Meng T-90. Finished!

Well it's been a long time getting here but I'm calling it done. Hope you like it!

T-90; Fixed it!

YAY! I managed to blend the re-sprayed area into the model;

It looks much better compared to how it looked originally;

So the bad news for my wife is that it won't be thrown out anytime soon. Ha! :o)

Meng T-90; First post for 2015

Here we go with 2015 and I wish you all a Happy New Year.
Well...it WAS nearly finished but the issue with the colour on the right front fender was bothering me too much sooooo here's how it looked;

Even after trying to hide it with the weathering it only seemed to make it worse so bugger it I resprayed the area;

NOW it looks worse :o) This is actually the original sand colour that I mixed so it's a good example of how colours change during the weathering process and why I'm not that hung up on getting the EXACT shade of paint, near enough works for me.
I shall re-apply all the pigments, washes etc until it blends in again with the rest of the hull however I'll avoid the oil paints this time as that is what caused the problem in the first place. The oil paint dotting technique can be very effective but as I have learnt you need to choose the colours wisely, especially over light coloured areas such as this.
I'll post some pictures up later on as this bit gets attention, unless of course it all goes horribly wrong in which case you can look for it on the nearest landfill site :o)  

Meng T-90- Close but no cigar for 2014

Well I NEARLY got something finished for 2014 lol! At least the T-90 now has the tracks on and just needs a few things doing here and there and then I can call it done;

I hope that the photo's I've posted have been of help to others building the Meng T-90, obviously there are other modelsout there that are WAAAAAY better than mine but I'm quite pleased with it. The ONLY thing I'm not happy about is the right fender colour where I changed the tone with oil paint, I was hoping the weathering would either lighten it or hide but it did'nt.  Never mind!
I'm not planning on anything for 2015 really, I just tend to pick stuff that catches my eye and probably why I have a loft full of kits :o)
I have a new decal sheet for the Albatros and the SS-23 build is almost complete so there's at least two definites for the new year, anyway Happy New Year to everybody that has looked in on my blog and see you in 2015

Meng T-90-Starting the weathering

The oil paint process worked in a fashion but I was'nt entirely happy as the white spirit was dragging off the acrylic matt varnish plus I've altered the sand colour too much in places, anyway it's onto the pigments and to begin with I've given the whole model a dusty look with Mig's 'Dry Mud';

In the bottom two pictures I've tried to show the contrast between areas that have had pigment applied.
I have to say that at the moment I'm quite pleased with the way it's looking as instead of flooding an area with white spirit I've just been using a damp flat brush to drag the pigment in vertical and horizontal directions, previous results have just ended up as a mess plus the IPA I used to use for this job made the pigment dry funny too.
Next job will be to use different colours of Mig pigment and various AK muddy colours to add to the weathering effect, also I may try depicting wet mud on this model too.
So far so good!
PS; I forgot to say that the paint chipping was done with various Vallejo acrylics before the pigments were applied. Sorry about that :o)

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; The weathering starts here

Here we go with everyones favourite part of modeling, the weathering (well it's my favourite bit anyway).
Initially I've applied a pin wash of Mig Productions Dark Brown wash into all the recesses and streaked some down the vertical surfaces, after which when it's dry the model will get a couple of coats of matt varnish then I can start on applying chipping, mud, dust etc.

I like the dark wash as it does make the detail stand out more.

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-Paints on!

I managed to finally get some paint on the model after priming it last week. The base coat is a 50/50 mix of (rather ironically)  XF-67 Nato Green and XF-61 Dark Green and the sand camouflage is XF-57 Buff with some XF-2 White thrown in. The sand looks patchy because I have'nt finished it yet (I just ran out of time tonight and back to work in the morning) plus it was a bugger to get through the airbrush, even with acrylic retarder AND flow improver. I would much prefer to use enamel for this job but it would just get stripped off during the weathering later on.

The wheel mask that came with the kit is very useful by the way :o)
Anyway when I get some spare time in between work and household DIY I'll try and get the camo finished.

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 build complete...ish

I've finally got the thing built all bar a couple of pieces that need sticking on so here's a couple of pics to show the model before painting;

The crew figure is by TANK and although I wanted the three figures in the set on my model this one is the only one that would fit (it still needs some work to make it fit properly), the head of the driver got in the way of the turret traverse so I glued the hatch shut. Bugger!
Fitting the wheels is something you can leave until last except for the drive sprockets as the side skirts get in the way. I JUST managed to get them on but they will stay there during painting now;

The fit of the smoke discharger unit on the right side of the turret is not clear so here's a pic where they should go;

I replaced the styrene snorkel tube on the back of the turret stowage bin with 5mm brass tube and added a weld bead from stretched sprue. I also added weld beads around the stowage boxes as they are quite prominent in photo's of the actual vehicle;

The next step is to give it a REALLY good wash as it's been sat around on a shelf for months then a coat of primer then hopefully get it painted and finished this year :o)

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 3/5/14

I fixed the side skirts to the hull last night and I don't know whether it was me but the fit was'nt the best and I've been left with quite a large gap on the right side. Also there are gaps between the front mudguards and where they join the skirts;

Bugger! To fill the gaps I'll run a thin bead of Milliput into them and smooth it out with water, that way I won't destroy any surface detail which would happen using model filler. The skirts are securely fixed using liquid glue at first then cyano so the joints should'nt open up and crack the Milliput.
Other than that the fit of parts has been very good so far, MAYBE I'll get to make a start on the turret this weekend as the hull has felt never ending. Still I'm getting my monies worth with this kit :o)

Edit: D'OH!! Forget what I said about filling the gap along the top of the side skirts where it joins the hull, I've just looked at photo's of the real thing via a walkaround on Prime portal and there IS a gap. Luckily I checked before filling them in :o)
By the way here's a photo from Primeportal that shows the gap.

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.