Pimp my Tank, or, More Armourfast T34/76

Happy New Year guys.  So this is the Wishful Wargamer's "new year, new you" pledge: to do more wargaming this year.  Therefore, to start the year off as I'll probably continue, let's cut straight to this week's displacement activity, i.e. a couple of 1/72 Armourfast T34/76.

The first one is actually a model I completed previously, which I thought was a bit boring at the time so I've now upgraded it with a bit of clutter.  This clutter inlcudes some fuel tanks, basically made from some 5mm plastic tubing sealed up with filler, that this rather simple model didn't even include in the box (this being the older and discontinued T34/76 Armourfast tooling).

"Totally tubular"

I also added one of my patent hawsers I describe making in a previous post.  I took the opportunity to touch up the paint job a bit and slap on even more weathering, particularly around the exhausts area, inspired generally I have to say by the fantastic work on the Plastic Warriors website.

As well as this old T34/76 (actually there were two of them, No.2 not shown here) I also constructed and painted the 'new tooling' T34/76, which is quite a different and in my opinion a far superior model.  The whole thing is lower and far better proportioned than the previous tooling - and the parts fit together better which helps: when you compare the models the earlier one seems really weird and hgh.  The new one also has better detailing, for example on the engine covers and wheels.  Plus it has fuel tanks.  However, I think I will be able to get away with both types on the battlefield when the time comes, as long as they aren't sitting side by side.

For this model I added an extra fuel tank for some real-world randomness, as well as sticking on a roll of tarpaulin (made from some tissue paper rolled up with woodglue and tied off with thread).  And there's another one of my hawsers.  The crewman is an officer from the Revell Soviet infantry pack, with his map and legs cut off.

Finally, a note on how I painted these.  The base colour for my soviet tanks is Tamiya XF-13 J.A.Green, which goes all over.  I then give the tank a black wash to bring out the detail and add rust marks (I use thinned Revell acrylic 37, reddish brown).  For mud, dust and general weathering I employ a combination of 'flicking' thinned Revell 17, Africa brown with a stiff brush to get a mud splash effect on the front of the tank (mind your wallpaper), and then finish off with extensive dry-brushing using the same pale brown colour.

Not sure what's next but I do have another T34/76 to make plus a couple of Su-85s and KV-1s (Pegasus) which I'm looking forward to.  Once they're done I will be going through the wargames box and refurbishing all the old, clapped out and randomly donated tanks in there (must be a couple of dozen at least).  Plus, I found a tangle of brass picture hanging wire in the toolbox yesterday and of course I'm now wondering if I can make even more hawsers out of that...