Meng T-90-Back to it

After the decal issue with the Eduard Albatros I've decided to rescue the T-90 from the Shelf-of-Doom instead. I got as far as the intial wash of dark brown and matt varnishing but that's where the build stalled earlier this year so after seeing the beautiful T-90 by Abilio Grajera it gave me an incentive to finish this one. To be fair it's not THAT far from the finishing post, it's just the dotting with oil paint that will take a while to dry however that is the main reason the oils are put onto cardboard instead of a palette as it soaks up the linseed oil in the paint and that helps it dry quicker.

I use a variety of colours but tend to avoid white as in my experience all it's ever done is leave a chalky finish and some browns can be a bugger to blend in too.
By the way the Maltesers are there for moral support as at the time of writing it's cold and raining outside so it's a perfect day for some modelling with home comforts :o)

Meng T-90 camo finished

The camouflage pattern has been applied, more or less to the instructions so now it needs a coat of gloss varnish before the weathering. To recap the paints used were Tamiya with the base coat being a 50/50 mix of XF-61 Dark Green and XF-67 Nato Green, the sand was a XF-57 Buff with some XF-2 White thrown in and the black was a 2:1 mix of XF-1 Black and XF-69 Nato Black. A final touch up of the base coat was done to get rid of any overspray;

Coming along nicely I think!

Meng T-90 update 28/5/14

The build is now finished and last night I washed the model in warm water and washing up liquid (Fairy Liquid so that my hands stay soft lol) so it is now left to dry. When it is I can get some primer on it to start the painting process.

The build is quite an involved one even straight out of the box but to me the level of detail is very good. As with every kit there are areas you can improve and extra detail you could add but I'm quite happy with the kit as is. The only extra details I've added are mainly rivets here and there (where the fuel tank brackets sit and some on the ERA tiles on the front of the turret plus headlight cables on the hull front).

Meng T-90 Update 5/5/14

YAY! I've finally made a start on the turret and it almost feels it has the same amount of parts as the hull (i.e LOTS). Anyway it's going together well, the only thing extra thing I've done is for the co-axial MG as the fit is quite sloppy. I drilled a hole in one side of some scrap 20 thou styrene sheet big enough for the gun to poke through and using some copper wire wrapped around a 0.6mm drill bit made the rubber 'o' ring seal that goes around the barrel. Yeah I know you can hardly see it but I know it's there :o)

Most of the sensors will be buttoned up except for a couple just for added interest;

The barrel....be careful putting it together as the fit is sloppy where the two halves join in the middle and can result in a wonky barrel. I'm not sure about using the kit one or swapping it for a metal one but at the time of writing the RB Model item is out of stock everywhere and I can only get one from Hong Kong via Hobby Easy (Orange Hobby item number G35-121). I'll have to think about it.

Meng T-90 update

I got a fair bit done last night on the T-90 although I could'nt decide on whether to mount the rear fuel tanks later on. That decision was made for me when cleaning up the four brackets that fit on the rear hull as I broke one;

In the instructions Meng show that you just cut off the bracket if you don't want the fuel tanks mounted however it's not that straightforward as you need to add some bolt heads in the corners of the square plate. Oddly Meng have represented these bolts as raised lines so these need to be removed top and bottom then bolt heads added from styrene sheet using a hexagonal punch and die set;

The headlights were a bit fiddly to put together and the guards would probably look better made from wire but I used the kit ones;

One thing to note (which I did'nt first time around) is the orientation of the etch screens on the rear engine deck. If you look carefully the spacing is slightly wider on the top row , something which I got wrong on the right screen but managed to lift and re-glue it last night;

That's it for now, hopefully I'll get some more done over the weekend as there is a public holiday here in the UK on monday.

So where was I regarding the Meng T-90?

Ahhhhh yes aaaaaaaand we're back! :o)
The T-90 build stalled sometime in November when I lost my modelling mojo so I gave the hobby a rest and did other stuff for awhile (mainly playing guitar).
Anyway after seeing some great stuff on my other modelling friends Facebook pages, slooooowly the fingers have started itching to stick plastic bits together again and the first job is to pick up where I left off with the T-90;

So the upper hull has been glued on and just for this there are an amazing amount of parts, fortunately the fit is good although some of them are VERY tricky to clean up without breaking them specifically the fuel lines, front mud guard springs etc. Take note about the small lights on the rear hull (parts C41,C49 on the left, C40,C50 on the right) as the placement for the left ones in the instructions is wrong, they attach to the rear hull and not the fender as shown;

Well it's good to be back at the bench and hopefully I'll make some progress on this kit.

Meng T-90 tracks

Okay I've heard a few stories about the tracks in this kit and how tricky they are to put together however I've found that if you DON'T use the supplied assembly jig things go a lot faster. I can see what Meng are getting at assembly wise but making the links up as per the instructions like this;

 

makes it awkward to remove the bit of sprue between the guide horns, then you fit the links between the two halves of the assembly jig, fit the end connectors into the other jig, remove THAT sprue then fit the connectors to the end of the links. Personally I think it's a lot easier to do it like this;

Seperate the guide horns, clip them to the links, push the end connectors onto the end of the link THEN cut off the sprue. Much faster!
One thing I WILL say is the track is very similar in construction to the AFV Club individual tracks I used for my M728 CEV (with the exception of the vinyl end connectors) and I would STRONGLY advise not to use
white spirit/enamel thinners during the weathering stage as this made the track link end connecting pins very brittle and the tracks just fell apart. The AFV Club end connectors were styrene and they split too but the vinyl ones in this kit should fare better (hopefully). Either way I'll use IPA (IsoPropyl Alcohol) when applying weathering powders to the tracks.
More later!

Edit!
Hot off the bench we have a complete run of track for one side;

OK the way to do it is this;

(1) Unlike what I said above assemble the guide horns and links as per instructions (and in the top picture) however don't stop at five links, just carry on for at least twenty or thirty.
(2) Cut off the connecting sprue between the guide horns using a block to support the links (I used a wooden clothes peg).
(3) Lay the links flat on the bench and press the vinyl end connectors onto the pins four or five at a time (taking note which way up they go).
(4) Cut the vinyl end connectors from the sprue and there you have it. Job done! No need for the supplied assembly jig either.

Meng recommend 81 links in the instructions which is what I've done and it does'nt seem to be pulling the sprocket and idler in odd directions (which can happen sometimes).
Time-wise I reckon it has taken me about four or five hours from removing and cleaning up the links from the sprue to final assembly, also the way they go together means I can paint them seperately and feed them through behind the side skirts when the model is finished.

Meng 1/35 T-90

I made a start on the model last week and so far so good, the fit of parts up to this point has been very good
although I can't help think the torsion bars won't stand up to much stress due to the fairly soft plastic;

The tracks are next to put together and apparently they are a REAL chore to assemble according to some who have built the model so we'll see how it goes.