Post by alexb on Jan 25, 2019 19:54:09 GMT
With the house restoration coming together I've "re-discovered" some old defunct builds that were stashed away. So I've sort of knuckled down and pushed these builds. These builds are pretty simple and quick...plus some were started last year. Unless noted, they are part of the Cold War Privateer Theme.
Let's begin where we stopped. I'm calling this one the BMPT-55. It's a play of the BMPT Terminator and te T55 turret. As a refresher, this one is a BMP chassis mounting a T55 turret. The original concept is that it was designed for training, but was pressed in to service out of need. The Soviets saw the opportunity and offered the AFV as a product, offering an aluminum alloy turret as opposed to the traditional steel one seen on T55s.
I decided to add a stowage box to the turret's rear. I had this old one from a Lindberg T55 kit...I think. You'll probably see that one as a SAM Launcher, but that's down the road a bit. The box was not all there, though I suspect I'll find the missing parts later. I scratched up a lid and latch bits.
I also soured on the paint. It's not the usual green I use for overall Soviet AFVs. Plus, the paint took a beating while I tried to fit the skirting.
So I repainted it a more traditional Dark Green. I actually tried a mottled old green and new green scheme but it didn't go too well so I re-shot it overall green.
Decals on. I used some basic Soviet Stars and numbers.
I still need to finish this one...weathering and maybe some stowage.
Next up...the BTR-55 hinted at in the old thread. Basically it's a BTR-70 sporting a T55 turret as an infantry support vehicle. The turret comes from Italeri's T55 kit...a rebox of the old Esci/Ertl kit that has seen a few incarnations. This kit's turret is a bit lower profile and I thought it looked better sized with the BTR. Speaking of, the BTR is Revell's BTR-70 kit...a rebox of Dragon's kit.
This is what I'm shooting for...a proof of concept...so to speak. To be fair, a LAV turret looks better but would be difficult to explain why it's there. You probably will see a LAV 90mm turret on an LAV chassis in the future.
The build was easy...essentially mating the turret to the chassis. I ground down the raised bits on the chassis roof. I then places a sheets of styrene down as the turret ring. More styrene to cover the side pistol ports. And I added grab handles and strip styrene for added detail. I had to make do with US Jerry Cans from the spares.
The BTR roof is sloped and narrower than the turret...it's actually about the same width as a t55. I took a tip from the t55 and added blister extensions. These were from the spares and had to be trimmed to fit with the sloped sides.
The styrene roof was made overly large. I'll trim off the excess overhang before paint.
Paint. Dark green overall....
...masked and then flat black. Markings are meh. I went with a small red star and numbers. I'll
I'll probably change out the stars for something more flashy...at least in terms of a Soviet allied privateer force. I still need to do the weathering, maybe a crew figgie or two, and some stowage. This one is set to be a deployed AFV.
But wait there's more....
Wen I do these mash-ups I hate not using the rest of a kit. For example, I used the BTR-55's original turret in my Assault T55 build. Which sort of gives you an idea how long the BTR-55 was being planned...though originally it was going to mount a BMP-1 turret with the ATGM launcher.
I had this T-55 chassis sitting around looking all turret-less. I had an old DML IS-2 that needed some fixing...some of the tracks had fallen off. The main gun was elevated unrealistically high. I had fixed the gun and even added a cupola mounted AA MG with the idea of upgrading the IS to a privateer tank with skirts, drum fuel tanks (as opposed to the side mount drums), and there probably would involve a big light.
I actually came up with this by accident. I test fit the IS turret on the BTR chassis. I sat it down on the Italeri T55 chassis and I liked how it looked. With that, the T55-122 was born. This is planned as a low-cost upgrade for client nations. The IS chassis was not mechanically awesome. Give it a more reliable chassis...the T55...and then go from there.
The T55's tracks are length & link and have always bothered me in how angular they looked. Not to overlook they were never painted. I decided to try to fix those. I cut off the tracks with only a few damaged links and without a single broken suspension arm. Sprayed the lengths black.
