The Model Box

Work on the T-34/76 is still going at a snail's pace. Aside from the heavy schedule I have at work, the weekend also saw us working on the renovations of our bodega. I managed to squeeze in some free time though to add some detailing to the tank. SO, I whipped out the reference pictures I gathered from the net as well as some books I found while reading up on the tank. The wheels have been dry fitted and the seams sanded out. I've disassembled them for painting and stuck them on masking tape. Holes have been drilled for the grab handles. I opted to make new ones from wire instead of the flimsy plastic ones supplied with the kit. The original part though was used for a jig to help shape the wire. These were then glued in place with superglue and Mr. Surfacer 500 and Tamiya putty was used to mimic the weld beads around each connecting part to the hull. These putties wer also used to roughen up the surface of some of the parts, especially near the lower hull. The

I've started work on the Tamiya T-34/76. A reference book I got my hands on noted that the Tamiya kit has inaccuracies, specifically the chassis size, inherent in that Tamiya designed these models as motorized kits, hence necessitating some fudging in the sizes to accommodate the motor and the batteries. Offhand, I don't have the skill to rectify this but I'm instead looking into the possibility of making more than just an out-of-box model. I had initially also wanted to model a vehicle with the ehkranami or added armour on but I have very little in terms of reference and so decided to not use the accessories included in the kit. I've finished the lower chassis and have chosen to use all the rubber-lined wheels instead of mixing in some steel-lined wheels available as accessories in the kit. The road wheels and return rollers/drive train attached with the use of polycaps with no problems at all. The chassis does show its roots as a motorized kit as can be seen by