The Missing Part Arrives !

Good news the missing part arrived yesterday so I finished off the commanders MG mount and added some extra details to the assembly. The observant amongst you will notice that I have reverted back to the kit barrel as well. Although the metal barrel was better in detail it was slightly wrong for a T-90 as was pointed out to me on Missing Lynx. I am looking forwards to the painting now and plan to try out some AK interactive products on the model.

Stress Free Building

Construction has started on the F-5F and it really is a stress free build, a lot of the parts just click into place. I have added some extra details to the seats just to make them look better. The main fuselage is a joy to build with only the slightest smear of Mr Surfacer here and there. Painting of the cockpit is in progress at the moment.

AFV Club F-5F VFC-111 "sundowners"

A trip to my local model shop today for some paints and plastic strip ended up with me snapping up this rather fetching model by AFV Club. I just could not resist the rather fetching colour scheme. A quick look in the box revealed a whole host of beautifully detailed parts and by the looks of it a very stress free build.



So as I said in my previous post onwards and upwards (quite literally!)

Wonderful WMIK!

Finally finished off the WMIK today after only 7 months toil! The base received some weeds carved from plastic rod and some green line grass clumps. The fence post was some old etch which I drilled out some holes then folded. The base was painted exactly the same as the vehicle then I picked out stones in various tones from grey for flint to almost white for chalk. The grass was sprayed with tamiya colours then the whole lot got a dry brush with oils then a dusting with the pigments used on the WMIK. So the setting is a rather dusty early summer day on Salisbury plain.






























So there you have it, what was at times a rather tedious project for me but enjoyable non the less. Onwards and upwards as they say!

WMIK Weathering

Right we are on the final straight! at bloody last, finally bit the bullet today and added dust effects to the model. I started with heavily thinned tamiya earth and buff then went over the model with MIG pigments P415 light european earth, I used this mostly dry apart from the foot wells, I used a drop of water in these. Lastly a bit of MIG oil and grease stain mix was used in the engine bay, fuel filler and differentials.

The base was also started today nothing fancy but I will be adding a couple of rusty fence posts and some barbed wire to the base. Very pleased with the outcome of the dust stage to me it looks like it's just driven off Salisbury plain which is what I was aiming for.











The T-90 build is now on hold until my replacement part arrives so hopefully I will not have to wait too long to start painting it!

T-90 Tracks and Turret Tweaks Part 2

The hull is now almost completed, very little needed adding to the hull front just some cables for the lights and a pry bar to the hull top. The swinging arms suffer from a very small locating pin so I used some epoxy to fix these firmly to the hull. I elected to drill and pin the tracks instead of using glue as this gives me greater scope later on when painting the tracks off the vehicle. It also allows some slight adjustments in track tension. The front idler can also be adjusted to take out any slack. The tracks look very nice with perhaps a slight lack of detail on the end connector bolts. I may add better bolts from punched plastic card later but only on the visible areas of the finished model.







I eventually elected to replace the kit barrel and antenna mount with some RB Models items. The barrel is No 35B102 which looks spot on according to my references, it certainly has much better detail than the kit item. Again I fixed this with some epoxy after making some adjustments to the mantlet. The antenna base also looks much better and this item is No35A14. Both additions although not entirely necessary are not that expensive and enhance the final look of the model.







Well I am nearly at the end of the build and so far it's been a blast. I really like this kit and even without the additions I have made a very nice model can be built.

T-90 Hull Tweaks

Yesterday and today has seen me working on the rear of the hull and the engine deck, I used some scrap mesh for the intakes as it's easier to work with than the kit supplied nylon mesh. Loads of insanely small bolt heads where added as well as some missing details. The tow cable wire is from an older build, it's nice and pliable and again better than the kit supplied string. I have left off the fuel drum supports for now as they are not that solid and am still debating whether to fit the drums as most pictures I have seen show the supports but no drums.









I Also added the snorkel housing and wind sensor assembly to the turret and added details to these parts. The antenna base may get replaced with a brass item and I think the main gun barrel will get replaced with a metal item as the detail on the barrel is rather soft.





In between all this frantic activity I have been varnishing the base for the WMIK and buying a new compressor hose as I somehow managed to break the connector on the compressor! so no weathering on the WMIK until it arrives.

A Happy Outcome.........

Oh I do love the internet! after sending an email to Zvezda's worldwide representatives, Hobby Pro Marketing GmbH, I received a very nice email from Pepi Zelger telling me that they are aware of the problem and that they would send me a replacement part, thanks Pepi you are a star! attached to the email was also an updated paint guide to replace the inaccurate kit supplied one. This will be available soon to download from the Zvezda web site.

So onwards and upwards! I have started building the hull components and replaced the nylon mesh for the engine decks with some scrap etched parts trimmed to fit for better detail as well as adding some details to the exhaust area. The bottom hull had a few ejector pin marks to sand out and a drop of Mr Surfacer here and there to hide those marks I could not sand.

A slight hiccup!

More work has been done on the turret which is now almost finished however there is a slight hiccup! Part F103 is missing off the sprune in my example, it looks like it has not formed correctly in the mould. Perhaps this is just my kit or maybe others have the same problem, by the way I am in the UK. Unfortunately the part is for the commanders cupola mounted machine gun and is quite crucial as it supports the machine gun assembly.
Here is a picture of the missing part,





I would advise anyone with the kit to check for the part and if missing contact your supplier/Zvezda as I have. Bit of a pain but I hope this is only an isolated case.

One word of caution regarding the side sensors next to the cupola and loaders hatch, part numbers D51 and clear part number E15, the fit is very tight and I nearly split part D51 whilst trying to fit the clear part so my advise would be to leave E15 out if you want the sensors open and fill in the lenses with micro kristal klear or similar later on. Here are some pictures of the completed turret minus a few items and the machine gun,

T-90 Turret Tales

As was promised yesterday here is an update on the T-90 build, construction starts as per the instructions with the turret and I would recommend that you take your time and test fit the major turret components before committing to glue to ensure a good fit. This is defiantly NOT a fast build due to the many small parts which need to be fitted but the overall detail is very nice indeed.

As you can see I have added some cables using lead wire and also added a blue tinted lens in the commanders sight as this is quite visible on the real vehicle. A few bolt heads have also been added here and there. I would strongly recommend a quick web search for good walk-around pictures as well to help you with adding extra details.











I have also found that the plastic used is quite soft so care needs to be taken when removing some of the smaller parts from the sprunes.