Trumpeter/Taigen hybrid T-34/76 (obr. 1942 model)

[PainlessWolf]

Evenin'
*laughs* Great work! Between the two of you, I was going to buy Toms lower and kit bits and do one of these but when I mention tank now, I get "JS-2" from the Spouse. *chuckles*
regards and following along
Painless

[c.rainford73]

Evenin'
*laughs* Great work! Between the two of you, I was going to buy Toms lower and kit bits and do one of these but when I mention tank now, I get "JS-2" from the Spouse. *chuckles*
regards and following along
Painless

It would be nice to "stash away" and put your personal touch on...

[Markocaster]

Your solution for the smoker is genius


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[Raminator]

Thanks for keeping up with the build guys, I'm glad you're following along. After all, a problem shared is a problem halved and I haven't done anything the easy way yet! Still, it's been slow going after starting back at work last week. I've managed to sort out the battle unit and begin prepping for paint, in bits and pieces as time and energy allow.

After a few false starts, I decided to mount the Piranha in the turret ventilator. My first plan was to locate it in the loader's hatch, but couldn't figure out a way to get it to fit properly because the recoil unit's so big.

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By making the ventilator dome removable, I managed to conceal the socket for the battle unit.

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The Piranha simply plugs in, and the raised ventilator keeps it proud of the surrounding turret fixtures.

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I'll make a small bracket for the inside of the ventilator dome that interfaces with the socket to keep it in place. You wouldn't know anything was there!

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Custom plugs to keep everything going where it needs to, hopefully. Unfortunately I don't have any other IR tanks to test with yet, so I can only assume it works.

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With that taken care of, there really isn't anything else that needs to be done before stripping everything down for repainting. I was unhappiest with the paintwork on the metal parts, particularly the running gear. Tamiya Surface Primer isn't hard-wearing enough for this kind of work, so I set to stripping the parts back to bare metal with Mr. Muscle oven cleaner. Problem is that while the primer didn't bond well enough to withstand any mechanical force, it's happy enough to resist chemical attack.

Time for plan B, I think. I have another trick or two up my sleeve...

[Raminator]

And here's said sleeve trick:

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Amongst the esoteric modelling paraphernalia I've inherited was this neat little air eraser. It's kind of like a miniaturised sandblaster, in much the same way that an airbrush is a miniaturised spraygun. The hopper is filled with an abrasive compound, and air pressure blasts it out at whatever needs scouring. My little airbrush compressor struggles to maintain enough flowrate at such high pressure, but I think the results are pretty damn good.

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Back to bare metal for the most part, and the surface has a nice matte (almost pitted) finish; it should take paint really well. You might need to click the picture to see it in a larger size, but the surfaces have a glittery appearance from the texture (most visible on track tensioner and gun barrel). Speaking of which, the gun barrel extension was completely transparent plastic before I hit it with the air eraser.

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I also made up a dummy plug to secure the ventilator dome to the Piranha's socket. It's a snug fit which ensures that it won't fall out, so the electronics are completely hidden until it's time to battle. I'm quite pleased with the result.

[HERMAN BIX]

And so you should rightfully be Sir............that mini-blaster is a super handy tool, my Dad used to etch car windows as an anti-theft service & I wish I still had his gear now for this exact reason.

[c.rainford73]

Mr Raminator fantastic trick with the vent cover
That mini sand blaster is super too!

[Raminator]

Cheers for the encouragement, lads. Hoping to do you proud!

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Cutting the slots for the metal handrails made a bit of a mess of the turret sides, and puttying up the gaps just made it obvious that something had been changed. Naturally, this culminated in retexturing the entire turret with a few coats of Mr. Surfacer 500 stippled on with an old stiff brush.

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I figured while I was at it, I'd use some Tamiya putty to emphasise the rough cast texture on the turret cheeks and add some casting markings. For the curious, the numbers are my wife's birthday and the letters are her initials in Cyrillic. Sometimes I can be sentimental like that.

I'm hoping the weather will improve during the week, it's been too hot to start priming yet. It looks like we might be due for a cool change later in the week, so I'll keep finding busy work until then. Those stowage hoops could probably be redone in metal, after all...

[c.rainford73]

Looks excellent

[HERMAN BIX]

Love the extra texture touch mate.............and the casting numbers & letters, well, some days it really is the little things that can mean the most