Russian T-55 on a dare

[CN6401]

Hey Guys,
Don't beat me up on this one. This is my first posting of photos on this board. I became a member last week.

Anyway, Let me tell you that I am an HO Train guy first.

A while back I was doing some railcar weathering in the basement of my local hobby shop and one of the owner's helpers, is a military guy, challenged me to weather something military and blow the owners mind. He went into the furnace room and grabbed a 1/35th Russian T-55 Tank that was in the scrap bin, brought it out to me and said, "here take this and weather the sh*t out of it". So without the owner knowing, I took it home and proceeded to disassemble it the best I could. Since I didn't have a complete model I had to fabricate a few fender pieces and one of the tool boxes that are usually on the fenders. After about three months of research and building here is the final product.
The words on the back of the tank in chalk, mean "Ouch".

I took the Tank to the IPMS Nats in Columbus Ohio, along with two 'What if?' 1/25th Custom Trucks, (my first nationals BTW), and was pleased to walk out with an Honorable mention for the Tank and one of the Trucks.
L8r
Ralph

[finescalerr]

Tanks are as cool as any other vehicle. Nice job, although I would guess too much rust. Moderation in all things. -- Russ

[CN6401]

Russ,
There is no guessing, on the contrary.

When a tank is hit by an incendiary round there is usually no surviving for the tank or it's inhabitants. I have attached a photo of the hole that these rounds create. The point of the round embeds itself in the metal while the outer perimeter of the round acts like a cutting torch to cut through the side of the tank causing the tank to burn from the inside out. I mentioned above that I did extensive research regarding the battle damage and the effects of weather afterward.

I have made it a point to model from prototype and not to use my imagination when it comes to rust. Nothing is more natural than mother nature. Attached is the proto photo and a cleaned turret before it was allowed to rust.
Since being a long time member of Model Trains Weathered I look at everything just a little differently.
Ralph

[eTraxx]

Just a point. That heavily rusted tank has burned which causes it to rust quickly. During Desert Storm we came upon a Russian MTLB that had been hit from the air. It was a mortar track so .. had burned completely up. It was HEAVILY rusted inside and out. We also passed a few T-55/Type-59 turrets just sitting on the ground (have no idea why) that weren't rusted at all

[Chuck Doan]

I think your "hits" came out nice. Though not for the crew.