The kit I picked up with the Italeri T34-76 model 1942 (former Esci kit). Of course, I picked it totally at random, but some thought went into it once I looked at my choices. I avoided the Revell kits because they have individual link treads. I also chose this because I could use it as a wargaming piece, as I have Russian Front wargaming stuff in 1/72 - 1/76. This ruled out a Stuart, even though there was one at the LHS, and I did kinda want to do one.
Well, guess what? The Italeri T34 has individual link treads too!
![Laugh [(-D]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_newlaugh.gif)
That took a lot of time, and the instructions are a bit incorrect on how to assemble them, but it got done. Anyway, here are some pics of the completed kit.
I assembled the kit in two parts, upper and lower. I wanted the T34 to look the way so many of them do in the pictures, with no external tanks at all, so I filled in the attachement holes on the hull. This took time, but it also spared me time from cleaning up the inevitable horrible lines on the round drums. As I said, the lower hull's links were a bit time consuming, but it went together relatively uneventfully, though the fit is less than perfect.
I didn't wash the kit before painting, needless to say! I shot Tamiya dark green from a rattle can over the entire turret and upper hull surface, and model master Afrika Mustard over the botton, which to my alarm came out lighter than I had thought.
After this dried, helped by a fan, I drybrushed the upper hull with lighter shades of green. After that came a simple blackwash (black and water) over the grills on the back of the tank. I then assembled the upper and lower halves, and shot a coat of tamiya buff over the entire tank, very lightly over the top and much closer in around the bottom. I went pretty heavy to represent all the dust that the T34's picked up in the Kursk battle. I was especially careful to bring the upper and lower hull together using this buff spray, as there was obviously a nice neat line where the dusty lower hull met the dark green upper hull.
I then put the decals on the tank, and then a wash of chocolate brown over most of the tank, which as I've said led to my decal disaster! I actually scraped the decals off and reshot the paint on the turret, doing all of the above steps all over again. Not too big a deal, it just cost me about a half hour. What a dummy!
I then painted some of the detail items. This tank has the typically Spartan stowage and gear of a T34 in 1943, which would not have had a very long life expectancy anyway. MG and main gun muzzle also got a bit of paint to pick them out. .
Finally came the MIGS Pigments Russian Earth dusting, very heavy over the running gear and more lightly over the rest of the lower half of the tank, and even a light dusting on the front of the turret.
Last but not least I put some Vallejo white paint over the front light on the left front hull of the tank.
Voila. Night of the Living Treads.
(Diabolical laughter.)
It was fun. Not to toot my own horn, but the finished product actually looks fairly good, I'm shocked to report. The pics are pretty bad, so you can't see how nicely the MIGS Pigments help out a simple monotone kit. The Italeri kit is actually quite a handsome representation of a T34 as well. It even comes with a tank riding infantryman with a SMG who is a nifty little kit all himself.
Anyway, I was pretty happy when I had achieved my goal, and could go to bed! I'll probably wind up not using it for gaming, as I kinda like the way it looks, and all the MIGS will come off it if I handle it too much.
Try it sometime!
(More diabolical laughter.)