Type 59 [1/72]

Let´s see what I can get out of that... 

I present: The Great Ol´Pile o´Plastic... actually not that many parts 

Hull details are okay-ish, but some work will help to achieve a (hopefully) better result 

Note the weird "sunken-in" protective armored cover on the rear right of the engine deck. This was one of the factors that led me to replace the whole deck with a part from a revell T-55A  

Turret is accurate for a T-54A or Type 59. Not a T-54B however, as it is missing the IR-searchlight and the new gunners sight. 

After a good ammount of saw usage, I replaced the rear engine deck. I also did texture on the glacis plate 

Cast texture on the turret. I still hope it didn´t turn out too "heavy" 

I filled the periscope-openings with plastic sheet as I rather like them painted dark than having big holes in my models 🙂 

The plate overlap seems to be correct for a Type 59... any experts on Type 59 hull-welding here? 

I replaced some of the more visible parts holding the fenders with new ones from plastic 

My absolutely crude replacement work in all its beauty... oh well :/ 

It does look somewhat Type 59-esque however, you gotta leave me that 🙂 

Jumping forward in the build, I added some details from wire 

Flame cuts on the front came out a little weird due to the putty scraping of differently than the plastic 

Again you can enjoy crude weld-replication on the turret. Maybe I should find some epoxy putty that lets you d o precise welds in this scale. Stretched sprue doesn´t realy work that well for this imho 

Edit: a shovel has been added from my bits-box 

Additional details toward the rear of the vehicle and most importantly: stronk tenk need stronk log 

The wiring on the side is a connection between the fuel-tanks. You can also get a glimpse at some of the details on the turret 

Headlight-cage with electronic wires 🙂 

I probably misplaced the hooky things on the turret a little so please don´t burn me on a stake for that 😉 

Doesn´t look that bad from above... hehe 

A little "tarp" was placed on the fender to consider wether/where storage can be added 

There are several places where I could potentially put some tarp or maybe some ammo boxes if I find some among my spare parts 

Although I wanted to use no dedicated accesssories, I ended up grabbing some ABER ammo belts out of my stash and added them to the machinegun. Little details such as this can in fact have a trendemous effect on the finished model 

The whole thing got primed in black. You can also see how I grabbed different spare parts (shovel, tracks, jerry can) and clustered them around the vehicle 

I did some wood-grain texture on the wooden board on the front of the vehicle. It came out quite well and I´m thinking about later painting it in a wood color to make it stand out further 

I am thinking about painting the jerry can in blue later to give a touch of color to the tank ... 

The turret detail came out quite ok, though I´m not 100% happy with the weld detail. Yet making a mess trying to sculpt them from milliput or something is less than desirable so it should work the way it is 

Finished the primary painting in one session. Unfortunatly, I was so carried away that I forgot to put the camo onto chipping fluid, so I guess I just have to do little more handpainted chips 🙂 

I went for a three-layer-approach with the base color:
1) Dark coat from desert yellow and earth on the lower parts/shadow-areas
2) Desert yellow and a little buff for most of the vehicle
3) Buff for highlights 

To be fair, I tied some of the effects described in the previous picture together by spraying thinned paint over it  

I then freehanded the camo with a green tone and rather thinned down paint. Maybe I will highlight some individual places before moving on to the next steps 

The black primer + light base color combination really brings out the deep grooves on the splash board 🙂 

I might have to enhance the shadows of the engine deck a little using balck paint, but there´s plenty of time for that later in the process 

All the four colors I used for the primary paintjob (excluding primer) 

It does start to look somewhat like the original now... these tanks look very similar to iraqi ones, but aren´t quite similar. 

Did some further highlights on parts of the green using a mixture containing the green and a light cockpit-color to give a dusted and bleached appearance. 

Also I used pure buff to do some highlighting and distressing on the tan parts of the vehicle. I first planned to use chipping fluid to create an uneven effect, but I think I´m going to continue with this 🙂 

Thats the primary paintjob from five colors. Just missing some brushpainted highlights and then I can fix everything with varnish in preparation for the weathering 

I set my pressure on the airbrush a little to high which led to some of the diluted buff-color spilling on one side of the turret, but it partially worked in my favour (lucky me). All "off" looking parts will be tied in during the weathering stages 

A rather large ammount of light colored spots are found on the turret, as this is one of the most visually exposed parts 

Some paint spills will require some weathering to tone them down. While I usually repaint areas with larger painting mistakes, I just leave those very small errors as they are easily hidden later 😉 

Some brushpainted Light Wood color (roughly similar to Buff) provided a highlight for some parts 

Opinions about painting contrasts such as this may (rightfully) differ, but I think that ,considering the smaller size of the model and the weathering that is yet to come, the application of such highlights helps to make for a convincing appearance that follows the look of the original and is pleasant to view 

Track links are also basecoated. Experts will note, that those parts may not match the T-54 tracks, but I devided against ripping them off again as that would just bring problems 🙂 

I did go for a dark green can, as blue looked a little off 

The log was also painted with a translucent coat of a basic tan color. As it will get drybrushed and washed later on, that basecoat is sufficient 

I also basecoated the shovel handle and painted periscopes etc. in grey. I guess I can finally start weathering now 🙂 

After being given a clear coat, I speckled dust-colored enamel washes onto the vehicle. those where thinned and the intention behind this is to distress the surface somewhat further. 

The turret recieved less speckling than the hull, as it would naturally catch less splashes and the vertical turret sides would be spared from things moving around them. 

I added some further dry-earth splashes (visible on the front fenders). The paint I used for this has some texture in it which makes for a rather realistic appearance. A wash has aslo been applied to enhance the details 

I did in fact play around with the wash to thinner ratio to achieve not only a pinwash, but also darken up some areas around the fenders and prevent some contrasts from getting too strong for my taste. 

 

Did a two-stage chipping using a ligther color to do the less deep scratches and then filled some with a dark grey color 

The DShK has also been fitted 

The log was drybrushed with the "light wood" color by AMMO 

I mixed tracks wash and a rust wash to get a really dark and slightly rusty tone. this was applied over/around some chips and quite heavily around the exhaust. This part will later be darkened further by spraying thin black paint over it to simulate smoke residue  

The grilles on the rear plate will also recieve a shadow using black color 

Some dry-earth and dust washes have been used to give the lower hull a weathered appearance 

I will hopefully manage to get the rubber band tracks fitted properly...