Trubia Tank - Spanish Civil War

 The Spanish developed a light tank based on the Renault FT of World War 1.  I built an Empress FT for use in Operation Sealion games. As you can see, they are of similar size (the trench crossing skid extends the length of the FT).

This is a very simple model, one piece hull, a turret and two Lewis Gins (Lewis Guns have a thermal sleeve round the barrel, which always makes them look like larger calibre weapons.

M48A3 continued

 So here is the story so far.

The M48A3 has gained a mascot, a TTCombat teddy bear. It has also had some additional armour in the form of track attached to the turret.

It has also gained a bandoleer of water bottles hung on one of the aerial posts (and the three aerials). Note also the deflector for the cupola machine gun to prevent it hitting the searchlight (the teddy bear has no such protection).

Note where I have badly replaced the left rear mudguard, this will be tidied with some Milliput.

Now to add some additional stowage on the engine deck and tidy up the jerry cans.

More on the M48A3

 This is a better shot of the heating exhaust (and the second hole that needs filling.

Test placement of a set of track links on the right hand turret size.

And on the left hand side of the turret.

As you can see, the left hand side should take the supplied track links without fouling the hull.

Some additional stowage.

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT

 Some more WIP shots of the Empress M48A3

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT - further Work In (glacial) Progress

 Continuing the work on the Empress M48A3.

One thing that has been pointed out is the main gun travel lock projects over the back of the hull, for moulding reasons the model has the lock slightly shorter.

So to make a new gun cradle, I took a length of 1mm brass rod and using a specialist set of pliers (business end shown below) bent the end into a loop.

The end after the loop will be given a 90 degree bend and a suitable hole drilled into the travel lock.

The power cable for the searchlight has been shaped and inserted into the hole in the turret roof and the back of the searchlight.

Holes for the three aerials have also been drilled into the roof.

The aerials will be cut from 1mm brass rod and bases made of 2mm plastic tube.

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT - Work In (glacial) Progress

 So it has been a while, but "what with one thing and the other", the effect of gravity on resin structures, and other things getting in the way, not much much progress.

There is a good photograph of a Vietnam era M48A3 in the Osprey New Vanguard book showing rows of machine gun ammo boxes on the mud guards.

I found some of Crooked Dice's small ammo boxes - they are a bit big, but they are all I had to hand.

They are tucked in behind the Empress small crate (ration packs?). Some additional jerry cans are to be added to the rear mud guard. One of the ACAV jerry cans will be borrowed to fit a jerry can in a holder to the turret side.

This is one of those really embarrassing shots (not that type). I spent all of yesterday trying to work out what that hole in the roof was for. The structure to the right is one of the aerial bases, so it is not the hole to fit an aerial.

And then I re-read a post about detailing the Empress M48, and it mentions the searchlight power cable.

The hole in the top of the searchlight a) should have been a hit, and b) is in the wrong place... The power cable goes into the back of the searchlight (I suspect the drawing of the M48A5 in Cold War Armoured Fighting Vehicles by George Bradford confused me - there is a rib that runs along the top of the searchlight that is in line with the power cable).

A couple of shots of the railing on the turret sides.

The railing is brass rod, bent to fit. The supports are plastic rod inserted into quite long holes in the turret side. The railing is glued in place, and the the plastic rods are teased back out until they contact the main railing then liquid poly is flooded over them, bonding them to the holes in the turret and the rail.

Three quarters view.

T-55 Soviet Main Battle Tank

The Soviet T55 main battle Tank was  one of the first MBTs to be fielded, and is still in service with may armed forces.

 The Empress Miniatures model is supplied as a multi-part resin and white metal kit.

The model is easy to assemble, with the following notes. the turret plug was slightly too deep for the socket, I had to cut about 5mm off with a razor saw. There are some mould lines on the auxiliary fuel tanks which are difficult to remove.

I replaced the white metal hand rails on the turret with 0.7mm brass rod for durability (being clumsy).

I also added the Coax machine gun and the stub of the aerial using 1mm brass rod.

The fore and aft mud guards were reinforced with green stuff and milliput to keep them in place.

A tarpaulin was added to the rear of the turret and another was added to the two auxiliary tanks. Strapping from Slater's microstrip was added to the tanks.

The model was assembled into four block, the complete turret, the hull and the two track units. After masking the hull nd the track units, the whole thing was sprayed with Citadel Chaos Black.

The turret and hull were then sprayed with Humbrol 86 Light Olive from a can.

The tarpaulins and the mantlet were painted with Citadel Death World Forest and the whole thing dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green.

The tracks were painted (before adding to the hull) with a mix of Army painter Black, Army Painter Chaotic Red and Vallejo Black Grey using a wet palette. This was also used on the exhaust. The wheels were painted with Humbrol 86 Light Olive.

Numbers were added to the turret side from the Rubicon Soviet Tank decal set.

The straps were painted with Citadel Dryad Bark.

The tank was weathered using Humbrol Dark Earth Weathering Powders, hopefully held in place by a combination of Citadel Lahmian Medium, Agrax Earthshade and Army Painter Strong Tone.