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Soon after building Dragon's excellent T-34/85 I received the re-release of Tamiya's 'slash 85' for review. Not wanting to retread the same ground, and having built the better of the two kits first, I decided to do something a bit different.
KIT REVIEW/CONSTRUCTION
Though a couple of decades old, it still goes together very well, with only a few problem areas, most serious of which are the side vents on the rear deck. The kit pieces are just slightly too small, and numerous tries were needed to get these in place as they tended to fall through into the interior of the kit. Do this before gluing the deck to the hull to save yourself aggrevation. Some filling was needed afterward as well.
But if you are looking for a basic representation of a T-34/85, you will be happy with this kit, and besides, the Dragon kit is getting very hard to find. Sure, there are motorization holes, rubber-band tracks and open sponsons, but those are common to most older kits.
Unfortunately for those concerned with accuracy, this isn’t the best puppy to use for the /85 model. The problem stems from the fact that Tamiya began their T-34 series with a few /76 models, and when it came time to release the /85 model, the company simply added a new turret sprue and did a minor touch up to the hull, but left far too much of the old /76 hull intact.
All this has made it nearly impossible to make an accurate /85 from this kit. The antenna placement on the starboard side near the front can be removed easily enough, and Tamiya did change the mud flaps to the correct angled version, which is good, but the angle on the hull sides is completely off - so much so that it’s very noticeable to the eye. And the turret for the /85 that is provided in the kit is a good bit too short, and this in turn messes up the location of the fans and cupola.
But don’t fret, not all is lost. Because this kit’s hull is more or less a T-34/76 with wonky fenders (which are the easiest thing to change on a kit, I think), it was very easy for me to make a T-34/76 decent enough for diorama use by simply putting aside the kit turret, substituting a Kirin resin T-34/76 turret with applique armour I picked up at Maritime Hobbies in Halifax early last year, and reworking the fenders a bit.
PAINTING THE KIT
First I painted the vehicle the proper colour (shades of Russian green), and let dry for about 20 mins.
Next, using a moistened q-tip and baby powder (is it really crushed up babies?!), I dabbed the baby powder on the spots from which I wanted the paint to lift.
Then I immediately sprayed the white over-coat.
At this point, my plan was then to dab at the white paint with scotch-tape as soon as it was dry to the touch. Surprisingly this did NOT work that well. Wondering what to do next, I took the whole kit to the sink, put some hand-soap on an old tooth brush (medium stiffness) and ran very warm/almost hot water over the kit as I gently had at it with the tooth brush, using more 'jabby motions' than the back and forth scrubbing you do on teeth. I was sort of poking the bristles into the paint softly, and soon I would get some of it to raise up, then I could get the bristles underneath and pull some of the paint away. I concentrated on the areas I thought would have the most wear (turret and sides where mounted rifles clambor on and off.
After I was satisfied, I allowed the kit to dry, and them using a soft brush, removed the most detatched of the flaky paint, leaving some of it, as you may be able to see in the picks, still on the vehicle.
I don't imagine I could seal it with dullcoat as that would eliminate the 'flaked' appearance, so next time i will add Tamiya Flat clear to the over coat white. Other than that, I think it worked fairly well.
The last think I did to the vehicle was weather it with pastel chalks. An Earth-tone set of Rembrandt chalks available from a local art-supply store (Loomis & Toles) have proved to be one of my best buys this year. Highly recomended for weathering, and it looks better, in my opinion than simply airbrushing on dirt.
THE DIORAMA BASE
This is also my first attempt at making a 'Verlinden-esque' base. Verlinden uses 'marine foam', but I could not find that at the local DIY/Hardware shop (surprising, as this IS Halifax). But no problem, there was a scrap of 'foundation styrofoam' in the basement of my apartment which I liberated. This was 2 inch thick, dense 'PINK' styrofoam. It was a little too small for what I wanted, but I used it anyway as this was more of an experiment.
Using a big razor-blade knife thing I cut out an irregular rounded shape. The big benefit of the Verlinden method is that the display has no 'front or back', and instead can be viewed from 360'.
After cutting out this shape, I used my Dremel and razor-knife to hack away the terrain shapes. Next, using fairly fine sand paper, I sanded the edges of the base smooth.
The next step was to cover the base with groundwork which I did using my usual mixture of white-clue, brown acrylic paint (Tamiya dark earth + Flat Black to taste) and very fine gravel (I used the stuff from Hudson and Allen as we're currently covered by about 3 feet of snow, and real dirt/gravel is inaccessible). To this I added a few kitty-litter rocks and the 'shattered posts' you see in the dio. These posts are simply wooden dowling which I snapped and then pushed into the base. After drying for a bit, I added static grass (in fall colours)
SNOW
Another first for me, I made the snow by first applying Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate), and following up with a light dusting of 'micro-balloons' which were available from a local hobby shop that specializes in RC aircraft. This is one area where less is more. I should have stopped about halfway through this process (I repeated it twice), as having more of the groundwork showing actually looked better. Live and learn.
FIGURE
The figure is by Dragon with an Ultracast head. If you look closely the Panzerfaust is not painted - it's a Panzerfaust 100 and it is simply subbing in for a Panzerfaust 30, which I have yet to finish painting. The face is painted in 'The Bannerman Way', outlined well in other sections of TL.
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