Pawel

Hello Russ!

Lookin' good! This tank is kinda special for me because there are a couple of them in my home town. One in a museum I used to visit with my grandpa and my pops:

There's is also a second on they have in running condition(!) at the military school:

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

 

That is sweet. My favorite Russian tank. Brute of an armored vehicle with that 122mm

She looks good in green.

Oh wow Pawel she's in beautiful condition and the running one, that would be amazing to see an actual IS-II operating!

They are big things, aren't they....  

So I decided to try oils again, but not the way I did (unsuccessfully) with the Magach7 recently. This time I experimented first, using a hunk of an old Dragon T72 hull, painted with the same Krylon green, and different mixes of the oils I wanted to use, first pic. I then did the IS turret, and took a pic on the un-treated hull, for contrast. Third pic is a hull shot. I'm using alighter blend on upper, well-lit surfaces, and adding more blue on the shaded or lower areas. I'm also keeping the use of white spirit to an absolute minimum this time, in order to protect the base coat. So far, so good.

The pics:

IMG_0448 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0450 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0453 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Looks cool, I like the idea of using more blue in the shadowed areas. 

I've been following Karl and other's  tutorials on this but I still tend to leave them either too heavy or wipe so much away I might not as well even put them on. 

It's a balancing act, for sure.

I did some more blending of the oils, then after a fat (Testors Dullcote) and then did some highlighting with acrylics. So far:

IMG_0455 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0456 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

That's making a very realistic scale apperance

Thanks.

I've been pretty busy on this one, snatching an hour or two here and there, and have managed to get almost finished. I still need to add a couple of small rust stains at the turret ring drains, the radio antenna once I determine its length, and maybe tow cables.

I used the kit decals for the turret and hull numbers, and unot marking, but the film was thick enough that my texturing was subdued under decals, so I had to re-texture with a mix of Vallejo acrylic paint and putty, then using a brush and more Vallejo paint, go over all the white as it was not opaque. After a shot of flat, weathering was begun, using off-the-shelf products from Vallejo and Mig, followed by my mixture of alcohol and Tamiya acrylic tans.

Almost done:

IMG_0463 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0465 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0462 - Copy by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0460 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

She's looking fine!!! 

Thanks G. I'm happy with this one myself.

I like the white stripe and markings. Kind of breaks things up and makes it appear more interesting.

 Ok, I step away from the forum a few days and you have this finished when I get back.

Well, that's a good thing.

Overall I'd say this project turned out really nice.

I just love the color you used to finish those tracks.

Russ,

Tremendous work on this! Your weathering and paint tones are spot-on! The finsih is quite impressive! This is one great-looking model; much nice and more correct than the old Dragon kit.

Make sure you silver those guide horns.

Thanks all! In case I haven't said so recently, this is a really good kit, a real pleasure to build.

Karl, thanks! I still need to brighten the guide horns some more , and darken the inside of the links where there is no contact with the road wheels or drive sprocket.

Almost there though.

All done! I have to say, it's been while since I really finished something, and part of why I went all the way on this one may be that it's such a good kit. I never had the desire to set it aside and come back to it like I do with so many other projects.

So, pics taken outdoors with a litght cloud cover, with a couple on an old Verlinden dio base that I use for generic European shots.

IMG_0475 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0476 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0477 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0478 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0480 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

IMG_0482 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Ohhhhhhh, that's some sharp work! Love how she turned out. 

She looks ready to storm Berlin!!! 

WOW! That is phenominal, Russ! All that filtering work really gave it some serious life!

That looks real!

Thanks guys. I feel like I've passed a milestone here, actually goning start to finish on a model, no breaks to "recover", no "time outs", all done in one shot. Credit goes to the Tamiya crew for their superb engineering, for boxing a superb kit.

Now maybe to finish the Magach?