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.