LVT(A)-1

 Vanilla Rubicon kit with additional crew. Painted up for Mike Andress's auction.

Tinkering with... T34T (ARV) [part III]

No apologies, more of the T34 T “Tyagach”, as correctly highlighted. Build complete now, off for priming, if anything shows the work involved and stages.

a) tarpaulins game added out of procreate/milliput
b) two types of tow cable added from twisted wire
c) engine cover grab handle added, with other odd detailing
d) foundation layer of mud
e) bashed the front track guards to reflect heavy use.

The hull is still in two, I can’t glue together until the driver is painted and stuck in place.

Three stage priming and foundation coats next prior to base coat. If interested will try and document as I go.

Tinkering with... T34 ARV part II

Well, who would have thought, this ginger stepchild of a build has quite won my affectations! I am really liking how this one is developing, and its the right amount of detail I can accommodate over the COVID lunchtimes at home. I will lighten up on the warlord sculpt, it is designed as a gaming model and is fine as such, so my criticisms are from a modelling and accuracy point of view. It’s a case of, “well, if it were me  I wouldn’t have started from here “ response!

Anyways, suitable disguised it’s looking much better, although still not finished but it’s certainly  getting there; so what have I done...

a) crew x3, warlord chap hidden in the hull and the two visible crew are Rubicon with arms sourced from spares, milliput-ed and fettled a bit to imply an interaction, clearly indicating positioning to tow hopefully. This is key to a good model as far as I’m concerned, and I see my stuff as models used for gaming.
B) rear deck detailing, scribed the missing engine cover details, added hinges and a rear access hatch obtained from a Rubicon rear end. Added various missing rivets and so forth.
C) stowage, still a work in progress, gearing up for the tarp work.
D) tow cables, crucial for this build! Made from stranded wire.
E) turret plate detailing, scribed armour plate lines , various ingress and  egress points, totally missing from the warlord hull! Going for a mid production ‘42 Factory 183 hull so no crew handles, straight armour joint and offset  circular rear hatch.

Now needs a cleanup, extra stowage and tarpaulins and it’s off to the paint box!

Tinkering with.... T34 ARV

Something for the weekend....

This is another Frankenstein build. I had a spare warlord T34 hull, without tracks ( will explain why  in a later post!) and as I’m not a fan, was going to spare box it!

Anyways, have always hankered to do  an improvised recovery version, an expediency deployed when the tide starting turning for the Russians.  Various configurations, with no standard build  these were old hulls with the turret ring enclosed and either makeshift or repurposed access hatches added. I had a Rubicon kit sitting ready for the build when it occurred to me I could actually make use of the Warlord hull.

The Warlord hull, for me, is generally poor, cast on towing cables, incorrect rear hatch and engine cover and poor handle representations, adding up to more trouble than its worth, just buy the Rubicon   Kits!  However the arv version would enable me to obscure some of these shortcomings...

The hull, as usual, was relieved of most of the poor details.  The track set is Rubicon, with wheel sets swapped out to represent an ad hoc salvage vehicle. Various bits and bobs from the spares were added, and woodwork etched out. The drivers hatch detailing was removed and a new recess cut out and spare box hatch added. The hull, as now standard for me, is weighted with polyfilla to add some “heft”. The grey surfacing is modelling putty used to simulate the rough rolled plate. Some panel lines have been scribes but a few to add, along with fuel points etc. This is about 50% complete, will add tarps, tie downs, handles, crew, armour welds and obviously towing points and cables.....

Am on a bit of a Russian theme at the moment; with loads of new ( and expensive) reference material I now have no excuse for incorrect detailing, in fact just off to remove some late ‘42 wheels from an early ‘42 T-34 (earmarked for tyre tread camo scheme)

Thought I’d post up now, as no more modelling/painting this weekend

Russky Studebaker....

Needed a bit of a diversion, so tried a mod based on a photograph, not an exact copy but it shows the same essence.

The source pic is from Ostfront Panzers, last year of war, kozitsyn vyacheslav publishing. The truck is the base Rubicon Studebaker, most mods being scribing wood grain and weathering prior to paint. I will add a full set of brass tarpaulin supports, have added metal winch wire and have a jolly chap driver nit in shot. The figures are Rubicon and I think I’ve captured the dynamics between them, so am quite happy. These will be permanently fixed.

On to Berlin!

Tinkering with... Rubicon and Warlord's T34's

 

 

 

 

Above, a tinkered and fettled Warlord T34/85, combined with a Rubicon T34/76 below......

 

First the Rubicon, by far the superior kit, but sadly lacking in the track detail department.

 

The hull below has been weighted and assembled. Some extensive modifications, including:

 

a) drilled out and filled the drivers hatch ( green material)

b) replaced all rails with brass rod

c) added spare fuel canister attachments and removed the smoke canister attachments to reflect research for this variant.

d) scratched some tow cables

 

 

Nice view of the rear hull, to show the fabricated fuel canister attachments and tow cable.

Below, yes it looks a mess! The white is from the polyfilla added for weight. The front hull has been carved out to receive a driver figure. I think he maybe from the warlord KV, either way he's not detailed enough to be on external show, but will work fine for inside. You can see the poor track rendition. I'm not worried about the hacked out drivers compartment as its not on show when the top is glued on.

Here's the hull with its turret, late version with "mickey mouse hatches", figures will feature later.

same hull but with alternative turret. Rubicon don't give you enough bits for multiple turrets but I had a spare turret base from their SU122 kit ( go figure!).

Now the Warlord T34/85. Kit is ok, not as good as the Rubicon T34/85 ( will come up later), nice tracks though. Not much spare on the sprues, so added a road wheel from the Rubicon spare set, it is marginally larger than its fellows, but I think it'll settle in fine.

As you can see, I have added mud mixture, both between the wheels and under the track guards, small details that all add up.

You can just make out the fuel and smoke canister straps refashioned from metal tubes, and the associated brass attachment points.

Replacing handles isn't for the faint hearted, there are between nine and eleven handles to do on each vehicle, that's removal, filling, sanding, drilling and bending!

For the handles, I made a jig to make uniform 0.5mm brass handles, a long old job!

also I removed the two cable wires, this is cast on detail with the Warlord hull, and is fine for one vehicle but a bit samey for several, another painful process of removal, but worth it in the end.

 

Some track guards removed to show off Warlords redeeming feature, the tracks! I think he will be fine!

Crew will be the subject of another post. The only real place for 1/56 Soviet tankers is Warlord, unfortunately their current offering is quite poor (out the packet), some ridiculous poses with cartoon features and outsized hands. Two poses are usable a chap just leaning forward ( above loader)  and a chap with a map ( used elsewhere). The commander pose is ok but I have binned all his supplied right arm options and am in the process of reconstituting one that looks reasonable at least!