The inventory I am going to use for the vignette. It will certainly be interesting 🙂
Plastic details are not bad and there are link and length tracks included
Basic turret and hull assembly are done. The overall shapes are quite nice, though there is something to be done on the turret front
Oh... and the are rather prominent gaps on the hull front and rear
The kit hatch here looks a little flat and the cylinder doesn´t look like a periscope that much
But things can be fixed. I softened the plastic with Tamiya cement and stipled the cast texture on. I also cut a little slit in the front part of the cylinder to make it look like a periscope
The gun barrle was drilled out a little bit
I filled the gaps using strips os styrene and putty. Also the tow-hooks got some additional detail
The same procedure on the back side 🙂
One storage bin is being scratchbuilt from styrene to be displayed slightly open...
... and has a little tarp hanging out of it for added interest
I added the reinforcment ribs on the turret front using styrene strips which I glued to the front with a little overhang and then extended them backwards by glueing another strip to the turret side plateand having it meet up with the front plate. I then sanded everything thinner and gave it a slightly rounded edge. The strips I used were roughly 7x1mm
The kit includes some basic photoetch, which was glued in place here. The grab handles are not supplied with the kit, but are spares from an UM T-34 (I think) and were cut to size. Using plastic helped me save some time fiddling with wire and does not look too bad 🙂
The fenders still seem a little empty and the grilles on the engine-side have on mesh detail
The other side looks much more "populated" due to the stowage boxes
The light and the horn where added together with what I think is and engine-starting- lever (?) that I have seen on a photo
I found a shovel from an IBG kit and shaped a plastic-rod to represent the tanker-bar
Hull assembly is thus pretty much finished and I just need to prepare for painting
I proceeded to add some mesh to the side of the vehicle. I also 3D-printed myself a nice 7x7cm round base on which the vignette will sit. This photo demonstrates the layout and shows the absolute superb quality of the figures
Got the basic painting done
I placed some highlights using a brush
Hopefully things won´t get too dark after the weathering
I had some succes airbrushing the base colors on the figures using AMMO acrylics
Both had a zenital higlight added to match the painting style of the tank and draw some visual interest
I brushpainted the faces with a very light flesh-tone and gave them a thinned coat of a Vallejo-wash to give them a some more life-like appearance. Still got a lot of painting to do though
Next step should be the decals for the tank 🙂
Decals are on. They where problematic to say the least and I stuck with just the umbers on the turret
Figures are actually fun to paint... I tried some wood grain on the stock of the SMG
While blue overalls aren´t the most intricate pieces of fashion, some highlighting via brush made everything a little bit more interesting
Applied some basic pinwashes to the vehicle. Now the details stand out nicely and it isn´t as dark as I feared
I will however try to blend in the decals a little in the upcoming weathering steps
I used light green and dark grey acrylics to add some chipping to the vehicle to make it look really used
The metal parts and exhaust will get some rust-wash later on. Even with all of my best effort, the decal still had some silvering showing. Hopefully some streaking etc. will tone that down
Started the main terrain shapes on the base and put in some stones
Another outlook on the final placement. The tank has now recieved its tracks
In the background, I build a wire mast from balsawood. It was intentionally built in a somewhat "crude" fashion
I also changed the ground color a little. A wash was applied to make the exhaust more rusty
The top part of the mast is made from staples bent to shape and glued together. I will add the wiring later
Some painting and dusting has been done. Scatter and grass were also applied. I really have to get my hands on one of those static-grass applicators...
Dusted up the tank a little more using thinned washes
I also handpainted the signs on the signal mast. They are (from the bottom): "Pinsk" (city name), a weight indicator for a bridge and a sign announcing a checkpoint ("KPP")
I will likely do some touch-up on the upper sign. Even though I thinned the balsa wood, it seems a little thick from certain angles, thus I might resort to using styrene for some signs in the future
Finally finished it! As I don´t have a whitebox (yet) I tried my best to get some nice shots. Enjoy 🙂
Łukasz Gliński Very interesting, the turret looks incredibly modern 😮
18 November 2020, 13:30
Stefan Schacht I the little dio, which figures do you use?
27 November 2020, 23:40
Tom B. The figures are from Scale75. They offer them in 1/35 also I think. Anyway, they are definetly recommendable as the detail of the resin is really nice. The particular set was labeled as 1:35 here. I fixed that and added them to the project inventory 👍
30 November 2020, 18:38
Stefan Schacht Hello Tom, thanks for the information. Cheers Stefan
1 December 2020, 11:32
Tom B. I finsihed the vignette today, as I was rather happy with the result 🙂 I uploaded some photos of the finished build. Unfortunately, I don´t have my whitebox for photography yet, so I may add some better pictures, when everything is set up.
5 December 2020, 18:00
Zsolt Czegle Klasse Arbeit! Es gefällt mir sehr! 👍
5 December 2020, 20:46
Album info
UM Models sometimes are a real blessing, as they offer some very interesting Soviet WW2 vehicles in 1/72. Such is the case with the T-80 light Tank from 1943 that was developed as a replacement for the T-70 Light Tank and sported a very cool looking two-man turret with very high gun elevation.
The vehicle will be placed in a vignette with two figures that will depict one of the tank crewmen chatting with an infantry soldier in front of the tank, possibly relaying information gathered while scouting.
For the build I chose to upgrade the basic kit a little with a few addons build from scratch or leftover parts from older projects. The changes made are the following:
1) I textured the drivers hatch, which is the only prominent cast part on the tank to make it stand out a little. I also refined it´s rudimentary sight a little.
2) I added handles cut from leftover handles of an UM T-34. Thus they match the plastics green color but are NOT included in the T-80 kit. I had to change their lenghts a little to make them fit.
3) The exhaust were textured with glue and a stiff brush.
4) One of the stowage boxes was left slightly open with a piece of tarp hanging out to give a litttle more interest to the model.
5) The kit turret lacked the prominent reinforcement-ribs-things on the edge of the front-plate. I scratched them from plastic-card and sanded them to a round shape
6) There was missing mesh detail on some air intakes on the side, so I added Eduard PE mesh to make it look better
Tom B.
