T55 Kosovo Part 2

Here is part 2 of the Kosovo project. The work around the Aber kit is really taking its toll on my eyes.....I got so fed up with trying to bend them with my two expensive Tamiya PE bending pliers, I went over to M Workshop and bought myself an Etchmate 3C! No more gripes, now for my project proper.

The Engine bay needed some work on the exhaust area....and I wanted to depict rust later on, so I danced two drops of the cheap CA on the cover and used Butyl Acetate to roughen the exhaust pipe. So that later, I can just use my EAA glue and dance the reds and oranges on the surface and when dry, give some Vallego washes and later dance a little black oil paint on the edges to get the effect I normally do for exhaust pipes. Having danced CA on the surface with a tooth pick will really help. For the under carriage, I danced some CA and used the acelerator to deform it to form uneven lumps below, I used 2 tubes of CA to form this mountainous terrain below the surfaces so that I can easily pigment it to depict dried and wet mud or dirt later with EAA and pigments, washes and patch painting glazing. I hate to use the putty and sand method as grains of 1mm in size here in this scale will mean a 2 pound stone, ever seen any 2 pounder sticking on tank wheels and undercarriage before? I rest my case.

The cupolas are a headache.....no two pictures covering the war had the same system....looked like a large variation of tanks versions were used for the conflict. So, I took some liberty to splice in some Blast options. The fit needed some modifications to the base area and the cover hatch as they will not fit! Then I added melted sprue and chiselled in the weld lines with my trusty Olfa knife.

I did the same for the other side and I am quite pleased with the way it looked. Next, I danced Butyl Acetate, hereafter called BA, all over the front glacis to form the cast look. Added in the clips to the fuel lines etc.

For the mantlet cover, I used the Blast unit, which is a modified Tamiya kit part, but at least it had the side stitches which were missing on the plastic kit part. To get the gun to stick and be strong, I put in 1/2 tube worth of CA and acelerated them layer by layer till it formed a large 8mm circular block to overcome the weight problem and also the infamous character of CA cracking under stress.

Then there is the 8 part crap from Aber to form this wiring and another 8 part crap to form a box 1mm thick! Isn't it crazy? All that crap to try to hype up value? I just cut a piece of styrene and put that in for the box, and used the Blast set, which featured great resin that did not break easily. I cut that into 3 parts and position glued them around the periscopes of the driver. Then with one sprue, I put in the anchor wiring.

T55 Kosovo Project

The Project started as a commission project. The customer in EU sent me a T55 kit, Aber 2 photo etch sets, which are 70% useless being that its redundant, have you ever try to fold a flower cut into a nut? I just cut one from a Wave set and that settled it, after all, I still have 4 sets of Verlinden Nuts still sitting pretty around too.

The customer also sent me a CMK interior detail kit for keeps, thanks a million! Then I have an Abel metal barrel, a Blast update kit plus a 35 Calibre Rear Engine kit.

To begin, I started with the engine parts, which had the covers open. However, there are no details on the inside unfortunately, on the cover, that is, looked like a knock off of the Tamiya actual kit part!!!! The resin used in this kit is a shame! All the small parts like hinges are all broken! I have to cut them clean and build my own in sheet styrene. Then, I put in the Aber rear engine meshes, which breaks to the touch, it being too thin! Talking about saving money on acid and metal! Way too thin. The mesh breaks and had to be glued properly in place, however, it presents a nice break from monotony.....hmmm....

We can see the hinges doing their disappearing act here. Sigh...but the Aber mesh, though too thin, looked very good above the vents...the fit of the resin wasn't too snug, so we need some serious diluted putty of Butyl Acetate (which is Tamiya Liquid Cement but in bulk...like in barrels in my workshop) and cellulose putty to build up the sides and sanded to a sheen!

The engine is not really a walk in the park. It does not centre easily and all the fuel lines had to be added, there were also missing parts in the non existing instructions (basically useless). I created them when refering to my T54/55/62 book from Verlinden.

Then, after some struggling, I managed to mask the parts that were painted primer surfacer 1000. Left to cure for 4 days to harden, then sprayed the silver parts on the block, then weather it with Vallego colours to get the metallic semi sooted rusty looks.

Then, there was a huge discussion in a flurry of emails of where the lines of the fuel are supposed to be located. Ee Keok Lye, Sgt Ee of M Workshop told me that the lines are as per his drawings below. The customer told me to follow the diagram in the Soviet Bloc Aber kit. Both have serious flaws in them. The Kit Sgt Ee followed is not too bad, quite close but the lines have to travel a short distance on the top. Aber has a serious flaw asking us to link the rear tank forward to the engine.....which is not the case.

This diagram was sent to assist me from Sgt Ee...thanks...but TEHHHHHH.....wrong....so much guessing in the model world...so, to settle the fight before someone shed blood, I scan this picture of the actual Latrun Museum and sent it out to settle the dust.......

Thank God that everything settled then!

Zaku For BAKUC 2008

Many at M Con 2008 asked about my whereabouts.....well, deep in work...also, waiting for the Grant CDL to be published in Model Military International in Issue 34, namely, January 2009.

Be sure to get one copy from M Workshop or Storm, I will sign them in blood for you....not mine though.....

Well, Was hard at work trying out my new chipping technique....and I did it with my first Gundam entry into BAKUC 2008. All along, I am coaching Dominique with his Gundams using my own tank techniques. This is the first time I have taken part.....

I chose the BAKUC over the M Con, not a political issue, but the prizes are attractive....mainly for mercenary reasons...and also the gang there are a bunch of surprises....as usual, master LEON will blow us all away....with his newspaper featured SCRATCH BUILT....Sangoku Den Horse Rider.....man....talking about planning and engineering...this guy is on his own world....can match the guy from Hong Kong that took the world title last year.

Here is my entry:-

The model was modified heavily, being the first MG kit from Bandai for the Zaku, this was bought years ago when police were still running around in shorts....in a dream world S$13.00 !!!!!
I had added alot of additional armour panels and loads of bolts and nuts, some nozzles, modified the feet etc. You can tell including the front Viffing vents. The amount I spent on Wave parts are 4 times the price of the actual money my brother paid for the model....

I also decided to paint the bazuka in two tone and weather age it. The model was first painted silver, then protected, then painted black and then scapelled to get all the chips!

I also thin sprayed the torso in silver and thin coated the surface with the pink to form a metallic transparent sheen...then chip it. You can see the effects on this picture.

In this picture, you can tell the additional armour panels, the nozzles, the chips, the metal cable lines, the magazine for the gun was first painted in silver, then in grey and then polished to reveal the silver a little to make it look like wear and tear.

Here is the rear view with the modified jet packs, tail wedge armours, the 4 tone pink colour scheme are especially exciting to me, I never weathered a pink model before....so this is a first for me and my brother. I also bought 2 decal sets at Sunshine hangout for this entry!!!


This is how it looked from the front. The chipping alone took 2 weeks of 3 hours per day!! Here you can see I added handles, knobs, viffing nozzles, additional armour for the pilot, two vector thrusters on the chest and nuts and bolts for the wast armour system with I also added reactive armour system as well as the croch area where I added a turning wheel. The body is painted in 3 tones, deep pink, metallic pink and gun metal as well as the body colour.


The complete model on the base.