Takom T-55 AMV

[thug626]

With the Merkava done, this mornings coin toss was between GWH F-15I Ra'am or Takom T-55 AMV.....
The T-55 won the toss!

There are a fair number of color schemes to choose from with this kit. Here's a couple of pics of the scheme I've opted to go with.


The idler wheels are molded showing the bearings and races. Handy if you chose to have a maintenance scene or busted tank. All one has to do is not install the caps. The holes for the axles are a bit on the small side so, enlarge them with caution. There are no poly caps with any of the wheels for this kit.

The drive sprockets are a three piece assembly. I have opted to leave them off at this point even though the instructions call for them to be mounted. I may leave them off until it comes time to mount the tracks.

Here's where the first two steps of instructions have gotten me to. Mounting of: extra frontal belly armor, idlers, front lower ERA blocks (one piece, not individual blocks) and the final drives.





More to come today......

[dierk]

You're a masterful (coin) tosser sir!
Looks like a great kit, and I'll be watching with interest.

[Leon]

Off to a good start Dave! I'll be following along.

[wbill76]

Nice choice of scheme, looking forward to seeing it come together.

[thug626]

Good evening Dierk. Reading what you wrote just about made me spit my end of the day IPA. Oh how I needed the laughter today my good man. It is a rather nice kit. This is my first go around with Takom. There have been a few minor errors. One of them I did not find the addendum until after the Abroid had fully set. The armor guards for the swing arms are reversed. Some of the hole, or call outs for which holes to drill on the glacis seem to be off. I'll check it in the am with fresh eyes. Oh yes! Glad to have you along for the build.

Good evening Leon. Always glad to have you aboard! It's rolling along quickly.

Good evening Bill. There were several complex schemes presented. This is the one that caught my eye. As far as coming together......read on

I got a second session at the bench this evening. Things got far enough along that I may be able to start the track runs tomorrow. We shall see.
The road wheels were cut loose and cleaned up along with the wheel rubber. The rubber sections are separate from the wheels. Perfect! This will allow me to put some wear and tear on the rubber sections much easier. Not to mention painting is simplified.

The rubber on the left has the "show room" fresh mould lines. This is not going to be a factory fresh T-55 variant. There's going to be some milage behind it. The rubber on the right is after sanding. I'll hit it with a couple of Dremel bits and smooth the rough spots to show the wear and tear.

Swing arms to all stations have been added. The first pic is the first station behind the idler. Both sides are identical. The fit was so tight for the swing arm that alignment is a no brainer.

This is the last station before the drive sprocket.

The three middle stations on both sides are identical. There is a good bit if detail at all of the stations

I was so close that I could not resist getting the top on. This is a three part assembly: Rear deck, turret ring and the remaining front portion. The instructions call for all three being assembled then placed on the hull. I chose to assemble the front portion and turret ring. Then mount that to the hull. When I was satisfied with the alignment, I then placed the rear deck.



Dave

[Leon]

Your making really good progress Dave! That is some nice looking detail.

[thug626]

Thank you kindly Leon. The detail in the kit is really quite good. I've not done any rivet counting here but, it looks good to my eye.

[thug626]

The track run I was hoping to have started will be delayed. All of the track links have two slightly proud EP marks on the inner surface. The good news is that a couple of passes from a #23 blade fixes it.

The ERA block were finished up on the glacis along with a few other bits and bobs. Not complete yet, but much further along. Remaining is the headlight and cage assembly.


I'm not sure if these are marker lights or serve some other purpose. They are paired up similarly on a T-72M I built. Does anyone know for certain what purpose they serve?

[Leon]

Nice work on the blocks Dave! I was wondering the same thing as i have them on my T-62.

[dierk]

I'm not exactly sure what those gizmos are. The front appears to be unscrewable, judging from the thickness of the wiring going into them there seems to be quite a bit of juice going in, and the little blob in the middle is painted white on all the pics I've seen. It's a mystery to me. link
link2

[martslay]

Jun 27, 2016 5:28:00 GMT -5 dierk said:

I'm not exactly sure what those gizmos are. The front appears to be unscrewable, judging from the thickness of the wiring going into them there seems to be quite a bit of juice going in, and the little blob in the middle is painted white on all the pics I've seen. It's a mystery to me. link
link2

As far as I know, it is marker/mid-flight lights.

[wbill76]

Making good progress Dave, the blocks are the key!

[TRM]

Looking good Dave! Nice to have all of the wheels clean and ready! Good luck on the track assembly! Love the busy look to the ERA's! Makes for a lot of fun when it comes to weathering!

