Winter War T-26 | Zvezda

Instructions for the gun mantlet were flipped and not oriented properly, which was incredibly annoying because it took me a few hours to realize.

Detail on this kit overall is pretty inferior to the HobbyBoss version, but despite the need for a lot of sanding and puttying, it's still strangely enjoyable. 

Those road wheels were not very fun. 

Finally finished building. Will do some minor sanding where needed on the putty. Tracks were a real nuisance. Wish they had just stuck with either vinyl tracks, or completely individual track links requiring assembly. The mix of ~8 and ~20-piece lengths, as well as individual pieces requiring assembly, were unnecessary and annoying. Also was prevented from gluing the tracks/wheels etc. separately due to the design of the bogies and wheels. Painting and weathering the tracks and lower hull sides will be tricky. 

First primer coat. Nice to see some of the details brought out a bit. 

Finished priming. 

Spent a lot of time mixing some Tamiyas to get a rough approximation of Soviet green. pleased with the result. about 98% of it won't be visible in the final product, though. 

First ever time trying AK's chipping fluid. worked reasonably well, but obviously flawed in some ways, mainly because I'm a novice. some of the pre-chipping fluid chipping (done with Tamiya Chrome Silver and a sponge) only barely shows through. Will do some touch-up painting here and there before moving on to varnishing and decals.

After speaking with a few more experienced modelers, it's apparent that the chipping fluid didn't work 100% as intended for two reasons: 1. I thinned the fluid to about a 1:5 thinner:fluid ratio; and 2. the coats of white should have been thinned a bit extra. But it still looks fine to me for a first attempt. 

Before applying the gloss coat, I used a varied mix of flat black, NATO brown, and hull red on the exhaust. After varnishing, I used some oils to improve the rust effect. Since this photo was taken, I've improved it further with several more applications of oil paint. 

Getting there... 

New and improved exhaust with retouching, as well as the soot-stained 45mm barrel. Also applied a slight brown wash to the tank, which is less visible on my phone camera. 

First attempt using the wet-paintbrush-and-toothpick trick. Obviously lots of room for improvement there, but practice is practice. I'll be covering up the more unseemly bits with pigments and a mud paste. I used two Tamiya colors: Flat Earth and Red Brown.

I also applied the matte finish before adding the mud splashes. 

Ditto. 

Finally finished. Ultimately the chipping, mud, and snow effects could use some more practice, but considering it was the first time I did all three, I'm reasonably content with the result.