Here a few shots of my completed Leclerc T6 MBT. It’s the Revell kit (it comes as a T5, requiring quite a bit of surgery to upgrade it to the T6 variant). I had tons of great reference material on this one, so I probably spent WAY too much time superdetailling the kit… [:D] But I like it.
There are 4 small components that will be painted separately and added at a later stage: 3 elements of the right side ‘skirts’ (which will be mounted ‘opened’ to reveal part of the tracks and wheels), and the sight at the top of the turret (which will require a ‘lens’ that I can only put from the inside).
There must be several hundreds parts added to this kit already. The gun, part of which I replaced because the kit’s was not rounded enough, has a new sight that’s made of over 20 parts… [:p]
Domi:
u have really outdone urself w/ this one !
glad u posted the pre-paint shot, it lets the work u’ve done
show so clearly…
i’m getting psyched 2 work on my M32 when i get home,
got a whole lot of little bitty parts 2 make !!!
thanx 4 sharing this, ur work (as always) is a
source of amazement & inspiration 2 me !
frosty[:)]
Thank you Guys, and Gall…! I primed the kit yesterday, with a black automotive acrylic, and this did not reveal any problems, so all I need now is a bit of time to mask and airbrush the sand camouflage (I’m doing the desert scheme, sand/black).
Spectacular, Dj!! Absolutely spectacular! Well worth the effort, my friend. You can actually display that without paint and modelers like me will still be awed. Btw, what are those gray stuff on the hull and turret?
Allan, thanks for your kind words…! Those greyish areas are the anti-slip areas. Some sort of rough coating is applied there, over the vehicle surface. Unfortunately, for all its good points, the Revell kit does not come with those engraved into the plastic, and I had to find a way to replicate them. After some thinking, I used masking tape. After being cut into shape, it’s applied onto the model then ‘sealed’ with liquid glue applied all around.
I’m not sure how it will look when the camo and the weathering have been applied, but so far, after priming, it looks like the real thing, scaled down…!
Magnificent, Domi. How many extra bits do you figure you put on there?
I always do that: count all the non-kit bits I attach. Fun!
The count for my E-100 was around 275. Got the exact number written down somewhere…
(edit) Ah, you said several hundred!! Missed that the first time through!
It’s something I normaly do too, Brian, but I just did not for this one…! I guess it’s because looking at all the ref I had, I kept adding, over nearly 2 months, bits and more bits all over… Probably well into the 200 mark, without counting the bolts/rivet heads replicated with the red dimentional favric paint… I know the sight at the end of the barrel is made of 23 parts… There’s another 8 for the co-axial machine gun barrel… (those are the last things I added).
But the back of the hull with the fuel system from the ‘brackets’ that hold the drums to the pipes themselves must account to a great number of additional parts (50 - 60 ?). The new hinges for the front elements of the skirts also consummed many hours and bits of styrene… While the added A/C system (the ‘box’ added to the turret, towards the back, on the right) - the big external difference between the T5 of Revell and the newer T6 - probably has 40 to 50 parts…
AHA!! Another modeler suffering from a severe case of AMS (Advanced Modeler’s Syndrome). Am happy to report it’s contagious!
Domi, I’m curious. Is all the added detail scratchbuilt stuff, or is some of it aftermarket? And the bolt/rivet heads…what did you use? Have you ever tried Grandt Line or Modelkasten’s bolt/rivet heads sets?
Incredible work in 1/72! I am impressed. Can’t wait to see it painted and weathered! Keep up the great work…
