking them up and either ripping these off or buying a second kit (as I said twelve bucks isn't going to break the bank) but after looking at my bloated stash decided to rack the thing up as a learning experience and move on.

Wayne: I like your idea, and I did consider it but they're not laying right on the top run either, I could pin then down I guess but as I said I'm ready to move on now.

I do really like the Chinese camo though, to me much more fun than the kinda bland Soviet green. I do have a few more PLA tanks and AFVs in the stash which hopefully I'll be getting to before too long. I did note that they either have nice flexible rubber tracks or individual links.