Heng Long T-90 repaint in Russian armor green
Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 4:47 pm
After moving last year a lot of my tanks had to go as there was no room for them anymore... I only kept the Panther G from my collection. I thought I was done with the hobby actually until HL came out with the T90. Then I thought about it for a year, because what I really wanted was a T55 or at least a T72... and the Hooben T55 & T72 was far more expensive then I thought was worth it. So I waited til I saw someone's used T90 that they just didn't want anymore (It cost me $135 shipped) and got it.
The T90 comes with a pretty much authentic camo scheme right out of the box. But the Russians stopped doing camo from the factory as of 2013. The paint job on their tanks depends on the area where the tank will be deployed. T90's going to the north and other forest areas just get a solid coat of good old Soviet armor green. Those going to the deserts in the south get a tan/light yellow paint described as "khaki". The tank then gets camo scheme used by other tanks in the area, whether green over tan or the other way round (sometimes with black edge as well, sometimes not). There is not much variation in Russian armor camouflage when they even bother to apply it at all. But the camo job from the HL factory is really pretty authentic and not too much wrong with it actually.
Factory paint scheme
Even so I decided to go for a solid green, which of course presents challenges of its own. Fortunately even with a solid color, the tank's so big it's not difficult to really make it pop, using the tried and true drybrushing and wash techniques, along with dark and white undercoats before the main green is applied. I am still searching for the magic formula, and I am still nowhere near that yet - these photos are ones i took mostly just to look for flaws - but I learn something every time I paint. I have been building armor models since the 1970's and even now, I am still far from the results I really want! But that's what the hobby is all about after all.
Russian armor green is at least one shade lighter then US olive drab. In my opinion armor on lightly used or peace-time Russian armor would be even lighter yet just from fading. Kits like the excellent AK interactive Russian green acrylic paint set even seem to take this into account: top surfaces are recommended to be lighter then side panels and the set has several shades of green. However the directions (the pictures on the box and the youtube videos) are counter-intuitive. If you follow the examples they would have you paint lighter shades over darker ones, the opposite of what you probably ought to do. Also the primer included in such kits is going to spray much too thin to cover even molded plastic let alone any previous finish. If you use spray can primer, which I always do, even grey primer might be too dark. If you use white primer you can't go wrong.
One annoying thing about this model is the battery would not fit in its compartment. People pointed out that I should just turn the battery sideways and this had worked on their tank, but of course I had already tried this... The recess was just too small. Perhaps minor differences in the battery dimensions from the vendors are to blame? Regardless of the reason the battery wouldn't fit so I ground away some of the plastic per the photo; really the only solution.
The T90 comes with a pretty much authentic camo scheme right out of the box. But the Russians stopped doing camo from the factory as of 2013. The paint job on their tanks depends on the area where the tank will be deployed. T90's going to the north and other forest areas just get a solid coat of good old Soviet armor green. Those going to the deserts in the south get a tan/light yellow paint described as "khaki". The tank then gets camo scheme used by other tanks in the area, whether green over tan or the other way round (sometimes with black edge as well, sometimes not). There is not much variation in Russian armor camouflage when they even bother to apply it at all. But the camo job from the HL factory is really pretty authentic and not too much wrong with it actually.
Factory paint scheme
Even so I decided to go for a solid green, which of course presents challenges of its own. Fortunately even with a solid color, the tank's so big it's not difficult to really make it pop, using the tried and true drybrushing and wash techniques, along with dark and white undercoats before the main green is applied. I am still searching for the magic formula, and I am still nowhere near that yet - these photos are ones i took mostly just to look for flaws - but I learn something every time I paint. I have been building armor models since the 1970's and even now, I am still far from the results I really want! But that's what the hobby is all about after all.
Russian armor green is at least one shade lighter then US olive drab. In my opinion armor on lightly used or peace-time Russian armor would be even lighter yet just from fading. Kits like the excellent AK interactive Russian green acrylic paint set even seem to take this into account: top surfaces are recommended to be lighter then side panels and the set has several shades of green. However the directions (the pictures on the box and the youtube videos) are counter-intuitive. If you follow the examples they would have you paint lighter shades over darker ones, the opposite of what you probably ought to do. Also the primer included in such kits is going to spray much too thin to cover even molded plastic let alone any previous finish. If you use spray can primer, which I always do, even grey primer might be too dark. If you use white primer you can't go wrong.
One annoying thing about this model is the battery would not fit in its compartment. People pointed out that I should just turn the battery sideways and this had worked on their tank, but of course I had already tried this... The recess was just too small. Perhaps minor differences in the battery dimensions from the vendors are to blame? Regardless of the reason the battery wouldn't fit so I ground away some of the plastic per the photo; really the only solution.