Thanks Ernest, roster updated.  Seeing the pic of the JS-3 was a head smacking "of course" moment.

Gamera, I like the idea about watching TV. It will be the next addition to my work bench.

Ernest: Cool, built the Hobbyboss (I think) T-26 a few years ago. That will be cool looking seeing the contrast between it and the IS-II. I think the IS-II 122mm gun is longer than the whole T-26. 

DasBeav: Well, it's a boon and a curse. I'll admit getting distracted by it more than once. 

I painted the noses on the five zillion or so shells in the kit this weekend. I'm not sure they'll even be that visible. Which I guess is ok since some of them came out kinda sloppy... 

Ernest you have 3 entries and have one finished? Man I feel like a slacker. Its gonna take me 5 months to finish 1/35 tank. LOL. Love the T-26, That tank saw a lot of action before WW2 in Spain and Finland 

Gamera, hang in there bud! 

This is what I did this evening. Somewhere in the Ukraine is an inner wheel piece, so I had to make one. Just started to do some "scratch-building"? last year. Here is the final result...Sadly, this may be my greatest modelling achievement. Enjoy.

Gamera - yeah, it will be very interesting seeing the little 1930s tank next to those newer iron beasts!

Griffin - sorry, I misspoke on my earlier post. Only the assembly of the JS-3 is done; it still needs to be painted and weathered.  I plan on completing assembly of all three kits and then painting them at same time.

DasBeav - you're a braver man than I !  Scratchbuilding a large, flat roadwheel from plastic is tough.   In those situations I find it easier to make a resin copy of a kit part, but yours looks pretty darn good and probably will be unnoticeable in the back of the bogies.

Started assembly of the T-26.  Nice, soft plastic but Darn there are a lot of small sink marks.  I'm not going to worry about them though.  Just going to slap it together and try to fix any flaws when I get back home! 

Griffin: Thanks, I'm slowly chugging along. 

DasBeav: Replacement looks decent to me. Casting is probably simpler but not sure it's worth buying thirty bucks worth of casting supplies for one wheel! 

Hey DasBeav, that is some pretty impressive scratch building.  Nice job there.  I would not have tried that, so kudos for trying, and double kudos for pulling it off so well.

Still working on my Wildcat, and progress is being made (check out the Midway GB if you have any interest).  Reaching a point where I may have some extra time to work on the KV-1, which I am sure if feeling neglected at this point. 

Gamera - Yup!  Agree with you on the cost of making resin parts.  My supplies were purchased many years ago.  I think my first starter kit was less than $15.  The cost of a decent comprehensive resin mold kit is now up almost a hundred bucks!!  Yikes! 

Dwayne - visited the Midway GB and left comments!

Assembly of the Zvezda T-26 is moving along...just keep forgetting to take pics.

Update!

Pic of partially completed assembly.  Sorry for the photo quality....hotel towel and desk lamp served as my photo studio!!

Ernest: Looks like you've got a good bit done. I've got a half dozen or so kits around here I assembled in motel rooms and still haven't gotten around to painting yet. 

Think I'm mostly done with the shells. They turned out pretty horrible, thankfully they won't be clearly seen. In the past with clearly visible ammo racks like the turret of an M10 I've bought the turned brass shells for use. Just don't see the point here where they're almost invisible even with a flashlight/torch. 

 Hey Gamera didn't I see some tip/process in FSM of how to paint the end of shells or maybe it was aircraft prop cones, something like that. They inserted it into a dremel or something like that and at lowest speed the item spun around and they stuck the brush against the item and it came out really nice. I cant remember where I saw that.

 I think the photo hosting site I was using USE.COM crashed or something? Oh man all my post photos are gone and the site is unreachable. WTH??

Thanks Griffin! Actually the noses turned out ok. I couldn't find an acrylic brass that I liked so I ended up using an enamel. And when I brush painted it on it ran down the shells and created a few goobs of paint where I'd put them in clothspins.  I thought about soaking them in thinner to remove the paint but I don't think the goobs will be all that visible so I think I'll just leave them as is. 

Next time I'm going to pick up some Alclad brass and just airbrush them. 

Hope your photo site comes back up. I know what a pain it is to transfer over photos. I still have a pile of photos over on PhotoBucket I haven't moved to my new site yet.

Thank Gamera I'm trying to get other photohosting sites working. I swear I did all the steps right with google photo's, wouldn't work. Tried flickr. Did everything right, wouldn't work. SOOOO frustrating. Tried Imgur. Got it to work but only from a PC not phone. Pissing me off big TIME. I like doing everything from my phone. Here's my base progress. just trying out the size before I put ground work. See if imgur works again.

Anyone use Imgur from their phone here by any chance?

Griffin: I'm seeing this photo just fine. Nice base, it looks good to me. 

Thanks. Ya I got Imgur to work but only from a PC. It'll be fine.