While that dried, I began mounting the turret. I wanted to try something different...a "reversed mount" inspired by Tamiya's old M41 Walker Bulldog. I used the turret ring as a template for a length of styrene strip. This will then be glued to the T55 chassis for the turret to fit on. I'd end up adding a piece of seet styrene. It was more work but it lets the turret sit a fraction higher than simply cutting a larger hole.
The other part is the turret basket. It's a couple strip styrene lengths clamped to a lid for the shape and then dipped in hot water.
Turret mount and rack bits done-ish. You can see the unpainted place on the turret where the gun was de-elevated. That thing was probably at 30 degrees. I basically had to dissassemble the mount. I was fortunate no damage was done.
Like a glove! Rack on and things really starting to shape up. Tracks...not so good. I got annoyed with them and decided to go with skirts to cover the upper runs. I love my skirts on these privateer tanks but I wasn't planning on having them on this one.
Skirts are sheet styrene with strip edging. Pretty standard...I really need to change up things for future skirt related builds.
Painted. I have to admit something, I used the wrong color. I had planned on tan & green. I'm colorblind...for real...and I grabbed the wrong tin and used a pale green. Overall, it looked tan to me even against the blue tape. I only caught it after I had sprayed the dark green and removed the masking tape. It has to do with contrasts. That said, I like how it turned out so I'll keep it.
Oh yeah, I had planned on adding a spotlight and mounting it above the main gun. I've done that to death so I decided to side-mount it using the turret rack. It's a bit odd but it keeps the profile looking low.
Markings are from the spares. This isn't a true Soviet vehicle so I got a bit flashy with the markings. I gave it a light drybrushing, added a trenching log.
This is basically done. I might add some crew at some point and there's always the possibily of other additions. I really liked this one. It was an impromptu build from start to finish. I started this just a few days ago. Now to find a use for the IS-2 hull.
Next update we'll be shifting to the West for a bit. I've got an upgunned Patton, a Baby Bradley, and I'll probably give the Far East some love.
Let's begin where we stopped. I'm calling this one the BMPT-55. It's a play of the BMPT Terminator and te T55 turret. As a refresher, this one is a BMP chassis mounting a T55 turret. The original concept is that it was designed for training, but was pressed in to service out of need. The Soviets saw the opportunity and offered the AFV as a product, offering an aluminum alloy turret as opposed to the traditional steel one seen on T55s.
I decided to add a stowage box to the turret's rear. I had this old one from a Lindberg T55 kit...I think. You'll probably see that one as a SAM Launcher, but that's down the road a bit. The box was not all there, though I suspect I'll find the missing parts later. I scratched up a lid and latch bits.
I also soured on the paint. It's not the usual green I use for overall Soviet AFVs. Plus, the paint took a beating while I tried to fit the skirting.
So I repainted it a more traditional Dark Green. I actually tried a mottled old green and new green scheme but it didn't go too well so I re-shot it overall green.
Decals on. I used some basic Soviet Stars and numbers.
I still need to finish this one...weathering and maybe some stowage.
Next up...the BTR-55 hinted at in the old thread. Basically it's a BTR-70 sporting a T55 turret as an infantry support vehicle. The turret comes from Italeri's T55 kit...a rebox of the old Esci/Ertl kit that has seen a few incarnations. This kit's turret is a bit lower profile and I thought it looked better sized with the BTR. Speaking of, the BTR is Revell's BTR-70 kit...a rebox of Dragon's kit.
This is what I'm shooting for...a proof of concept...so to speak. To be fair, a LAV turret looks better but would be difficult to explain why it's there. You probably will see a LAV 90mm turret on an LAV chassis in the future.
