1/35 Meng T-90 Russian tank

[Jip]

Hello,

Today my kit arrived with some aftermarket parts:


The box art looks nice and inside the box you can find a lot of plastic, a bag with tracks and a bag with pins for the tracks, two jigs, one for lining out the suspension and one for putting the tracks together. All those parts can be seen in Phil review video.

I decided to replace the barrel with a barrel from RB Models. I also bought some extra aftermarket stuf: ET Models PE set for Meng T-90, Eureka towing cables and lenses for Meng's T90 from SKG Models.

Like most of this kits, it starts with the wheels. The wheels are made up from different parts and all of them got a poly cap so you can put the wheels on and of the suspension.


The next steps are for the preparing of the suspension. The design of the suspension is that all parts are movable and they provided a jig to line out the suspension so you can glue it inside and after the glue has dried, the jig can be removed. It works good.


The next step is about placing the parts for the back part of the lower hull. You need to make 4 holes for attaching the spare tracks.


This is the last part for the lower hull.


I have decided to paint first the wheels and the lower hull so I can place the tracks.

Thanks for watching.

[RobBye]

It looks like you have all the right ingredients. Best luck with your build.

[Jip]

Thanks!

A new update.

If I had know before what a problem the tracks assembly would have been, I would also have ordered other tracks.

First how it's starts. Meng had supplied a jig with two parts for assembling the tracks. The left on is for putting the tracks in before the pins can be placed. The tracks have also a very little pin on the other side and when you place them in the jig you can push this pin in the other tracks. But as you see on the last picture below, the pin are too weak and too short.



So this doesn't work and I was already looking for replacements, but after some time I thought, I can glue them together, place them on the wheels because most will be hidden behind the side plates.

Before I could place the tracks I had to paint the lower hull and wheels. I used Vallejo Black primer as a base and airbrush some Vallejo Russian 4BO primer on the black base and on the wheels. The rubber part of the wheels are painted with Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber mixed with some Vallejo Model Color Black. After assembling the tracks and glued them with Tamiya extra thin it looks good enough. I have to paint the outside of the tracks, but that will be done if everything has dried.


The next step was starting with the upper hull. The instructions starts with the front plate, some hooks and lights.


The parts fit easy and so I worked a bit further and the next steps asked you the place the parts on the upper side of the fenders. On the back you have to place a plate to close the gap between the turret ring and the back. You have also to place some pe parts on the back part, but that will be done later.


As you saw on my first post in this thread I had a pe set for this kit, but I found out that the pe set is for the T90A and not al parts are the same so I decided to leave the pe set of this kit.

Thanks for watching, so stay tuned

[Jip]

I have a new update.
I was almost ready with the build of the upper hull and before I could go further I had to fix both parts together. Before I could do that I decided to paint the tracks. I have give them a black primer layer and after that dried I dry brushed the tracks met Oly Steel from the Vallejo Model Color range. Further weathering will follow later.
First the tracks:


The next step is to put both hull parts together. The fit of the parts is great, no putty necessary.


In the meantime I had prepared the side skirts and because I want to paint them separate, I tried to test them and without glue they fit very well.


I have to polish the side skirts, but that's for later.

The last parts for today are the PE roosters on the back of the upper hull. The kit gives also the choice to cover them with plates if the tank is in rest.

I have glued the PE roosters with Gator Glue. The fit is good so no extra work is required.




That's for now, hope you like it, thanks for watching.

[Jip]

So in this update you will see the finished build with a grey primer coat from the Vallejo primer range.






The next step will be a camouflage pattern. This will be a challenge because I don't have much experience with airbrushing camouflage patterns. I had tried to get some pre shading, but when I tried that I had over spray and the controle was lost, so I stopped it and this will be some for later.

Hope I can find the mojo to start, so next update will after I have managed to put some colors on this beast .
Thanks for watching!

[schweinhund227]

Very cool Jig for the suspension arm alignment ! Keep up the good work !

[Tiger131]

you gotta love a meng kit built the first version of this went to together great your doing a great job with yours look forward to seeing more

[Jip]

Thanks guys,

This kit builds very well and also they explain which part you are building and that's nice if you don't have all the knowledge about tanks and parts of a tank. I have also plans to build the other T-90 from Meng but I have first to buy that kit and more important, I have first to finish this kit.

A new update.
This time a big update. I have done a lot of work after the primer had dried. I decided to give the T-90 a three color camouflage pattern. A big challenge because I don't build often kits and if, I paint them mostly in a single color, but I liked the pattern and so my first time airbrushing more colors.
The first layer was a done with Vallejo Model Air Sand color. After 20 minutes I used blue tack for protect the sand color and to give the borders for the dark green color (Vallejo Model Air Dark Green). With a brush I did the last color, black.



I found it not easy to do the different colors and with the result I'm not totally happy but for now it's ok, but I have to try this more often to get used to it. I finished with a satin varnish layer to protect the paint and to prepare the tank for the decals.

The next day I started with the decals. The look good but are a bit thick. So I needed a lot of softener and finally I used Daco Strong and that worked the best.




After the decals had dried I protected them with an other layer of varnish. I left the tank dried for two days before I started with the weathering.

As a do not like enamel washes I have bought some clay washes and after watching some video's and tutorial I thought I give it a try, did some Dark dirt in my airbrush and sprayed it over the model and I looked really awful.




I saw different techniques how to work with washes on clay base and I decided to use a flat brush and tap water and started to activate the clay with water and it was a strange experiment to reactivate the wash and to see it flow in the recesses. After an hour work it looked like this. I didn't want a very dirty tank so removed most of it but still there is enough to show shadows and moren but it's a bit difficult to see what is left on the pictures.





I will leave this dry for some days and then we will see what I can do more on this subject.

Thanks for watching.

[Jip]

I have a new update.

The wash is pretty dry and I liked the shadows, but the other colors are a bit dull so I decided make the colors more bride with drybrushing. I used Russian Tanker Higlight I of Vallejo Panzer Aces for the green parts and a 50/50 mixture of Deck Tan and Iraqi Sand from Vallejo Model Color series for the yellow color. The effect is not good to see on the picture but in real it looks good.




Thereafter, with some other clay washes I have made some extra effects at the lower parts and the edges of the model.




This part I kept quite subtle because I did not wanted a very used tank.

The end is in sight, I still have to put on a number of components on the tank such as lighting and antennes that will take some time.
So until the next update, so stay tuned!

[Jip]

I have finished this project.