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Post by rbaer on Aug 5, 2015 15:27:45 GMT -5
Not having anything better to do last night after completing assembly on the Leo, I drug this ol' thing out, along with all the junk I have accumulated for it. Funny thing, once the Trump kits came out, AM stuff for Tamiya's kit got real cheap..... Anyhoo, I have one and a half Tamiya T62 kits, about two pounds of Verlinden resin and etch, Eduard etch, more etch, a couple of gun tubes, and a resin mantlet cover. I don't thing I have $30 in all this. The most noticeable fault of the Tamiya kit( aside from the botched hull dimensions) is the turret. It's too flat, and the Verlinden set has a resin turret, which upon close examination, is a detailed copy of the Tamiya part, and also too flat. Schweet. Mine also had some serious shrinkage, sucking the base up towards the inside, and it's solid, so that's serious shrinkage. After a little head scratching, I trimmed up one the the Tamiya turret lower halves to fit inside the diameter of the resin turret and glued it down firmly, where it fit quite nicely, giving me a flat surface to mate to the hull, a locking ring that fit the hull, and bingo, effectively increasing the height of the turret by about 1.5mm. Some Aves 2-part putty, and I'm ready to start blending and texturing. More later, or sooner if I don't get out to buy the paint I need for the Leo. I have to say here that the parts in this kit are about the crudest I've seen in any Tamiya kit since I started squeezing glue out of tubes way back when. Our hobby has come a long way baby......
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Post by wbill76 on Aug 5, 2015 18:02:17 GMT -5
Looks like you've got your work cut out for you there Russ! Nothing you can't handle though I'm sure.
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Post by Leon on Aug 5, 2015 20:49:56 GMT -5
Looks like you have a nice handle on this already Russ!
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Post by TRM on Aug 5, 2015 21:32:33 GMT -5
Yeah, these old ones are kinda rough! Looks like you have things well in hand! Nice to see you jumping around!! Keep he bench warm!!
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Post by dierk on Aug 6, 2015 1:33:34 GMT -5
Looking forward to watching you roll this turd in glitter
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Post by Tojo72 on Aug 6, 2015 9:07:35 GMT -5
Like following your stuff Russ,should be another good one.
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Post by rbaer on Aug 6, 2015 11:30:01 GMT -5
"Turd in glitter".... That's good! I was gonna say something about polishing a turd, but there's a guy over on the Big A doing a blog on a Dragon M103 using that one, so I had to be different. I have no real idea if this thing will look like a T62 when I'm done, but the same kit is on the cover of the current (I think) SMMI, so I figure if they can do it, so can I.
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Post by rbaer on Aug 10, 2015 10:22:22 GMT -5
This is gonna take a lot of the Mr.Surfacer..... So far, one heavy layer. Keeping the putty off the details is important. I'm using Tamiya extra thin cement to do clean up and blending, but it promises to be tedious.
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Post by Leon on Aug 10, 2015 11:02:18 GMT -5
Tedious but worth the effort Russ! Looking good.
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Post by deafpanzer on Aug 10, 2015 14:57:24 GMT -5
Almost missed this one... great start on the turret. Bet it is heavier than my 12 oz beer can!
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Post by rbaer on Aug 10, 2015 18:04:14 GMT -5
thanks, Leon. Andy, it will be by the time I'm done, I bet. I've got some fair amount of pics of the real thing, gonna check those tonight and see how much "texture" I want on this thing, then do my favorite part of a tank model, the running gear. Really.
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Post by wbill76 on Aug 11, 2015 14:59:58 GMT -5
Looks like you're shaping this one up nicely Russ! Sorry, couldn't resist...
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Post by rbaer on Aug 12, 2015 16:52:31 GMT -5
Har har har.... That's okay Bill, I'd do the same.
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Post by TRM on Aug 12, 2015 23:06:31 GMT -5
Looking good there buddy! All coming together quite nicely!
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Post by rbaer on Aug 13, 2015 10:24:18 GMT -5
Three days now without going to the model room (except to empty the cat's box) and on the way out of town tomorrow for a week. Will I survive?
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Post by rbaer on Aug 26, 2015 14:21:00 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of a writer's block here.....
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Post by rbaer on Aug 27, 2015 10:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Leon on Aug 27, 2015 11:22:25 GMT -5
Nice work on the surgery Russ! Looking good.
