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Some more goodies arrived in the post yesterday and today before I went to work... sadly I had to leave the parcel on my coffee table... urgh!

Today I got my Hornet resin heads and also the Aber photo etch upgrade set for the T-55A. I also got a great back issue of Tamiya modelling magazine in the post that has a really indepth article on the Tamiya T-55 kit. Pletny of construction shots and step by step painting guides.

Heres yesterdays purchase, the CMK Resin engine set. This set is fantastic and fits into the Tamiya Hull like a dream. It also fits together flawlessly with the CMK Interior set and gives a very comprehensive model.



It comes with plenty of resin parts, some photo etch, and just needs some Brass wire and plastic rod to finish (not supplied).

I also managed to get some more of the interior set built last night. Not as much as I would have liked as I had a busy evening and only had a little modelling time.

First up the Drivers chair, a nightmare of photo etch, brass wire, and resin. This was extremely fiddly to make and required building up the chair in stages from photo etch, and threading the brass wire through the holes in the chair legs and base. The end result though is a pretty detailed and nice looking drivers chair and I think was well worth the effort. Much more detailed than the drivers chair in my 1:48 Verlinden interior set for the T34.





The interior set requires a lot of sub assembly and building of parts before they fit together. It's quite complex and often components make little sense till you see them put together. I've often been building something and thinking "what on earth is this supposed to be?" however when it fits into another part of the kit you start to realise and think "ahhh so thats what it is." You also find that the instructions in these kits whilst generally good can be rather vague and a little confusing so it's always a good idea to have reference photos nearby to double check where parts go. Sometimes the exploding diagrams can be tricky to follow.

Heres the gunners station (or at least part of it)... The chair and foot rest are very detailed with nice surface texture (not really clear in these photos).





Suspended, as it would be in the hull

That is insane.

Im Loving it!
Where do you get these kits from?

Cheers
ABH

Lol that pic is immense, and I gree, it's already looking great !

Where dooo you get these amazing kits from !?

Oh sweet heavens man!

That looks tiny and smal,Deff's ole' and shaky will never be able to do that!

Keep up the awesome work,hope to see more.

What are you thinking of for the paint scheme of the tanK?

Thanks guys

A good pair of fine tweezers, and some patience are essential for these parts. I've lost count of the number of times I've glued chairs to my fingers!

As to sourcing the kits... thats actually very difficult. I normally find out from things from scale model magazines, and books. I also use Perth Military Modelling reviews page alot as well to get the inside opinon on new releases etc.

The CMK stuff was really hard to track down. CMK are based in the Czech Republic and you'd think that in Europe they wouldn't be too hard to find, but actually I had to order mine from the USA and even then it was tough. I got the last two CMK kits in stock! I used Sprue Brothers online store and I must say it was great service.

I also order photo etch and resin parts from Historex Agents based here in the UK, as well as directly from manufacturers in Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Russia). For the metal shells that I'm using for the T-55 I have had to order these from Hussar Productions in Canada via the webstore Air Connections based in Ontario! I'm also waiting on some Japanese Modelkasten Tracks that I've ordered from a small store in the US, I couldn't order them from Japan direct.

Alot of the things take a lot of tracking down and investigation! Still you usually find eventually that someone somewhere will have it.

Deff as for paint scheme for the tank I definately want to avoid the basic dark green scheme, and will be doing camo. It's either going to be a winter camo (dark green and white) or a camo scheme like the example photo I posted earlier from a Russian military website (various shades of greens and some black).

do you display your stuff on www.missing-lynx.com ? you seem to have a fantastic eye for detail and that site has some of the best in your field.

BoW- John

BEASTSOFWAR wrote:do you display your stuff on www.missing-lynx.com ? you seem to have a fantastic eye for detail and that site has some of the best in your field.

BoW- John

I've never posted anything on missing-lynx actually. Since I'm quite new to "serious" scale modelling I had always avoided places like that and armorama. As you say it has fantastic work on it and i enjoy visiting, really mind blowing stuff and I guess I always figured that my work wasn't really at that level yet.

Maybe after a few more builds I might try it one day.

Some Cracking stuff, I cant beleive you go to all that trouble for the models, but it certainly pays off.

Youve inspired me to find something of the WW2 WW1 era and im going to start work on some ww2 1/72 scale Airfix models
thanks for the inspiration
Keep up the good work


ABH

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Heres some more work on the Interior, nearly finished!

Oh Gundam-Mecha , you are scary! surely this type of things are as intricate as open heart surgery!

Fabulous work on the interior
Keep it up



Cheers
ABH

Thanks guys I'm glad you like it! Sure takes a lot of work but its worth it. Next up is the turret interior and gun breach! :s

This is quite awesome... Winter warfare and claustrophofbic tanks makes me glad im a civie..

looing forward to next update .. also love the chair

By Odin's hairy knuttsack this is good stuff. I've worked my way through all three of your blog projects over the last few days and it's absolutely fabulous stuff.