The build was easy...essentially mating the turret to the chassis. I ground down the raised bits on the chassis roof. I then places a sheets of styrene down as the turret ring. More styrene to cover the side pistol ports. And I added grab handles and strip styrene for added detail. I had to make do with US Jerry Cans from the spares.
The BTR roof is sloped and narrower than the turret...it's actually about the same width as a t55. I took a tip from the t55 and added blister extensions. These were from the spares and had to be trimmed to fit with the sloped sides.
The styrene roof was made overly large. I'll trim off the excess overhang before paint.
Paint. Dark green overall....
...masked and then flat black. Markings are meh. I went with a small red star and numbers. I'll
I'll probably change out the stars for something more flashy...at least in terms of a Soviet allied privateer force. I still need to do the weathering, maybe a crew figgie or two, and some stowage. This one is set to be a deployed AFV.
But wait there's more....
Wen I do these mash-ups I hate not using the rest of a kit. For example, I used the BTR-55's original turret in my Assault T55 build. Which sort of gives you an idea how long the BTR-55 was being planned...though originally it was going to mount a BMP-1 turret with the ATGM launcher.
I had this T-55 chassis sitting around looking all turret-less. I had an old DML IS-2 that needed some fixing...some of the tracks had fallen off. The main gun was elevated unrealistically high. I had fixed the gun and even added a cupola mounted AA MG with the idea of upgrading the IS to a privateer tank with skirts, drum fuel tanks (as opposed to the side mount drums), and there probably would involve a big light.
I actually came up with this by accident. I test fit the IS turret on the BTR chassis. I sat it down on the Italeri T55 chassis and I liked how it looked. With that, the T55-122 was born. This is planned as a low-cost upgrade for client nations. The IS chassis was not mechanically awesome. Give it a more reliable chassis...the T55...and then go from there.
The T55's tracks are length & link and have always bothered me in how angular they looked. Not to overlook they were never painted. I decided to try to fix those. I cut off the tracks with only a few damaged links and without a single broken suspension arm. Sprayed the lengths black.
While that dried, I began mounting the turret. I wanted to try something different...a "reversed mount" inspired by Tamiya's old M41 Walker Bulldog. I used the turret ring as a template for a length of styrene strip. This will then be glued to the T55 chassis for the turret to fit on. I'd end up adding a piece of seet styrene. It was more work but it lets the turret sit a fraction higher than simply cutting a larger hole.
The other part is the turret basket. It's a couple strip styrene lengths clamped to a lid for the shape and then dipped in hot water.
Turret mount and rack bits done-ish. You can see the unpainted place on the turret where the gun was de-elevated. That thing was probably at 30 degrees. I basically had to dissassemble the mount. I was fortunate no damage was done.
Like a glove! Rack on and things really starting to shape up. Tracks...not so good. I got annoyed with them and decided to go with skirts to cover the upper runs. I love my skirts on these privateer tanks but I wasn't planning on having them on this one.
Skirts are sheet styrene with strip edging. Pretty standard...I really need to change up things for future skirt related builds.
Painted. I have to admit something, I used the wrong color. I had planned on tan & green. I'm colorblind...for real...and I grabbed the wrong tin and used a pale green. Overall, it looked tan to me even against the blue tape. I only caught it after I had sprayed the dark green and removed the masking tape. It has to do with contrasts. That said, I like how it turned out so I'll keep it.
Oh yeah, I had planned on adding a spotlight and mounting it above the main gun. I've done that to death so I decided to side-mount it using the turret rack. It's a bit odd but it keeps the profile looking low.
Markings are from the spares. This isn't a true Soviet vehicle so I got a bit flashy with the markings. I gave it a light drybrushing, added a trenching log.
This is basically done. I might add some crew at some point and there's always the possibily of other additions. I really liked this one. It was an impromptu build from start to finish. I started this just a few days ago. Now to find a use for the IS-2 hull.
Next update we'll be shifting to the West for a bit. I've got an upgunned Patton, a Baby Bradley, and I'll probably give the Far East some love.
.
