Iraqi T55 wreck nearly complete, lots of new pics

Stay with it Rob! Use the upcoming T62 as your motivation to get these done and out of the way.

Love the littlle details you're adding, I hope you get a nice bulk discount from whomever you buy your sheet styrene stock from.

OK guys, I'll stay on them but I've jumpedfrom the T55's to the M1 today. I figured I'd finish the M1 first then concentrate on the 55's. The poor Abrams was sitting begging to be worked on.

I have a couple of things to try out so the 55's will not go away for good, just a few days R+R.

Rob

After taking some time off from these two, I finally got around to working on them again. The two hulls are just about ready for painting. I have to add a few things first then it's priming time. The pics show some of the detail parts I added. I did add some more small details after these pics were taken. I'm not sure what I'll be doing as far as the tracks go, kit or AM, depends on how the painting comes out.

I'll take new pics just before I start the painting showing all the add ons. I got a bit carried away with some of the small parts. I initially intended on doing up just the one (Iraqi) T55, and the other OOB but you know how that goes.

 More to follow.

Rob

Rob  gotta say tat looks great.  All the scratched deatil really set it off.  But those fenders... I wnat to marry them.  Sorry manny

I think I still have the tamiys one pice track off my T55 if you wnat them.  I also have some extra Friuls if you want to scatter them a round the destroyed vehicle.

Thanks for the offer Marc, I have to check to see if the Tamiya tracks fit these kits. I have a Tamiya kit too but haven't gotten around to checking yet, I hate doing tracks and wheels and usually save them til the end.I'll get back to you on that offer.

I finally finished both hulls and took some pics before I start painting this weekend. Warning..lots of pics.

Now the fun part begins...paint and RUST Rob's style. If you spot something that needs to be fixed, please let me know.

Rob

You don't have to warn me about incoming pics!! Let's do this!!

Drink some more beer and get to it!!!

Right, this calls for atleast two beers Before I paint any model, I always go through the painting stages in my head to try and come up with a game plan. Since I'll be painting these two using two different tech's, I have to try not to mix things up. So only two beers for these guys.

Wish me luck

Rob

wbill76 wrote:

Good luck Rob! Going to look great, no doubt in my mind about the outcome.

DITTO!

Rob:  These should be spectacular...I can't wait to see what you do with them!

BTW: I built the Tamiya T-55A and the tracks are nice.  They hold the paint much better than their old kits...I recommend them...that is if that fit of course!

Thanks for the feedback and support guys. I primed and applied my dark base coat today, but had to stop there for technical reasons. It's been raining for the past two days and my moister trap isn't working right. After 5 min of spraying it spits out water and that sucks. I have to remove the trap and place it further down the hose line away from the compressor. No new pics for now.

Rob

I managed to take care of the spray gun problem on Friday and got the oils, wash and paint on one hull. I went to the local German club for a few hours ( and beers) and when I returned, SHOCK and HORROR. The hull was soaked with water due to the 3 days of rain and lots of moisture in the air, my reaction of course . I thought I thinned the paint to much at first, I then looked at the turret and it was covered in water droplets. The salt on the hull soaked up the water and melted, leaving stains and discoloring the paint. Glad I only painted the one hull.

Saturday was spent at a German fest ( more beer ) trying to get over the ruined hull.

Sunday, I managed to do some thing with the ugly paint job, not very happy with it but I still have the other hull and have learned a lesson. Here is how the hull looks, still more work to do on it and maybe it'll be ok.

I'll be painting the wheels when I get a chance, and hopefully they turn out OK.

Rob

It looks fine to me Rob.

Thanks guys. Yep, I couldn't do what I wanted to do. The paint was blotchy but I managed to fix it on the upper hull. The lower hull and underside of the fenders still have some blotchy spots I have to try and fix. I guess it didn't turn out the way I had hoped. Boy was I pissed when I saw all the water on the hull and turret, wish I was in Texas for the painting phase of this build.

Rob

  Rob I'd swear that was real steel rusting and not plastic. Just superb, friend!

Rob if this a screw up I would take it anyday!  It is hard to believe that your T-55 is made out of plastic.  You my friend are a Master of Distaster!  You reading skills need work but your modeling skills rock!! 

Keep the pics coming and don't forget between beers to tell us step by step how you are creating these excellent examples of war's flotsam!

too funny Edmund, but true. Been having problems with the reading and retaining info as of late.

Guys thank you a bunch. Guess I had a mental image of how I wanted it look and with the moisture problem things just got screwed up. I always have the Iraqi tank to play with, then I'll be trying something else on a ---

I've put the Tamiya T55 on hold for now, some thing special in the works for that one. I'll be teaming up with a good friend and model builder on that little project. 

Rob

Rob: I don't know what you're seeing!?  What I see looks absolutely stunning!!!!  That has got to be one of the finest worn looks I've ever seen.  I'm picturing myself sitting with disastermaster with a tear in our eyes as we oogle your work...drooling too of course.  I say, stay where you live and do a little rain-dance next time you get to this phase of construction.

I'll have to go back and check out your chipping technique...are there pic's on this thread?

Thanks dude, I guess it's because I know how it looked before, what a mess the water made with the paint.

There is a how-to on the second page of this thread, hope it helps you.

Rob

Jeez...well if I ever get to the point where my skills are solid enough to attempt something like this, I'll PM you to see how you got that water problem.

scratchmod, I spent a year in the Sandbox, and as far as I can tell, if you took this build and shot pics of it with the right backdrop, it could pass for an actual battlefield wreck. The rust and metal wear are that spot-on. Your mods to the fenders, especially the on-fender fittings, are the difference between a well-rusted plastic model and a stunning replication of the real thing.

The coolest wrecks were the ones that had been blown in place before we got there, or else had simply run out of fuel or something, and had been left to rot in the Iraqi sun. On my base, there was actually a plane that had been destroyed during the Gulf War in '91, and they'd never bothered to remove it. By the time I saw it in 2004, it looked pretty cool. There was a T-55 hull, no turret, that looked just like yours here, but it had been used as a dumpster. Couldn't empty it, so they'd just left it. It had roadwheels but the rubber had been burned off, and the tracks were gone. I don't think I got any pics.

hey Bodg, the wife calls it my junk.

Jthurston...thanks dude. Unfortunetily I can't find any of the photos I took back then in Iraq, I'm going by memory and pics off the web. My goal is to get it as perfect to the original as posible and I'm almost there.

OK guys, I started on the roadwheels today. Basically this is what I had planned for the hull to look like, but I had the water problem.

Here is how it should have come out without touching up the paint.

Here are the burnt wheels of the Iraqi tank, I couldn't help but paint them.

Another hour of painting and weathering and the wheels will be done. Sorry if the pics are too dark or out of focus.

Rob

I pretty much finished the road wheels, just have to weather the rubber later on when I put everything together. Here are some pics using a much better camara.

I will try to start the Iraqi wreck today, it has the base coat on already.

Rob