Thanks for the compliments guys! I really appreciate it and its great to be able to share these projects with other modellers.

Had a busy weekend and managed to get some more done on the interior as well as some of the Soviet Motor Rifle Troops:

Motor Rifle Troopers comparison with the plastic figure head and the Hornet resin upgrade head



Upgraded trooper with scratch built etch strap:





Gun breach detail with coaxial machine gun:





Turret ring detail:





Drivers station with foot pedals

Good fething grief!

That detail is insane,you sir have just made me feel like less of a man using only tiny plastic bits,this is a sign of great awesomeness.Now get more up and be right quick about it!

Just one question man,doesn't that Hornet head look a little small?Perhaps it's just my tired eyes,oh well I guess that's the price I pay for almost 8 hours of Call of Duty.

The Hornet heads are a little smaller than the plastic Dragon ones, both are described as 1:35 scale however there is always a little scale creep between brands even in historical modelling.

However whilst its a little smaller its not out of proportion in terms of the rest of the body, hands etc. It just looks like he's a little gaunt or skinny compared to the other guy. Actually I quite like natural variation in size and shape of figures. Not everyone is the same in real life, so why so in models?

I see what you mean.Well anywho hope your week isn't to hectic so that you can get more stuff done.

What Scale are those troopers btw? is it 1/72 or 1/32?


Cheers
ABH

They are 1:35 scale I belive.

Mate this is insane. I do not envy you, though, because painting this is going to be such a bitch.

I recommend a whole load of shading washes.

sA

ABH - Deff is right these are 1:35 scale figures. Slighty larger than 1:48 figures, but not far off heroic scale larger figures. For a rough size comparison they are roughly the same size as a Space Marine Terminator or one of the ever popular "true" scale Marines in Power Armour.

1:48 scale figures are actually slighty smaller than regular 28mm heroic scale figures as the proportions are not exagerated. 1:35 figures slighty larger than regular heroic infantry.

sA - painting sure is going to be a challenge, but it will be a lot of fun. I just got my metal 100mm shells from airconnections in Canada today. They are fantastic turned metal shells that have really nice detail, much better than resin detail shells you can get from companies like Verlinden or Forgeworld.

I'll be doing a lot of the painting by airbrush, as well as numerous washes, oil filters, and brush painting with acrylics. Definately for the micro details I think your right, shading washes will be essential


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Finally got my shells for the interior, these arrived today:







These really are great items and the mini transfers for the shells are amazing, also all in authentic Russian!

This is just not fair G-M showing us gamers up with your hoity toity model kits and fancy resin and brass etch extra doodads now you go and throw in some turned shells.
I guess I will need some really fancy stuff when I build my 40K scale mek Gargant.

:O:O:O:O
Cracking
also thankyou for that 1:35 and i saw some of the kits by the same company the other day only tanks.
Lovely stuff
keep it coming
Cheers
ABH

Those shells look great I might have to find a way to use them. How difficult do you reckon it would be to "adapt" one of those kits for a Russ?

@ Sonofruss / ABH - thanks guys! Actually Russ theres loads of cool gubbins you could throw onto a mek gargant. If you want cool engines, servos and stuff like that plane kits have loads of accessories and parts you could try, mix those with some household junk like Jamiesson's Stompa and you're in business

@ Llamahead - you could easily use these shells for a Russ scale wise they'd fit really nicely. Also since this is a fantasy Sci-fi setting you have a much wider choice of what shells to use. You can just choose any shell that looks cool to you! Hussar have a wide range of different shells, check out this review on Perth Military modelling for an otherview and pictures of all the different options.
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/hussar/hussar35005-10.htm

The 152 mm shell set might suit a Russ better since they are big beefy looking shells, and a Russ has a huge battle cannon!

Here are some more updates from what I managed last night:

Making the Turret ammo rack and Shells. The rack is made from photo etch and Brass wire and the shells are attached with photo etch brackets.




Attaching the ammo rack and shell to the turret interior, this is just the first shell, there will be four layered on this rack.



Turret ring detail and gun breach:





Parts for the next stage of the project, the fully detailed engine and engine bay. Most of the main interior of the Crew cabin and the Turret is nearly done now, so I will be cracking into this part soon.

WOW! These detailing packs are simply amazing, they have so much detail in them its's great.

If I can ever find anything similar for german tanks, I would make one of these without a second thought!

Great work so far mate, really is starting to take shape.

Coming along well.One quick question,jow often with these resin kits(like the interior kit)do you encounter warping in the resin?


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I am sure that you could find something like that for German tanks wolf.Also Dragon makes a rather nice Panzer kit IIRC.

Loving this keep up the good work

What enviroment is the final Diorama going to be set in Snow? Temperate?