Destroyed 1/35 Kirin Iraqi T-72 “Lion of Babylon” Complete

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Hi all,

I have been watching several “Greatest Tank Battles” lately and have really gotten the bug to do a knocked out tank diorama.
I’m thinking several ideas.
Kursk where a T-34 has rammed a German tank (Panther, Tiger, Pz IV etc.?)
Any number of WWII battles where tanks were knocked out, German, Japanese, American, Canadian, British or Italian.
1st Gulf war Battle of Easting with a burned out T-62 or T-72.

I just have so many ideas in my head, I’m not sure which way to go with this. Since my interests wane from time to time from ships to armor to planes and back, and usually last for a few months, I wanted to get on this while I’m starting to get interested in armor again.

Any ideas?

2

The key IMO is to find a photograph that you really like and go from there. Knocked out armor has a lot of weird quirky stuff going on.

3

Unless your just interested in building techniques,you need to get your time frames and variants correct,Rob Ferreira also known as Scratchmod has his own site featuring a lot of knocked out,burned out tanks,check it out for ideas.I hope it materializes for you.

4

It’ll require a lot of different techniques but it all starts with an idea, go for it…

Terry

5

I think I will. Taking GM’s advice I started looking for destroyed tank pictures. I may have decided on an Iraqi T-72, plus I can get a DML kit for a reasonable price.

6

OK, as you may have noticed, I have changed the title of this thread to WIP. I obviously have decided on a subject. As soon as my 1/35 Kirin T-72 arrives I will be starting on it. It should be here in about a week or so. It doesn’t matter much if it isn’t rivet counter accurate as I will be building it destroyed and burning.

Steve

7

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, awesome!!!

I’d read somewhere that the Iraqis painted over the Soviet green with sand coloured latex house paint that would peel off like crazy showing the green underneath. Could be a cool little touch to add to the areas not totally blown up.

8

Hmm, maybe that’s why almost every one I see seems greenish in areas.

9

I finally got it! It is slightly used, however who cares, and it’s perfect for what I have planned. For $10 you can’t beat it.

I am trying some ideas here. I painted some cotton and shoved some LED’s in it. It looks OK but I I think I need a large LED, probably from a nightlight. I have since added some acrylic gel to it. We’ll see if that helps. I need to apply some more paint mostly orange and black and work out the bugs.

10

Cool Steve, I think that ten dollar kit should work out fine for what you’re doing.

Neat idea on the fire, I think it’s a matter of just fooling with it till it looks ‘right’.

11

Yeah, I was messing around with the “fire” last night. I think I’m on track I just need to get the right mix of light, color and shape. Then I get to break a model [:P]

12

I agree. Looks like you just need to get the mix of colors corrected and you’re there. :slight_smile:

So far, this is already looking to be a very sweet build.

13

Thanks Mike, I value your opinion.

I worked a little on the “Lion” today. I cut off some road arms so I could reposition them later. I also “modified” the aft fuel tanks to reflect the heat they would be exposed to.
I’m still firming up my thought for the diorama. Possibly knocked out either on the sand or in the city. I’m thinking a city scene on a street.

14

Be sure to “pin” those road wheel arms.

I’m not “buying” your gas cans at all. If you have photos please share. A totally full one might distort, anything less full with fumes in it would just blow up. Or they still look like they did the day they were made.

Actually makes a nice contrast to the other damage.

15

Hmmm, I went to look for some better pics of the fuel tanks, and I noticed it seems more tanks had them removed than not, at least in the photos I could find. I will probably just leave them off.

16

The first two pics you posted are current, new Iraqi Army T-72s. They don’t mount the fuel drums as they are not needed for the close-in actions they are mainly involved in now.

Earlier Iraqi T-72s mostly did mount the fuel drums. Check out a bunch of destroyed ones here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=t72+iraq+war&biw=1412&bih=826&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIr5q8hs72xwIVU6yACh2krQ66#tbm=isch&q=destroyed+t72+iraq+

17

Thanks Arty,
I’ve looked at hundreds of pictures and since I was not over there, I have a hard time distinguishing one from another. Any advice and info from anybody is welcome and wanted. I will just keep going here and adjust the build to keep on the right track. Like you and GM are doing, tell me early so I can fix the mistake.

Thanks guys, I like armor, but never been around any (museums and parks excluded). I was a Costie, I know cutters and small boats and worked on their radios and radars.

18

Perhaps a stupid question since I’m still fairly new to all this stuff, but is the LED in the fire going to flicker? I’m thinking with Halloween just around the corner, there’s got to be something you could cannibalize to get that effect without having to put an arduino board into the diorama. (Although with that you could get crackling and far off mortar explosion sounds going too. Wouldn’t that be cool?)

19

Yes there is something you can canabalize for that effect and you can find them almost everywhere. Just grab a pack of those electric tea lights. Should give you a nice smoldering flame effect.

20

Thanks guys, those are good ideas, however unless I’m taking a video, those effects won’t show. Now taking it to a competition…
This is the scene I’m thinking of. Granted this is a Syrian T-72. Not exactly sure where the flame is comming from except the top hatch and? the RPG hole?