Painting a T-34/85

[dubster72]

excellent stuff patrick!! this is a great looking job that can only help people like me, who havent done much armour, to get a good idea of what we should be aiming for. And its russian to boot !! cheers comrade , tony

Cheers Tony, I already have Tamiya's new JSU-152 in the stash!

 

[dubster72]

Just a quick update on the tracks for this kit. The Dragon 'Magic Track' is pretty easy to use. They come in 2 bags of links so no need to cut them from any sprues. They do have some ejector-pin marks that need sanding but other than that, the nicest link-by-link tracks I've assembled to date. From the picture below, you can see that I've assembled the tracks in 4 sections to ease both the painting & fitting to the model. The track sections have been primed with Tamiya grey primer.

View attachment 11073

From that point, they were given a spray of Flat Earth:

View attachment 11076

Then a few washes of oil paint, raw umber & burnt sienna:

View attachment 11072

Followed with a light dry-brush of silver, darkened with black:

View attachment 11075 View attachment 11074

I have since been experimenting with more oil washes, this time using a thicker wash to get a different effect. It's worked well but I'm going to go back to a more traditional pastel wash to represent dust in the track grooves prior to fitting them to the model. Then more dry-brushing with raw silver as this tank will be moving over rubble so they'll be alot of wear on the tracks.

Patrick

View attachment 20994

View attachment 20995

View attachment 20996

View attachment 20997

View attachment 20998

 

[Paul1978]

Wow Patrick, your T-34 is stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your Russian Tovarish (comrades) would be honoured to see such a masterpiece representing one of Russia's all time greatest war machines. They'd get you wasted on vodka first though

A question out of interest, what colour and process would you do for the tracks on a German tank? The Russian ones have that rusty brown look to them where the German tracks look a lot greyer.

Again, AMAZING JOB!!!!

Paul

 

[dubster72]

Thanks for your kind words Paul, I'm enjoying the process which is the main thing! For German tracks, I tend to use a dark purple colour, I think it's Humbrol 113 as a base, then I wash it with a browny-grey mix (no particular ratio, just whatever looks good), followed by dry-brushing with dark silver & a little orange rust if the setting is for a damp/wet area.

Patrick

 

[dubster72]

Finally got a bit more done! The tracks are on so yay for me! I've done them with a very silvery appearance as the tank has been moving through rubble-strewn streets & would I think, therefore end up with more wear than if it was in the countryside. It didn't help that I forgot to note which sections of track were for the right or left-at one point I thought I'd glued the wrong side on! A word of advice for anyone who builds this model: I left the front idlers loose because they can be adjusted to add/take up slack & this makes fitting the track much easier but next time I'll leave the drive wheel loose too because the guide horns fit tightly within it which means fitting the track was much more difficult when the wheels were glued.

View attachment 11606 View attachment 11607 View attachment 11608

I also managed to paint & fit the spare tracks, along with the photo-etch leather straps.

View attachment 11609

The next bit is to add the chipping, a few shots below of the start of that process. I've used a mixture of colours from dark green to dark/light rust. Often a subject of debate as to how much chipping to add, I think for this particular tank quite a lot is needed. Modern AFV's show much less damage to paint thanks to modern techniques but many wartime vehicles, especially Russian ones, were sent to the front with the paint still wet so marking & damage to the surface would be much more likely.

View attachment 11613 View attachment 11612 View attachment 11611 View attachment 11610

Apologies for the poor quality pics but I've only got a camera phone & know nothing about photography or photo-softwear! Thanks for looking!

Patrick

View attachment 21206

View attachment 21207

View attachment 21208

View attachment 21209

View attachment 21210

View attachment 21211

View attachment 21212

View attachment 21213

 

[Backbreaker]

:bow:Nice one Patrick,

I've a long way to go before I am capable of producing a build and finish to this high caliber.

BB.

 

[Centurion3RTR]

Looking good Patrick, looking good.

John

 

[dubster72]

Thanks chaps-wish I could get more done but the process of finding & moving house is never an easy one! Patrick

 

[Richy C]

Patrick that is quality mate , cant wait to see it finnished.

