Glues
Here is the glue I use to assemble my kits. I bought two cans for about $4.50 about four years ago. My building was zero for about a year and a half. I'm about out now and will resupply soon. Check your local plastic suppler in the yellow pages.
This is what I store the container in and the bottle I use to hold what I need.
This what I was able to do in about an hour. All the torsion bar tubes were two pieces.
Putty
Colors for Soviet Tanks
by Don Crawford
I have studied Soviet Armour quite a bit recently and have used references
which I can say are highly regarded.Back to Soviet colours. I only use Tamiya Paints, and use the Mark Ia Eyeball method of mixing colours. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of the
Gunze Sangyo 330:6+94:2 system! I cut them with about 30% rubbing alcohol (70% iso, higher screws up the paint. Your Mileage may vary....) I am also a strong advocate of painting armour in the fashion that Cookie Sewell described in Finescale Modeller about a year ago. Finally, I add about 10-15% white to any dark colour to "scale-it-down".
Post War vehicles were painted for the most part in the standard Soviet Dark Green, Tamiya Dark Green is a good match. Enemy Force Vehicles (those playing the good guys, or Nato in Soviet War Games) have a white cross, of various thickness', hand painted on the centerline of the hull, over the turret, with a second line perpendicular to the first, along the center of the turret and out again across the hull sides. This goes from 1946 to Today.
Some parade vehicles are painted in a darker, semi-gloss finish, to which Tamiya's Black Green with about 10% white added matches. An important point to remember is that those vehicles which are potographed parading in Moscow (and which are the vehicles wrongly cited as average Soviet tanks!) belong to the Tamaran (SP!) Guards, which is Parade Unit. Their vehicles DO NOT train! Other details include white lines painted on roadwheels (like white walls), and along any visible edge of the vehicle, in a successful attempt to drive our Intel boys nuts when attempting to scale a vehicle from a photograph!
Circa 1980-4, the Soviets decided to switch colors to a shade of Olive Drab similar to the FS OD. However, Khaki #2 as the Soviets call it is not a dead match. I start with Tamiya's Olive Drab, add about 20% White, and about 5-10% Yellow.
Circa 1988, they again changed their minds and went to a Sand and Spinach with Black Crows feet scheme. It is similar to the old MERDEC scheme you Yanks played with during the early 1980s. Trying to match colors for this one almost drove me around the bend. I mixed about 10 batches of Sand, and striped my T-80U twice before I got it right (at least to the collective minds of Beldam, Zaloga and Sewell!). Start off with Dark Yellow, and add about 10% yellow. Mix it and add about 25% white. If it doesn't work for you, try some more or less white or yellow. The Spinach areas are matched closely with Black Green, with about 20% white. For the black crows feet I use German Gray darkened with black until it is off black. Pure black for anything is awful looking! That’s it for now. Good Luck
Recognition Tarps
IPMS-UK,
Mid-Sussex Branch
Photos from the Persian Gulf War often show large orange tarps or sheets attached to the top or rear of armored vehicles for air recognition. To replicate these sheets, paint white tissue Testor gloss orange (No. 1129), then overpaint it with Testor fluorescent red (No. 1775). After the tissue dries, cut it to size and put it on the model with watered down white glue. The tissue will lie down over detail, much like the real thing.