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Post by wbill76 on Aug 27, 2015 12:40:57 GMT -5
I'd be disappointed if I didn't see at least 3 different shades of plastic/resin on any of your builds Russ. Otherwise you're just getting lazy. Nice progress on this one!
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Post by rbaer on Aug 28, 2015 15:00:54 GMT -5
Thank you, Leon. "Master Hacker", that's me..... Bill, you know variety is the spice of life, right? And I forgot: I have a Verlinden dozer kit and a Trumpy mine roller, one of which will more than likely find its way onto this thing. Colorful!
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Post by dierk on Aug 29, 2015 10:39:24 GMT -5
Welcome to the (not very) wonderful world of old Tamiya kits LOL. Hope you got a plentyful supply of glitter - you must have used up tons already for it to look this good.
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Post by rbaer on Aug 31, 2015 12:08:58 GMT -5
Dierk, Im well acquainted with the old Tamiya kits, very well indeed. Aside from having started armor modeling with them, I still keep lots of the oldies in the stash, just for the fun of it. I think I have a half-dozen M60s floating around somewhere, still fun to build. I will be the first to say that the T62 is one of the stankiest, but I built the M41 a couple of years ago, and it's close..... So, more magic glitter: The big arrow in the top pic points to where Verlinden has the engine exhausts exiting, and the problem is obvious if I was going to build the engine cover up, but it'll be closed, so I'm not worrying my pretty little head. Also noticable is the large amount of MrSurfacer on the hull side, which is the beginning of the dirt accumulation to be modeled there. The Verlinden etch is all fairly thick stuff, and may even be copper, but it's generally easy to work with The only negative to that is that the fenders are not much thinner the the Tamiya kit parts. Hmmm..... Tool boxes are mostly Trumpeter, from a cheapie T55 kit snagged a while ago for $13 for the mine roller. I'm glad I had it. The Tamiya boxes are part of the fenders, and the boxes in the Esci T55 I also am robbing for bits are even worse than the Tamiya parts. I did take the Esci exhaust, added a bit of the Tamiya part to make it long enough, and blended it all together with my buddy MrSurfacer. So, so far I have Tamiya, Verlinden, Trumpeter and now Esci parts in here.
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Post by Leon on Aug 31, 2015 15:29:04 GMT -5
You have a real Frankenstein tank going there Russ!
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Post by TRM on Aug 31, 2015 16:30:44 GMT -5
Some Russ-tastic building!! Love it! I agree with you on the 62 being a bit rough to begin with! Making this look pretty cool now my friend! Keep slapping it around!
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Post by wbill76 on Aug 31, 2015 18:48:46 GMT -5
Keep on cobbling this one together from your spares bin Russ...you could probably toss it all into a great big pile and several fully formed vehicles could emerge.
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Post by rbaer on Sept 1, 2015 10:00:33 GMT -5
It's close to being a true "johnny Cash Special", except all the parts were procured honestly.... I took another look at this thing last night, no modeling, just a good critical appraisal, and I've decided to make it more beat-up than I had initially intended, and add the Verlinden mine plow. I also scored a set of Friul ATL-01s for a very reasonable price, and they're on the way so I can hang on to the set of SpadeAce tracks I bought for the Achzarit in the stash. Convoluted, almost like daytime TV, but the skinny is: this T62 is going to look like a junkyard dog. Now I just need to get back to scouring the web for pics of hammered T62s with mine plows. Shouldn't be too hard, seems like most of them still in operation (or very recently out) of operation are hammered like third world rental cars.
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Post by rbaer on Sept 15, 2015 12:04:30 GMT -5
All my contest frenzy is over for a while, hope to get back on this one this week.....
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Post by deafpanzer on Sept 16, 2015 12:17:03 GMT -5
Cool! Enjoy your break... cook something on the grill... drink those strong drinks... lay back! I will be here when you return.
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Post by rbaer on Sept 17, 2015 10:48:10 GMT -5
Chiefs playing Denver tonight, wee ha! In the meantime, I assembled the Spade Ace tracks: And you'd never guess, they're too narrow bu about 1mm to fit the Tamiya sprockets. I have decided to look for a pair of Trumpeter T-62 sprockets to fit the OmSh tracks, otherwise I'll be assembling some Friuls. The particular set I have needs ALL the holes cleared of flash. Oh joy.
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Post by wbill76 on Sept 17, 2015 13:57:46 GMT -5
Tracks will keep you busy one way or the other on this one Russ, you can't escape it.
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