Meng T-90. Finished!

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

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 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 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)