My 1st Rubicon T-34/85

[neffer38]

Ive bought 2 packs of the warlord tank crews so far, but thinking about it ive only used them with warlord kits. I have a pack of warlord tank riders and a pack of (started) rubicon tank riders. Might well add them to one of the kits im doing now.

I like Bad Squido's female Russian tankers 

Oooo that got my attention. Only Bad Squido's ive seen and painted were a commision job....will certainly go have a look now! Thanks for that 

[ripley]

Bad Squido has a whole line of female Russian troops , tank riders , mortar crew , mg crew etc .  The tank crew set is a set of three , 1 seated ( looking  much like a famous female tank commander , who 's name I can't recall at the moment ) and the other two are 3/4 torso figures . I hope they release another set or two , would love some standing figures for a diorama

[neffer38]

Well this is my 1st T34-76 with poor cast turret done

[ripley]

I think you should give the turret , 2 or 3 thin coats , letting it dry and maybe painting between coats , till it looks the way you want it too. The side vision ports were cast separate and then welded on , so would be a different texture . Here's a picture of a turret casting , note large pour blocks  (reminds me of a couple of resin kits I had back in the 70s ) , the side vision port area is much thinner so it can be cut out and port welded on

Note the large weld around the vision port

I think you should also cut back on the amount of wash your using  , unless your going for a burnt paint vibe . What brand  are you using to wash your model ? And are you adding pigment powders , before , after or when its still wet  ? Not being a dick but trying to help out a fellow modeler …..

[ultravanillasmurf]

This is the Bovington T34/85.

You might want to weather the decals a bit, it might be that you have and the photograph has washed out the differences.

How muddy are the tracks?

[neffer38]

The side vision ports were cast separate and then welded on , so would be a different texture .

Yes I was wondering about that after I had put the effect on and the base coat. Next time.

What brand  are you using to wash your model ? And are you adding pigment powders , before , after or when its still wet  ?

Im using oils. Been experimenting with oils a lot recently. Process was adding pigments then thinned oil on top, let dry, different colour pigment on top followed by a different oil colour ontop.

[neffer38]

You might want to weather the decals a bit, it might be that you have and the photograph has washed out the differences.

How muddy are the tracks?

Yeah good point on the decal. I'll take a sponge to it later.

And yes tracks are muddy too

[ripley]

Oils , yikes ! They are way past my comfort zone . From what I've read ( AFV Modeller , etc ) you put like a few  dots from the end of a tooth pick on , let semi dry , then start blending . Really tricky and time consuming to get right . Of the guys in my circle of modelers only one guy has got it sorted. Most of us avoid it like the plague . well done you for sticking with it

[neffer38]

Its been interesting. Some of it I've grasped quite well. Some of it i still need more practice the t-34 isnt quite right. I think the odd dark green at the back is more of a lighting problem of mixing warm and white light. But yeah, not perfect, but not like I'll never do at-34/76 eve again haha

Felt this king tiger game out rather well (oils again).

[ripley]

The front panel of the turret ( picture 3 ) looks great . The cupola area looks like the paint caught fire , I wonder if you tried using paper towel to wick up thinners when you add it , might stop the puddling . I do that to suck up excess GW wash in recessed areas on my kits . Your rust on the spare track is much to red . Check out pictures of the Tiger display a Bovington, true they've been out of the weather for some time but are , what , 70 plus years old

[neffer38]

The area around the cupola is ment to be muddy...probably best to go get some dirt from outside next time 

Yes the rusted tracks ate to red. Been alot of experimentation with pigments and oils.

[ripley]

You might want to use older or crap  kits to experiment on , it would be a shame to destroy a newer or well detailed kit  . I tend to experiment on older 1/35 kits from stash or on the bottom of my 1/56 kits , mistakes under there will never be seen

[ultravanillasmurf]

Spare track from the stowage sprues is also useful.

[ripley]

Still could use some more stowage but I'm calling this one done



I got a little side tracked looking for crew for this tank . I have 18 Russian tanks built , with about half of them having removable crew , so they can be used as knocked out or abandoned tanks . So I decided to rethink crew allocation , as well as swap around some stowage ( logs , tarps , etc ) . Well that led to going back and adding open driver's visors on my T-34s as well as removing / replacing some decals so the tanks look like one unit . And with any bit of mucking about with built kits , I ended up replacing radio antennas .