Richy

 

[tonyb6000]

Decals

Once the decals & paint have dried, I used very fine grit (10000 & 12000) sanding pads to bed the decals down. It gives them a real painted-on look. Then another coat of Klear is added to seal them. This helps to prevent the dreaded 'silvering'.

Patrick, build looks great. Sorry to go back two weeks, but just picked up this thread. Can you go into more detail about the bedding down of the decals with the fine paper? I suffered from silvering and lifting on my last build, and was prepared to coat the next one with Klear or Klear substitute. Is it just the edges of the decal that you sand to feather in the transfer film? Also, any bright ideas on getting decals to mould over rivets/bumps etc? I should know this 'cos I apply vehicle graphics for a living but the decals are so delicate!

Tonyb

 

[dubster72]

Hi Tony,

The first coat(s) of Klear are vital because decals only adher well to glossy surfaces-matt paint is like the surface of the moon to a decal! In this case I left the decals for about 48 hours to really dry out thoroughly, as I've has similar problems before. I found that extra time was well spent coz they had stuck down very well. The light sanding was done just to take off the barest minimum of the top layer of the decal & I did it all over it, not just at the edges.

If you need to lay a decal over bumps & protrusions, I would recommend Microsol products-one you apply to the models surface prior to putting the decal on & the other you apply over the decal to help it snuggle down. Revell also make a 'decal-softener' which I've used & this does just what it says, it softens the decal to make it easier to fit it over rivets, hatches etc. On the T-34 turret there are a couple of vision-slits & this stuff allowed me to mould the decals over them with no problems. Sometimes you'll need to keep adding a little more until the decal is soft enough.

Of course, it's handy to have spares because there's no guarantee that it works first time or even all the time!

Patrick

 

[tonyb6000]

Awesome. Top advice, cheers. Will try that on my new Huey (ordered yesterday, don't tell SWMBO). Thought I ought to order some Model Air too, was feeling left out! Will leave you alone now, let you get on with the next update.

 

[dubster72]

No probs, it's what makes this hobby even more satisfying! Let us know how you get on with the Model Air- I've used it only once & liked it much more than Tamiya but it's taking a while to run down my stocks of Tamiya before I move over to Vallejo full-time!

Patrick

 

[dubster72]

Just a little more done, doing a bit more of the chipping by adding other colours that both compliment & add a contrast to what came before. The idea is to create a 3-D effect of chipped & flaking paint which isn't always easy and the results can be unpredictable!

I'm fairly happy with how it looks, it may need a little more work. The next step is adding a little pastels to represent dust so I'll see how that goes!

View attachment 11829 View attachment 11830 View attachment 11831 View attachment 11832

And just to give you an idea of how the whole thing looks at this stage:

View attachment 11833 View attachment 11834 View attachment 11835

View attachment 21282

View attachment 21283

View attachment 21284

View attachment 21285

View attachment 21286

View attachment 21287

View attachment 21288

 

[Backbreaker]

Your skills are second to none!

This finish just keeps getting better and better.

BB.

 

[dubster72]

Your skills are second to none!This finish just keeps getting better and better.

BB.

Lol my skills are second to many! You should see the King Tiger I'm working on-it's rubbish! But thanks for the kind words mate.

 

[Paul1978]

Seriously Patrick mate, i'd expect to see this T-34 ina pro modellers magazine or something. And if my mind serves me correctly, you haven't been modelling for long. Really impressive mate!

Paul

 

[Fenlander]

It really is amazing, just love the realistic rusting and chipping. I certainly cannot remember seeing better.

 

[yak face]

patrick, please stop youre making us all feel inadequate!!!!! really , this is so good you must be really chuffed , i love it to bits , hurry up and put it on the gallery so i can give it a 10! cheers tony

 

[dubster72]

Tony, Graham & Paul, you lot are making me blush! I am very pleased with this one, it seems a lucky build coz everything I've tried has turned out well & many of the techniques were new to me. Hopefully I'll be able to say those much-loved words "it's done!" by the end of the weekend. Just the dio to finish after that! Thanks again, Patrick