[jpc1968]

great progress and great detail on the kit. I will be watching this because I have a Tacom kit of a Chieftan armored tank that's screaming to be put together

[thug626]

Good morning gentlemen.
Leon Thank you. Those little parts that make you go, "Hmmm"
Dierk Thank you for the links. I know it won't change the build but, I like to know what the parts are and what they do.
Martslay Thank you for the clarification.
Bill Thank you kindly. Why yes they are.
TRM I opted to take a break from sanding the wheels and jump to the turret. It is a kit unto itself. Read on...
jpc1968 Thank you for the compliment. Stop the Takom kit from screaming and build it...that'll shut it up.

The turret is certainly a kit unto itself. With all the bits and bobs attached to it.....Oh yeah! There's all those ERA brackets and blocks. The brackets are a two piece assembly. The lower assembly has a cheater line that the bracket mounts above. I marked this line to make it more visible when attaching the lower bracket. On the lower bracket there is raised lip that is roughly mid point. This is where the distal end of the upper bracket attaches....that is it goes in front of the lip (the side furthest from the turret when mounted) All of the glue points received a wee drop of Testors cement. When I was happy with the alignment, I then placed a wee drop of Ambroid solvent glue. Followed by gentle pressure applied to the contact points making sure the brackets are now "welded" together.

The instructions have you build one side then the other. I opted to knock out the brackets all at once. When assembling them, I would only cut out one upper and one lower bracket. Assemble it. Then cross those two parts numbers off the instructions. They are not all identical.

Pretty much all of the blocks are single pieces. There are a couple of ones double up. Of note, some of the blocks are backwards. This was not realized until it was too late. They have a front and back as it turns out. The front side is flat and, the backside has a small step to it. Oops.



Dave

[Leon]

Nice work on the brackets and blocks Dave!

[deafpanzer]

Oh boy, now I really want to get this kit... damn it!!! Great details I am seeing already.

[wbill76]

Nice work on the brackets Dave. Just chalk the opposite bricks up to poor Soviet quality control.

[thug626]

Thank you Leon. Believe it or not, it was actually fun.

Andy, Thank you and I'm glad I could help corrupt someone else for a change. I'll get some pics up in a bit. The turret is just about done.

Good evening Bill, Thank you very much both for the compliment and an "out". It ties in nicely with my theory...It's probably already changed hands several times. Starting with Soviet QC.

[jpc1968]

Awesome detail. Looking good. My Takom kit moved further up the que.

[thug626]

There has been a lot of progress on the turret yesterday and today. Not done but, much closer to getting paint....

The linkage and search light with articulate if you are careful with the glue...I was very careful with the glue and, yes it does work. The mantlet doesn't allow much in the way of movement but, the articulation does allow you to match up the search light with the barrel when it all goes together.

The mantlet cover is some sort of soft, pliable material that, when you sparingly use a solvent cement it will stay put.

Blocks! Blocks everywhere!!!!

The requisite smoke launcher

Another angle showing more bits-n-bobs

[dierk]

Excellent! Carry on.

[flmlm]

Looks great so far. Nice looking kit with some beautiful detail

Regards
Mike

[thug626]

Good morning Dierk. Thank you and, carry on I shall.

Good morning Mike. Thank you kindly.

[jpc1968]

The detail is astounding on this kit. Great job

[reserve]

Yeah blocks! Nicely complex, excellent work brother

Regards,
Mark

[S e r z h]

Sometimes the complexity of the model is not clear, if it is not visible building stages. Respect!

[wbill76]

Now that is going to be fun to paint. Lots of details!

[thug626]

Good morning everyone.
jpc1968, Why yes it is and, thank you.
Mark, Lots of blocks, though not nearly the number of individual ones like on your build. Thank you brother.
Serzh, I couldn't agree more. Thank you kindly.
Bill, Well, painting it will certainly be interesting. The camo aspect will be straight forward in comparison to just getting all of the surfaces covered.

Well, the roll I was on yesterday got derailed. The Ex called and told me that our daughter had been in a car accident and, was transported to the ER. By the time I got there I could see the ER doc doing a nerve block on her forearm. The ICU nurse part of my brain saw what was going on....Broken arm. Yup! It was indeed broken. Otherwise she is ok. She was discharged later to home. I am now sporting even more grey hairs.

[deafpanzer]

One thing I only like about Russian tanks are the post-war with very busy looking turrets! Yours is looking great already...