A Type 59 out of Trumpeters T-54B

Well... for reasons unknown I had bought a Trumpeter T-54 earlier this year instead of choosing the much newer offering by AMMO... why... I don´t really know but I guess it was on sale or something...

Anyhow, as I realized that I wanted a desert-style T-54, I then opened up the box and realized that the kit definetly leaves some room for improvement and actually represents a T-54A which is about the same as.. well... the Type 59!
Having taken a look at some pictures, I decided to go for an Iranian Type 59 in a tan camoflage with some green stripes. Thats where the fun of getting the kit a little "up to speed" started. Thus I will go through the different changes I made:

1) The engine deck which is labelled T-54B mod. 1954 (makes no sense, T-54B was first introduced 1957) loooked a little weird with the closed armored shutter being well to low. Thus I used a spare part of Revell´s T-55A which I had in my stash to improve the overal look (at least in my eyes it looked roughly fitting). This endeavor meant working to some rather thick plastic to remove the old rear part of the deck.

2) The turret recieved a heavy "soviet-ish" cast texture made from putty stippled onto the plastic.

3) Flame cut-marks where scribed into some panels and the four glaring holes in the back plate where filled.

4) Some parts of the fenders where made a little more detailed with plastic-card. I also built some details on the rear of the turret.

5) Wire was used for the headlight-protector, grabhandles and parts of the fuel and electrical system.

6) I used a Modelcollect unditching log and holders to detail the back of the vehicle. I also added two small filler-ports from plastic.

7) I added some PE ammo belts to the AA machinegun

8) Bits of tracks and a jerrycan from my spare parts were added as stowage

I had some paint peel off the ruber tracks. It looked very bad at first, yet I think it might be able to be hidden. Otherwise there´s the option of buying aftermarket resin tracks.
EDIT: I may just repaint the tracks after having them glued together. that prevents parts of the paint lifting up in the glueing-process and should work... let´s see if that thought makes sense...
EDIT 2.0: Those rubber tracks won´t even hold together with superglue and paint is still coming off... I will look for resin tracks :/