The Official 1943 70th Anniversary Group Build

I accomplished a little more work on my T-34 today. I got out the motor tool and thinned down the inner surface of the cooling fan deck. Then i completed cutting out the grill screens and cleaned all that up with a needle file. Boy that tool helped immensely as that was a very thick piece of plastic. If I was using the scriber only, I would still be cutting until next week. Now I need to come up with some new screen mesh and scratch a couple louvres that can now be seen thru the open screens. I will get some pics posted in a day or two. Just bout everything else is glued on the varios sub assemblies and I am almost ready for initial painting.

Stik - I look forward to the pics

cmking02 - thanks for the vote of confidence

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So after the sprayed on flesh colour, applied a dark brown wash - looks patchy in the open areas, but still have a lot of brush work to do.  Added the whites of the eyes to better guage skin tones.  Also added some tone to lower lip, looking a bit too pink as well as around the eyes and will have to address that next bench session.

For the chest area, primed with Mr.surfacer followed with Tamiya flat black. After doing some detail work on the leather jacket, worked on the life perserver - I think will add a bit more hightlights to that.  Sweater and scarf haven't been touched yet.

regards,

Jack

Thoe plin white eyes are looking kinda scary there Jack! But fabulous work so far.

It's shaping up very nicely, Jack.  Great subtlety on the life jacket!

Exceptional work, Jack!

OK, a few photos of my T-34 so far. The close up of the louvres did not focus on the proper point (of course...) Those were so easy to make from strip and rod styrene it's not fuinny.

but this is basicly what is under teh grill... huge improvement over the open hole and once painted will look the part... the number of louvres may or may not be accurate, but it was the width of strip styrene that I had...

and with the deck in place

replaces the kit tow cables with 550 cord (parachute cord) line gut

and the opposite side.... almost ready for paint

Looking very nice, Stik!

I wish I could post some updates on m yAiracobra, but the spinner is still not here! I guess I'll just order another one at Hannants this time...

Thank you sir. Today I finished up the last few fiddly bits. I added some foil tie down straps for all the stowage, the turret hatches, built the kit figures plus a couple that were in my spares bin, and filled a few gaps & openings that I had missed previously. All ready for paint now. God bless these older easy Tamiya kits.

So here was last night's work...

the foil straps on stowage

some improvised 'acces plates" to cover motorization holes in the hull bottom

a slightly better shot of the sacratch built engine fan louvres

Then today I shot a coat of Tamiya White Surface Primer on the crew figures that are up for consideration with this kit, the assault infantry figures that came with the kit, and on the turret interior. Unfortunately the infantry figures are in cool weather padded uniforms so they won't be displayed with this build

Afterwards I airbrushed the turret interior with Tamiya Flat White... on top of the primer it came out really really nice!

And finally I used Tamiya Rattle Can Olive Drab 2 for the 4BO Green on the exterior. While the color is a great match for 4BO Green, the stuff sprays POORLY out of the can... It was so thick and atomized poorly. Thank goodness that the stuff has really shrunk down during the drying precess. But I was not impressed with my first use of Tamiya spray paint. I do wish that they had this color in their bottle acrylic paint line. So far it is drying semi gloss.

Great work, as always!

I use some of Tamiya's spray paints as well (TS-14 for gloss black when spraying Alclad), but I shoot them through my airbrush...

Yes that is something I am going to need to learn to do... The can works horribly!

Nevertheless, stik, that tanks looks good!

When I went down awhile ago, the paint/lacquer dried with a semi gloss sheen, so that means skip the normal next step- a coat of Future before decals and wash. decals are now on.... turret numbers... wth a dose of Solvaset to conform to the turret texture.

Hey Sub, any chance I join with Zvezda's GAZ MM 1943? I just started building it, finished the engine, when I remembered the GB.

Thanks...

Stik - great looking work there, progressing at a very good rate.

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Not much done last weekend (having to work the rare Sunday), but today made some headway on the face.  I think I can push the highlights a bit further, and need to introduce some red back into the flesh tones - going to try some red pigment powder for that.

regards,

Jack

Your figure painting skills are simply stunning, Jack! Very impressive!

Jack that is looking great... those skin tones look really lifelike! He seems to have a bit of a resemblence (to my eye) to Jurgen Prochnow from Das Boot.

I have been nickle and diming my T-34 over the past few days, mostly working on some figures. My mainproject for the past two days has been working with my son on his Eagle Scout project, so that is #1priority until complete. But really I have about a day or two left of bench sessions to finish the tank itself...

Here is my T-34 so far. I just need to do a pin wash, flat coat, dry brush, and add the lower hull dirt weathering

the kit also came with this nice Dshk 12.7mm heavy MG

These are the potential TC figures I am working on for the build

and these are the assault infantry figures that came with the kit

and since I am doing Soviet figures, I pulled out these Zvezda figures to finish up

Very nice work, stik!

Looking good there Stik, nice looking figures as well.

Give me a few days... then they will look good ;-)

Hello gentlemen,

I haven't received an official green light from sub revolution but I decided to go ahead and post some WIP of GAZ-MM

Castelnuovo - that makes me want to paint a rusted 44 gallon drum. Looks realistic to me.

Stik - nice looking '34, I've a few in the stash. What brand/shade of green is that ?

Cheers

Tony

Tony, that is Tamiya spray paint Olive Drab 2. It is an excellent choce for Russian/Soviet AFVs, but sprays HORRIBLY from the can directly. I highly recommend decanting if you choose to use it.

have to agree with Tony about those fuel drums, very realistic. Nice start on this one.

Thanks Stik. I use those rattle cans on my cars all the time.

Cheers

Tony

Well then you have far more experience with those paints than I do. I am sure that helps.

Well teh past four days I have been working pretty hard with my son on his Eagle project for boy scouts so I have not had too much bench time. Only on breaks or after the day's work was done. But we are done with all the construction now and just need to install the items next weekend. In the meantime, I did get the tow cables painted and installed.. woo hoo!!!

and I did some more work on the medic/wounded figures

I also pulled this trio from the set off the sidelines, finished gluing them togther last night and did touch up/detail paint work today. I have an idea of using them with the Dshk from the T-34 kit...

Pin wash and flat coat applied

and drybrushing of highlights....

final weathering tomorrow I think

Excellent work, Stik! Both the T-34 and the figures look great!

That guy on the stretcher doesn't look in good shape. The T-34, on the other hand, looks great. Keep em coming Stik.

Cheers

Tony