Thought I would post some new pics after being away for quite a while. Here’s what I been working on - a Sovjet T-80 light tank.
This tank was a quite rare creature on the eastern front. Basically it was a T-70 tank, that had thicker armor and a new 2-man turret. While over 8000 T-70’s were built, only 75 T-80’s were ever produced. The limited production ended in late 1943, but some tanks survived up until the end of the war. Some of them were still in action in Mars 1945, and were found in the 5th Guards Tank Brigade that fought in Hungary. It is one of these tanks that I have built.
The kit is some crude resin and white metal kit, that was produced in Russia some 10 years ago. (I can’t even read the name of the brand since it’s in cyrillic!) I got it cheap on E-bay. Anyway, it is probably the worst kit I have ever built. It’s a miracle that iIdidn’t thrash it.
If someone is interested in building a T-80, I would recommend the plastic kit that Miniart released a couple of years ago.
Let me just say your decals look great, heck the entire model looks GREAT!![:D] Can’t really tell you had such an awful time in building. But you sure did conquer a beast of a kit.[tup]
I just tried out a new function on my digital camera - the white balance function.
It seems that the pics that I first posted are a bit too yellow in the tone. But with this function I can balance the light from the surrounding lightbulbs. This gives a more accurate representation of the colors of the tank. It should be a more darker green tone.
I think it was $10-12. But this was two or three years ago, before Miniart released its T-80. The Russian little resin monster was, to my knowledge, the only available kit on the market. Otherwise I wouldn’t have paid a single dollar for it!
I have had A LOT of help painting and weathering the T-80, by following all the good advice and learning the methods from the real masters in this forum.
It will be take a while though before I put me up as as a “Master modeler” in the phone book. [;)]
Well if this is a dog, then you turned her into a blue ribbon winner!![tup][tup] Great work dude! If its really as bad as you say, then you worked some serious magic with it! I can’t see any problems with it and the paint and weathering are perfect!
I had a chance to get Miniart’s T-80 kit, but I opted for the T-70 instead. Oh well…its still A kit I look forward to building!
The mud was applied using a sort of standard recipe that I’m very fond of.
Mix the following ingredients in a little bowl:
White glue,
Dry and fine pot soil,
Some water,
Some Vallejo paint (or some other achrylic paint) in the color that you want for the mud.
Stir!
If the mix is too watery - add more soil.
If the mix is too lumpy - add more water.
If the pot soil “shine through” - add some more paint.
Apply the mixture to the model. I use old brushes for this, after cutting off most of the hair. Use “stabbing” motions when applying the mixture to all the spots where you want the mud to be. Repeat a second or third time on the spots where you want the mud to be thicker.
Let it dry! When the mixture dries the texture of the pot soil become clearer.
This leaves you with a mud cake that is uniform in color. If you want shades, then you have to do some paint work.
If you want to add depth - add a light darker wash with “Burned Umber” or “Van dyck brown” oil paint. Repeat the process if you want the “recesses” in the mud to be even darker.
If you want a lighter tone - apply light MIG pigments or fine pastel chalk powder with a brush.
I usually add pigments or pastel in the border area between the mud cake and the tank, representing the accumulated dust. This way you get a smooth transition between the color of the mud and the color of the tank.
If you want the mud to look like it is fresh, moist or wet - give it a wash with a mixture of “Burned Umber” or “Van dyck brown” oil paint and gloss varnish. When it dries it resembles moist or wet mud. Remember to do this before you use pigments or pastel chalk, otherwise the soloutioen tends to spread to all areas and change the color of the pigments!
Wow awesome job, looking at your build makes the kit look a lot better. I really like the removed fender and the wood plank, and the decals look great too. Also I have to try out your dirt method of using real soil, the caked on mud looks really realistic.
Very nice work! I have almost all of the Soviet light tanks of WWII and this build is an inspiration…now if only the time is found.
There is I think a typo in your first post. The T-80 had a three man crew instead of the two man crew of the T-70. The gun also had an elevation of 60 degrees. The MiniArt kit looks as though it should go together fine…I hope!
Anyway, for a dog of a kit you produced a jewel! Thanks for sharing.
It looks very good, but the chain on the front looks out of place and out of scale (too big). looks like something a ship anchor would be attached to, not a smaller tow chain that could be manhandled by a tank crew.
It is supposed to be a chain that used to be attched to an anchor. The crew picked it up when they crossed the Dnieper. [;)] Them russians, them russians…
on this little dog of a kit!