Finally, my start WIP:
The kit is the old Tamiya T34/76 1942 model, kit #149. Right off the bat, I can say that the term “Tamiya fit” was coined AFTER this kit was molded. Details are not bad, but the fit is terrible at times.
The T34-76 in 1942 had mostly the perforated type of tire:
The Tamiya tires have the “perforations” but they look very shallow. I drilled the perforations deeper in a couple of the tire; I think you can see the difference (right tire with the drilling, left tire as is):
However, I am not about to spend 10 hours with a pin vise hand drilling 36 holes per tire, so unless I get a collete for the Dremel allowing the use of small drill bits, the tires will go on as is.
Next, I attempted to hollow out the engine side grills (yes, I know you can simply get the Zoom PE for the grills ;) .
The TOP one took me close to 2-3 hours and it was hacked in a couple places (ahem, battle damage?). The bottom one took me 30 min and was easily cleaned up with a sharp new blade. The difference? How much I “Dremelled” under the plastic:
The first time, I hacked away at the plastic FROM ABOVE, after thinning the plastic underneath with the Dremel/sander. However, I did not think enough. The next one, I really sanded from below until I saw the grill themselves show thru the plastic. That made a huge difference in time and final appearance. I included all this just in case it helps someone down the road…
The side grills are also thick; but you cannot sand them down. Best you can do (besides replace with PE grills!) is to score the grills and use your blade or folded sand paper to thin out the plastic; not sure if it succeeded or not:
The grills now look “used” and scrappy… not sure if that would be an accurate reflection of hard usage or just a construction blunder : ) opinions on the above?
Finally, I made a barrel out of brass tubing and some styrene, will have to wait till priming step to see if it looks better than the plastic version:
Some more minor steps have been done, in the process of filling in the old tamiya “motorized” hull holes and those for the cylindrical gas tanks, to be replaced by rear square versions.
Feel free to point out any errors, inaccuracies or issues! Only by second 1:35 armor, very much on the learning stage!