ASAD-BABIL "LION OF BABYLON" IRAQI ARMY FEB 1991

[Mithras]

I can promise that her crew will be at least marginally competent.

Marginally…

[HERMAN BIX]

The hull sections are now connected & screwed together.
All functions I can test without running it against another H/L tank , work.
Everything does as it should & that is a great milestone.
Cause nowwwwww I get to do the outside

Annnnnd just as he says that, .........................I realise I need to test its I.R. functions to be sure this will work as It would out of the box against another H/L V7 model.
( ??..........nah, I got this sorted too)
Will conduct the testing & tick it off, or go back in and get it sorted.

[Mithras]

You are a scholar and a gentleman… unless that is an insult to you, in which case I’ll simply say you’re a hell of a trooper. We look forward to receiving the delivery from the Tikrit factory.

[HERMAN BIX]

You are a scholar and a gentleman… unless that is an insult to you, in which case I’ll simply say you’re a hell of a trooper. We look forward to receiving the delivery from the Tikrit factory.

Gentleman is stretching it !!...............but not far now the delivery from Tikrit will be on its way.
I may conduct a bit of a modeling "Thunder Run " to get this done, but I have had a %$#$@# of a 48 hrs at work & for now its all about air conditioning & alcohol

[Mithras]

No rush. Taketh thine time.

[HERMAN BIX]

Topcoat is on
Made a mix of XF-59 Desert Yellow blended with XF-55 Deck Tan and XF-57 Buff to tone it down.
Using a circular motion to blow over the green & hairspray, the base shade looked ok. Then over that to act as a kind of highlight/modulation I used the sand Beige Vallejo 71.244 very light and blown down directly straight from the top to simulate sun bleaching.
The roadwheels were also pre-painted with the base coat , had the rubber tires reinstated and then all were fitted back to the hull & the hubcaps belted home using a socket to spread the impact around the cap.
Once the caps were all home, the same sand beige was dusted over them to cover the damage from fitting and to lighten the roadwheels, plus allow a little overspray to go over the tires as it would in real life when a tank is repainted.
A quick mask around the fume extractor & on went the yellow band.
I grabbed a couple of sets of T90 drive sprockets just for the hubcaps $12 a set, and now I have 4 sets of new metal sprockets with no hubcaps!!
Blue tack to hold them in place & thats near enough for the work an average model might do.

Still a lot to do but its an actual Asad-Babil-ish looking thing now

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[Herr Dr. Professor]

Herman: isn't it satisfying to see the base coat on a model? And did I miss something before, or is it just my goofy eyesight: is that extra fuel tank pushed in a bit as if the driver backed into something? If so, yes!

[Mithras]

Herman: isn't it satisfying to see the base coat on a model? And did I miss something before, or is it just my goofy eyesight: is that extra fuel tank pushed in a bit as if the driver backed into something? If so, yes!

Mr. Bix and I have discussed that. I'm not sure why, but this is a very common feature of Iraqi vehicles. I can't imagine they were all just running them over as an initiation ritual, but honestly I haven't a clue!


Edit:

Supposedly, the Iraqis painted the fuel drums of certain vehicles to match divisional assignment, but I've never seen that consistently replicated. For those interested, the color on the Thermal sleeve is fairly common. Yellow would have been used by the Saladin Divison, the only non-Republican Guard formation to get T-72s.

[Mithras]

Herr Bix: Let me know what I can do to cover the cost of those hubcaps. Happy to oblige.

It's looking lurvely, mate. Lurvely.

[HERMAN BIX]

Yes Herr Prof it’s dented. I will say that doing so is a bit of an art form /risk in itself. Getting one to be distressed but not unrealistic is quite hard. Too much heat in the wrong place or for too long is just melted plastic.
Useing the round handle of a hobby knife to press once heated allows feel of the material giving way under it so the heat can be backed off.

Lots of pics from the period show the T72 and T62s with dented and missing fuel tanks. I find this a bit puzzling as the open spaces in deserts was devoid of things to reverse into !!
Not like in Syria with almost all the action taking place in built up areas.
The fuel tank and ammo crate storage box in the mounts next to it have to be removable for the trip over to Mr Mithras so I can’t complete them like I usually would, but they will still look right once complete.