Needing a break from the rather intense builds I’ve been doing lately, I decided to pull this thing out of its hiding place and do something with it, not sure exactly what, but something.
A while ago, I read an article in MMiR and really liked the build, which oddly enough is based on the same kit I had started and shelved about five years ago. The article:
Where I stopped:
I think I stopped because I had managed to jack up the fit of the rear upper hull plate, and didn’t feel like fixing it, so I just planted the whole thing. Looking at it now, it’s an easy enough fix and in my present state of mind, I don’t care if it’s a patch, I’m going ahead with it anyway. I also recently picked up the book “T-34 on the Baltlefield” at it is chock full of great pics of abandoned, blown up broken down T-34s, several of which very closely resembled my 3/4 finished model. So I dug out all my T-34 spare parts and got to it. All I had to do, really, was add a few bits to the hull and turret, fix my goof from the beginning on the hull, and move the idlers, then take out two track links each side. I’m now, after less that three hour’s work, ready for paint.
Just what I needed!
So, my apologies and gratitude to Joaquin Garcia Gazguez, here are pics of where I got by Sunday night:
If the weather holds, I should have this thing in green shortly, then it’s time to weather. I also need to look for a couple of tired-looking Russians.
Very cool! I started a Dragon T-34 a few years back and didn’t like how the paint turned out so ended up shoving her back in the box, really need to pull her out too.
G, I think the first time I built one of these Tamiya T-34s, I was a few years shy of having my driver’s license, and I’m getting close to thinking about Social Security now. Dang it…
Cliff, similar deal here, just didn’t get that far.
Hugo: Dude, you would totally wig out if you saw my stash of shelf queens. I’m having some fun with this one, and I suppose that’s why I put it up so many years ago: it quit being fun. I imagine sometime in the near future, I’ll pull the Merkava4 back out, once it looks like fun (maybe).
So, green! I had a couple of hours last night, so I shot primer, let it dry for about an hour while I whipped up some dinner, then fixed the numerous faults I found which in the end meant making up some dried mud from Squadron green putty, MEK and floor sweepings to daub on in places where the tracks would throw junk. Color is Krylon “Italian Olive”, a bit bright now but washes should fix that. I did end up popping the rear plate off and doing some adjustment, makes me happy.
Ah, it’s probably just gonna get some numbers, or maybe some kind of patriotic scribbles. I’m poking through refs now.
I thought the white band around the turret was an air recognition marking during the tail end of the war. Something about some Rooski tanks getting strafed by P-47s?
One thing I’ve noticed about T-34s without fenders that have been cross-country is the enormous amount of earth deposited all over the rear quarters of the hull. I’ve even seen a couple of vids of moving tanks, and the stuff can go ten feet or more in the air, up and forward. In an effort to duplicate that, I applied more mud to the hull, made from Liquitex sand texture, paint and dried, used tea. Also on is the first wash, black acrylic from MM.
Very noticeable is the total lack of suspension detail on the hull sides, good thing the road wheels are large enough to cover this up.
Next step is lots of pastels to get the rest of the hull looking dirty as well. The idea in mind at the moment for the display is inspired by a pic on the cover of the Concord “Soviet Medium Tanks” book. It’s a T-34 coming out of a field, crossing a road behind a knocked-out Tiger. I’ll skip the Tiger… although I do have a King Tiger that I built a couple of years ago that might work… hmmmm…
If I remember correctly the white band was an identification used in the Battle of Berlin- not sure how accurate it is. I’d guess there might have been a few T-34/76s involved but I’d think most had been replaced by T-34/85s by then.
There were a few of the older tanks still in action in Berlin, most being repaired hulks. I’ve got a pic somewhere of a line of T-34s, some 76, some 85, and they all look hammered.
I recently read the average life span of a T-34 in 1944 was 30 days, some repairable, some not.
Edit: Or maybe it was 30 hours… frighteningly low, whichever. It’s in “Armored Champion”, I’ll have to dig it up tonight.
While I mostly finish the builds I started, sometimes it takes a lot of time. But I have like two or three builds going on in parallel - helps me stay sharp and let certain things dry really well - I just use that time to do something else.
Now your T-34 is looking good! It was a right decision to restart this build. If you should need some translation from Russian, please let me know, I could help you here. As for those white stripes - those weren’t the P-47’s, but Il-2 Shturmoviks. Remember, the Germans had some captured T-34s in their units, too. Once I even used to know an old man in Germany, who used to shoot those soviet T-34s on the eastern front. Now I wish you good luck and good fun with this build and have a nice day
Karl, I’ve always needed more than one going at a time. It’s possible a side effect of what I did for a living for so long, which was being an automotive tech, then fabricator, still automotive but more in the competition end of things, the last ten years of which were in my own business, so I had to have more than one job going as I couldn’t afford to be held up on anything, for whatever reason. In modeling, I find that if I get to a “hump” on a particular model and don’t feel comfortable at that particular step, I can pick up something else and still get maximum benefit from the limited modeling time I have.
Pawel take a look at the turret in the following pics: I’m copying another build (top of post) and am moderately unsure of the accuracy of the script. It’s supposed to say: “Avenger”. Keep in mind I painted it freehand, so any errors in the actual Cryllic letters are mine.
Speaking of knowing vets, my recently passed neighbor was in tanks in WWII, but wouldn’t talk about it at all.
So, current pics from work done last night: Turret washed, name and numbers on, more mud to get a layered effect and a brown wash on the hull, tracks and wheels. Also added is mud on the outer wheels. No pigments yet, still adding the heavy stuff.
I’d be glad to help you with this one. The word we’re looking at is “Ms-tit-yell” - or at least that’s my transcription. In Russian it would look like this: мститель. So the first letter is an M - no problems here. Te second letter is an s - looks exactly like a C in russian. The third - a T - is also no problem. The fourth is an I - and should look line an inverted N. On the left side of the turret it looks OK, on the right side it looks too much like a H, which is a Russian way to write N - confusing, eh? The fifth and sixth signs are OK. The seventh sign is a “hard L” - and it looks like an A, but without the crossbar. What you have looks too much like the Russsian sign “Ya” - that looks like an inverted R. What you are missing completely is the “soft sign” - that looks like a small b. You definitely need that, or you’re going to have a typo. So I guess you want to do some fixin here - if you need some more info, please let me know and I’ll try to help. Good luck with your build and have a nice day
Pawel, thank you so much. Oddly enough, I’m blogging this on another forum as well, and I’ve been told the exact same thing. I even have my word written out in several styles, which I’ve printed. Gotta love the internet!
On the down side, I’ve sprayed a light coat of satin over the turret sides, so fixing this may involve repainting the turret sides, or not, I’ll find out tonight.
I just knew I’d get into trouble copying some one else’s work, lesson learned.