When the PB fiasco started tried different photo sharing sites and settled on fotki.  Works pretty good even on cell phone, there is a minimal annual fee, but not outrageous like PB.

Well the hotel stay is done and I managed to get this far with the T-26...its looking like a tank!!  Pic came out better....same desk lamp but different background (kit box!)

Got the tracks on one side done.  The link&length tracks are nicely detailed but very finicky when installing.  Won't have another update until Sun or Mon.

Hey Griffin, love that base.  Looks like you are nearly done!

Ernest, making nice progress on that T-26.  Looks like the armor on that tank was paper thin, and the silhouette is high for a light tank.  No wonder they got knocked out so easily.  Track sag looks just right!

Thanks for the nice comments on the Wildcat.  If you get a chance to pick up the kit, please do.  It is a fantastic kit (despite my best attempt to ruin it). 

Gee Ernest, if you had an airbrush and compressor there you'd be done! 

Nice work! 

From what I've read about the T-26 it had the same gun as the BT-5/BT-7 series with pretty much the same armour but was much slower and less reliable. The Soviets had a lot of them when the war started but their production was dropped in favour of building more BT series and then later the BTs were pushed aside to concentrate on T-34s. 

Gamera, you are correct.  I had to look up the T-26, as you peaked my interest.  Article states they were vulnerable to the PZKW III and IV, but most were lost due to mechanical breakdown, artillery, and especially air attacks.  The main gun was 45 mm, and pretty good for the time.

The article did mention that the rivet construction led to issues where the rivets would pop when the tank was hit, and become projectiles inside the tank.  The rivet seams were not well done, and the tank was vulnerable to Japanese anti-tank infantry carrying molotov cocktails.  The burning fuel would get into the tank through the seams.

Thanks for peaking my interest.  I learnt me something today.

ManCityFan

Gamera, you are correct.  I had to look up the T-26, as you peaked my interest.  Article states they were vulnerable to the PZKW III and IV, but most were lost due to mechanical breakdown, artillery, and especially air attacks.  The main gun was 45 mm, and pretty good for the time.

The article did mention that the rivet construction led to issues where the rivets would pop when the tank was hit, and become projectiles inside the tank.  The rivet seams were not well done, and the tank was vulnerable to Japanese anti-tank infantry carrying molotov cocktails.  The burning fuel would get into the tank through the seams.

Thanks for peaking my interest.  I learnt me something today.

The Finns found out quite early how vulnerable the T-26s were to close assault. they would strip the infantry away and go after the tanks with gasoline bombs and even logs and metal bars to jam the tracks. early gasoline bombs used gasoline soaked rags as wicks. After the Finnish Liquor Commission donated 5000 bottles to the cause a sulphuric acid capsule was used to ignite the gasoline. it was the Finns who coined the term Molotov Cocktail. check out the movie FIRE AND ICE on youtube about the winter war. i teach it as part of my Siege of Leningrad class.

Ernest your T-26 is truning out better than mine. i think i can salvage it if i bury the left side suspension in the snow and "burn it out".

Between illness, family emergency, and classes i have not been here in a while. I did decide to overspray the top of my BA-10 with the lighter green. the 2 little BA-6s are painted and need some decals and weathering. am working on an AEROSAN 26 for monthly club contest.

Ok I'm calling this complete. I'm not sure about which Direction the tank is pointing I might switch it around. I'm not a great photographer I only use my phone but it came out pretty good. I have a pet peeve with the sheen on the uniforms with the naked eye you don't see it but in the photos it's shiny. Same with the stowage. I really enjoyed this kit. It's fantastic. The Tsenora Front was a major battle area during the Ethiopian Eritrean war. I tried to replicate it the best I could. Thank you for letting me participate. I look forward to seeing everyone's projects come together! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. 

 

You did a great job, Griff! Good job on the figures! One day I will try and paint them. Lack the courage. The water bottle? Where'd that come from?!?

Thanks bud! The water bottle is from Meng. The loader is having a snack

I spelled Tsenora wrong. Doh. It's Tsenona! Haha. Geez I shoulda had my glasses on

Hey Griffin, I think you did a great job on that tank, and the figures came out really well.  You should definitely do some more armor!  Thanks for joining the GB.

Good subject, and choosing Ethiopian markings made this one extra interesting.

Do you have a preference for which picture to put on the first page for completed kits?

Thank you. The first pick please. I appreciate it. Nice win today BTW 

Hey Griff, great job there on the T-55 and the figures look terrific! Even the base looks good, sets off the tank without so much stuff to be distracting. 

Kudos sir!!! 

Thanks Gamera! 

I actually made some progress over the weekend. Need to put a coat of future and do some washes....and tracks. Still a little apprhensive about doing the tracks even after watching countless Youtube videos. They make it look so easy! Finally get to start on the upper hull. Dry fit was pretty good with a little warp in it.