Splash's T-34 *** Finished***

[splash]

Bruce your advice on Tamiya Olive Green is spot on, I'm now happy with the colour.

To add the turret armour , I have stuck tamiya masking tape to the area, marked out the panels on the tape then transferred it to thin plastic card, it was then a simple case of cutting and glueing the armour in place.

[ShaunW]

Nice one, I like the look of the additional turret armour.

[splash]

A brown oil paint washe and small dabs of yellow and white have started to break up the monotone colour.

[gnomemeansgnome]

That's looking really good, Alan.

[ShaunW]

That weathering is putting some life into the scheme Alan.

[splash]

Thanks guys.

I'm happy with how the turret armour has turned out, once I have given it a couple of washes the detail should stand out more.

I'm contemplating replacing the barrel with brass tube but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort?

[ShaunW]

Nice one Alan, I rather like that. If you're not happy with the gun barrel and have some suitable tubing handy then replace it - the T-34 gun here is relatively simple and there is no muzzle brake to worry about although it looks like there is a taper to the barrel. I take it that the gun isn't glued into the mount otherwise you might have some drilling out to do! In recent years I have replaced gun barrels on small scale tanks with both plastic and brass tube but usually only if I've managed to sand a flat in the kit gun or if the kit gun simply looks bum, such as being bent or what have you. I'm too tightfisted to pay for replacement metal barrels unless I've picked them up really cheap at a show!

[splash]

I've drilled out the muzzle and it looks OK, so I might as well leave the kit's barrel in place.

[chrism]

just a simple action like that, drilling end out, makes a big difference, on barrels for shermans and ones like this which are just a tube.

liking what I am seeing with progress too.

[BWP]

My recollection was that the kit barrel is too short, but it was the first T-34 kit I built and I might not have had my references sorted out properly yet. There is a muzzle at the end -- or maybe not a muzzle as such, but certainly some sort of "cap" at the end of the tube. A very slightly larger diameter piece of tubing, about 1.5 mm long, added to the end of the barrel might make all the visual difference. (Or replace it altogether with a cheap aluminium barrel, but be aware that the Aber barrel is the only accurate 3rd-party replacement. I wrote an article about it for the On The Way site: http://www.onthewaymodels.com/articles/ ... review.htm.)

There's some extra detailing you could add to the mantlet -- a few bolts on the sides and that sort of thing.



While you have your drill out you might want to add a tiny hole in the periscope on the top of the turret, so the commander can see where he's going. (Since the periscope rotated, the hole can face in any direction.) There should also be a larger hole on the starboard side of the mantlet for the co-axial MG (which sometimes protruded, but usually didn't), and a slightly smaller one on the port side, for the gunner's telescope.

[splash]

Cheers Bruce that article you wrote is interesting reading.

Adding 1.5mm sounds like a good idea I will have a go at that tomorrow.

[ShaunW]

Sounds good to me Splash and worth doing. I was kindly given one of these T-34's at Huddersfield to add to my collection of MB military vehicles and will be building it at some point. OK, it might not be the world's finest T-34 kit in the scale but that doesn't really matter to me, I like the challenge of modifying and detailing classic kits and guess where I will be making reference

[splash]

Sounds good to me Splash and worth doing. I was kindly given one of these T-34's at Huddersfield to add to my collection of MB military vehicles and will be building it at some point. OK, it might not be the world's finest T-34 kit in the scale but that doesn't really matter to me, I like the challenge of modifying and detailing classic kits and guess where I will be making reference

I agree with you Shaun, it's not the most accurate kit but it is fun to build and as I hope to demonstrate a few extra bits of detail make quite a difference.

Bruce's suggestion of adding 1.5mm of tube to the end sounded like a good idea. I had already drilled out the end of the barrel and due to my first attempt at drilling went slightly off centre I had to reduce the length further for my second attempt, so adding tube to correct the original + my errors was a good option, as you can see I have used a thin rod stuck in my original hole to support the tube extension.

[splash]

I'm calling this one finished.

[iggie]

Nice job!