I think the tubes might be drain lines for the upper vent as hot air comes out it condenses into water which runs down the lines to keep from literally flooding the engine in water. oh and did you have a template for cutting the styrene plugs that you used to close off the holes in your T34's sponsons?

I just put a piece of styrene behind them and traced it, then cut it out a little larger than needed so I could fine tune the fit.

is very nice, make proletariat happy

Da Komrad Uncle Joeseph will be pleased.

jadgpanther302

is very nice, make proletariat happy

Nice update on the details and the turret texture looks spot-on. Soviet castings were notoriously rough surfaced and you've captured it nicely.

Thanks for the comments everyone :) I put in some more work on the turret early in the day and it along with the main gun are officially done. Time for some dinner and game time then I'm going to put in a long bench session through the evening. Just 7 wheels and the two sprockets are left to prep with the goal being to get this beast to the paint booth tomorrow afternoon if the winds aren't too heavy.

Ok here is the completed turret with hatches. The vision slots are off a little bit (one of them is blocked by a vent lol). I'm pretty sure the round vents, at least that's what I assume they are are supposed to have flat covers over them but since I don't have a punch and die I left them be.

A better view of the hatches and right side of the turret. I'm aware the latch on the loaders hatch is incorrect but I'm not going to change it. Cut me a little slack it's only my 2nd armor build

Here is the completed assembly ready to hit the paint booth...

After church tomorrow afternoon I'll wash all the grime off and get it coated in Russian Green, then set it aside for a week to harden up before weathering. I decided to go with the AFV Club indi link tracks as well so I'll use the dry time for the main hull to assemble and paint those.

Look forward to seeing it with paint on!

Here it is Model Master Russian Green over red oxide primer with Future over the top. I'm going to set it aside to dry out until next weekend then commence weathering.

I'm debating on weather I wanna do a tank from Berlin 1945 or a January 1944 in whitewash. What are some good whitewash techniques? I saw an article in FSM about doing it with watered down pastel chalks but I can't remember what year/month the issue was.

Beautiful texture on the turret.  Looks good with the green in there.

Nice green color,looks good

NIce and green! Lots of options for whitewash depending on your mediums of choice...and how heavy you want to wear it down. Do some research into the hairspray method if you use acrylics, it's one that has become pretty common over the past few years.

modelarmour.com/index.php This is actually the best explenation I could find.

I got to work on beating up the turret tonight. I sprayed the turret with hair spray, then used table salt for the chipping effect. After the salt was dry I sprayed the turret Tamiya flat white and while it was still on the wet side started attacking it with a thinner dampened boars hair brush. A few hours later I mixed a dirty white oil color and applied small dots and used a thinner dampened brush to pull them down and sort of dry brush the white. I'm an armor dummy so correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is what you call a dot filtering wash. I figured the unit markings being applied on top of the whitewash would be equally poor quality so I applied the kit decals then chipped them up to match the chipping of the white. Then I ran some thinner over them to bleed the ink a little and streaked it down to look like the colors had begun to run and wash off. This also worked to help fade the markings a little. Freezing weather, snow, and ice will wreak utter havoc on a metal vehicle and it's paint and that's what I'm trying to show.

Then with a mineral spirit dampened brush I further attacked the white leaving streaks and brush marks behind. Remember 1:1 whitewashes were applied with mops, brushes, even brooms in sub zero weather so it shouldn't look perfect.

Next up washes, rust, grime, drybrushing, and the like then repeat the process on the hull.

Looks good so far! The streaking of the markings is a nice touch.

looks dang good! It reminds me of how our white-washed vehicled looked in Germany after a week or two inthe field. Very nice.

Very effective technique

Gotta agree with Bill on the bleed of the red marking.  Looks nice.

Really nice weathering job; I love whitewashed tanks...I've only tried the salt technique so far....

Random thought....has anyone ever tried whitewashing a tank with.....whitewash (AKA lime and water???

Thank you for the comments everyone.

Winetanker: I never thought of it that way, wonder if no ones tried because the lime might affect hobby paint.

Here is the hull tidied up. It's shiny because I've been sealing each successive weathering layer with hairspray. Next up is drybrushes and washes followed by pastel weathering and mud on the bottom/wheels. Then I'll start assembling the indi link tracks and probably end up in an asylum afterward

corvettemike

Winetanker: I never thought of it that way, wonder if no ones tried because the lime might affect hobby paint.

I was thinking the same thing....but I DO have some hydrated lime...and a finished Testor's/Italieri JS-2

Might have to try some 'sperimenting....

Go for it! And don't forget to tell us what happened, might be on to something here. My bold prediction if it doesn't harm the paint it will react like a pastel + water whitewash.

Added some (er alot0 of mud to the bottom and running gear. I was gonna use AFV club tracks but in the end I went with the kits vinyls and set the AFV club tracks aside for another project. The mud looks too heavy to me but you guys tell me.

Doesn't look bad...maybe just too even.

what did you use...pastels???

Winetanker

corvettemike

Winetanker: I never thought of it that way, wonder if no ones tried because the lime might affect hobby paint.

I was thinking the same thing....but I DO have some hydrated lime...and a finished Testor's/Italieri JS-2

Might have to try some 'sperimenting....

You may wish to rethink the whole idea. Lime is a caustic material and in an enclosed space the powder could drift in to the air and cause bad reactions to things  like eyes, lungs, skin of the modeler;  not counting the other occupants of the structure....Of course safety precautions would be your  top  priority but  others trying the procedure that may not be so cautious. 

not reccomended  on my model bench

Check this info for Safety basics  http://www.virginiadot.org/business/resources/Materials/MCS_Study_Guides/bu-mat-AppendDAP.pdf 

Mike: Not sure if you can ever add 'too much mud'! You might drybrush the mud with a little lighter tan or buff to get the appearance that the upper layer had dried out some.

Super nice work on the T34 and the whitewash looks perfect. Wish I could pull one off that well.

Winetanker

Doesn't look bad...maybe just too even.

what did you use...pastels???

DUSTER

You may wish to rethink the whole idea. Lime is a caustic material and in an enclosed space the powder could drift in to the air and cause bad reactions to things  like eyes, lungs, skin of the modeler;  not counting the other occupants of the structure....Of course safety precautions would be your  top  priority but  others trying the procedure that may not be so cautious. 

Considering I spent most of my youth working in a white-washed barn, I don't think it will cause me any additional harm.

I made up a simple base with baking soda "snow" sealed with hairspray, then snowed up and added some rust to the tank. The snow seems to be having a hard time sticking in the tracks, in the end i said forget it. Far as I'm concerned this project is done. The front machine gun broke off and went down the sink so I'm looking for a replacement. Possibly I can find a glue bomb cheap to salvage one off since Tamiya wants $5 for the tree plus $5 shipping and CA sales tax which makes the gun cost as much as I paid for the kit on clearance. This tank being my 2nd armor build in over 10 years was alot of experimenting and finding my way. I found I much prefer a cleaner style build over the extreme war beaten appearance, more of a museum style showcase of armor types vs. 100% realism. 

Looks real nice Mike. Good effort on the used white-wash.