Zvezda 1/35 T-28 Medium Tank

[Guest]

That exhaust looks the dogs mate , lovely shades .

[Dave Ward]

I used my sharp sprue cutters to cut as close as possible to the part, then found that using a new scalpel blade, a combination of scraping & shaving cleaned the aerial up nicely


It's important to support the backside of the part, as you work on it -it helps if you use a narrow blade ( I always use Swann Morton 10A blades ) - a larger blade, and you can 'dig in', not to mention draw blood!
Dave

[Guest]

Thanks Dave. I did have visions of snapping it at the first cut, but thankfully not.

[BigGreg]

the rust on the exhaust is spot on... :smiling2: :smiling2: :thumb2: :thumb2: :thumb2:

[Guest]

Thanks Greg

[Guest]

42C in the shed so I was back at the kitchen table, cutting & cleaning.

Started with the 40 rubber clad road wheels (I've already done the steel ones). 4 sprue gates each and a mould line, this was going to take some time. I can't believe you armour guys do this regularly for fun :smiling5:

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I quickly decided I needed a dedicated sander so made one up with a hard 240 side to swipe off the scars, then a softer 500 side to smooth out all around

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I enjoyed that so much :upside: that I did the individual track links too. Shortly after freeing them all from the sprue I realised it would have been much easier to paint them first. Oh well.

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Laid them all out and nipped into the shed to give them a coat of Mr C 28, Steel. It dried almost instantly but will give them an hour or so before flipping them over and doing the other side. In the background you'll see the rattle can lids I've liberated from work. We get through dozens of these and they make handy storage containers for small parts.

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[Guest]

Started with the 40 rubber clad road wheels (I've already done the steel ones). 4 sprue gates each and a mould line, this was going to take some time. I can't believe you armour guys do this regularly for fun :smiling5:

Only forty? Try a rubber-tyred Tiger next time But yeah, suspensions, and especially cleaning and painting the wheels, are the least enjoyable part of armour modelling for me.

I enjoyed that so much :upside: that I did the individual track links too.

Mind on zero, gaze on infinity (that’s Dutch a bicycle racer’s proverb). Or have music on while you do this on autopilot

[Guest]

Music definitely helps with repetitive tasks, but not fiddly ones, depending on your taste and propensity for spontaneous and uncontrolled rhythmic movement!

[scottie3158]

Andy,
That's why I moved away from armour and started on wheely things.

[Guest]

Yes, I did have Steve Wright on in the background. To be fair it wasn't the monotony but the cramp in my hands that made it literally a pain. I'm not used to holding so many tiny parts one after the other in the same position so my thumb pretty much seized up :thumb2:

Checked through the instructions and I only seem to need 28 of the individual links anyway! Might be an opportunity to scratch up some kind of bracket to hold a few spares. It carries 6 additional roadwheels so might as well have a few extra tracks.

[Dave Ward]

As I recommended to Mr Race - Spotify - you can listen to virtually any music - I have speakers hooked up to my computer ( OK, you get some adverts ), and I have rediscovered some of the albums of my youth ( Tangerine Dream, Camel..........). You can build your own playlists, and after a while, Spotify will generate playlists for you based on your choices ( many, many hours )- you can subscribe to get advert free listening - but for free - I'll put up with adverts! Classical music, folk, rap, garage, grime - everything - I never thought I'd listen to Eminem!!!
Dave

[Guest]

Ah yes, Spotify would be a good call. I have a load of music on my server that I could stream to the shed but at the moment I don't even have a radio out there so I work in silence!

Forgive the Blutack but how does this look for a track storage idea? Impromptu field mod is the look I'm going for. Would probably make it bigger to house 6 links, with 2 upper brackets.

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Also finished playing around with the tarp. Trying to blend acrylics for the first time so brutal honesty accepted :smiling2:

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[scottie3158]

Andy,
The spare track looks good as does the tarp.

[Guest]

Cheers Paul, will have a go at making something more permanent tomorrow.

[Guest]

Yes, I did have Steve Wright on in the background. To be fair it wasn't the monotony but the cramp in my hands that made it literally a pain.

Ah, yes. Small(ish) wheels are always even more fun because of that. With the last Sherman I built, after trying to clean up just one wheel by hand, I took the rest to my father’s lathe and just turned a little bit off the tyres to get rid of the seam for exactly the same reason. Of course, these wheels had a hole for an exile through them, which made that much easier than with the ones on your kit.

Checked through the instructions and I only seem to need 28 of the individual links anyway!

Best to make sure of this — you may actually have more to spare, or OTOH, might need more on the model than the instructions tell you. This is more likely to be the case with separate-link tracks, though.