IS-3M

This is my Trumpeter´s 1/35 IS-3M painted in Egyptian colours in the mid 70s. The base kit was extensively detailed with plastic sheet, rods and strips from evergreen, and metal wires and brass sheet. The main areas were the mantlet cover wich has to be made from scratch in plastic copying the Tamiya equivalent part; the fenders have an irreal 'lip' were they contact the hull. I cut and file it and put the rivets in place and re-made the scribed line of the front mud guards. The turret front should have undercuts in the bottom to allow for driver´s hatch clareance. These were replicated with round files; the transmission cover in the rear upper hull has six openings in each side when they should be seven. This error is common to all IS-3 models I´m aware of -maybe because all were based in Tamiya´s kit-. The tracks are from Friulmodel and the turned aluminium gun from Barrel Depot.

The model was painted with Tamiya acrylics: desert yellow, red brown, and -I think- dark green, all lightened with white to represent a sun-bleached effect. Later I applied various filters/gazes with Humbrol 62 and some sand colours, then pin washes with a dark brown. The chipping was made with Vallejo acrylics: dark browns for the exposed metal areas, lighter shades of the base colours for superficial scratches and dark green over the sand to depict the original russian green. The dusting are various mixes of light-coloured MIG pigments, mostly over horizontal surfaces and tracks ans suspension. Rust straks and grease stains are oils.

The camo scheme was based on photos of an egyptian IS-3M in an article by Bob Fleming in Military modelling Vol.27 No.12 September 1997 -The article by Steve Zaloga in the same issue were also quite useful- The license/number plates in that tank had been removed. Without references I simply copied the plates of a T-34/122 model by Miguel Jiménez MIG, so these are most probably incorrect.

The photos were taken by my friends Miguel Jiménez and Antonio Herrera. Thank you guys!

[View discussion] [Discuss my model]