Hello!
I owed a favour to a friend who told me many times how he was a T-55 Tanker in the early 90's in Poland and I knew he wanted a model of a tank he rode back then (he was a driver) - so I decided to build one for him. The thing is it was a very special variant - Polish T-55AM Merida. In the 80's Polish decided to modernise some of their huge fleet of T-55s instead of buying new T-72s to save some money. So they installed a laser rangefinder, a crosswind sensor, a digital computer and automatic smoke grenade launchers on them - and massively up-armored them. The resulting vehicle was called "Merida". The up-armor kit was developed in the USSR, but the other goodies were products of Polish industry.
Funny thing - one of those tanks, in running condition is located in Las Vegas - part of the Battlefield Vegas collection.
OK, I started with this kit:
It has all of the necessary up-armor parts, but lacks all of the crucial "hi-tech" goodies, like the Polish laser rangefinder, Polish smoke grenades and so on. That's where modern technology comes in - I decided to design the necessary parts and 3D print them.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/BPC4TY6SS/1-72-t-55am-merida-update-set?optionId=248082215&li=shops
In the photo below the 3D printed parts are painted brown:
Before putting on the side skirts I painted the bottom of the hull and the running gear:
And here are the photos of the finished products - just today it has been transfered to my friend:
Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day
Paweł