Modding 1/16 Russian chemical warfaresoldier to tank crewman

[Marc780]

I happened to see this when looking for tank parts on ali express and I thought it might make a passable tank crewman for HL T-90 and other modern Russian AFV's. There is a dearth in modern Russian tank crewman in 1/16 but with some modding, especially by somebody who knows what they are doing (unlike me)this figure will serve, I think it looks pretty good in the turret and no face to paint (always the hardest part). On this figure all you have to do is paint the gas mask white, or black. All the images I found were all either one or the other. The black masks had silver around the eye holes otherwise seemed the same. The filter element on all of them, was light green.

The original figure is supposed to look like this once you glue and paint it

It is called "1/16 scale unpainted Russian soldier in biochemical clothing" and it cost $15.


It comes with the arms, legs and hands separate from the body for gluing, and also includes an AK folder. I couldn't figure a way to make the soldier hold the AK and still fit in the hatch too, although I thought about attaching the AK to the turret top near the hatch somewhere - maybe on the T55! Also I found i couldn't glue on the hands, or else it would not fit in the hatch either.

I cut his torso with a hacksaw right below the belt line and glued on a velcro piece, and of course the mating velcro in the turret hatch floor. If you leave the hands off he will fit in either of the two holes with the hatch up. If you add the hands, (like I probably should have) you'd mod the arms at the shoulder to splay out more sideways.

I highlighted the creases with Russian armor green in Testors acrylic. Then sprayed matte clear over all.

[B_Man]

Nice work. It reminds me of the opening scene in "The Beast of War" when they roll into the village with gas masks on.

[Marc780]

Yes, exactly! That was the first thing i thought of when i saw the figure for sale. That and how easy it would be to paint the face, for once.

We already know the flame thrower in the beast was just a film mod and, as the tank was portrayed in the film, probably never existed in such a tank as "T-5 5 - 4 7" . And such a tank would have no main gun only flame plus a trailer to draw enemy fire and so forth... But the lethal chem warfare grenades they drop through the bottom hatch in the scene you mention, and the crude ground radar (when they put out the sensors so they could read movement on a radar screen) seem like something they almost could have actually used. Although probably just flights of fancy by the director to make the movie a lot more interesting. IMDB says they filmed "Beast of War" in Israel, and the Israelis are the ones, who provided several captured and running T-54/T-55 tanks for the movie along with the Russian chopper (since the IDF actually uses these captured tanks themselves on occassion).