Republic of Rhodia T-55AD

[Vaastav 2,810]

Ladies and gentleblyats, as described in the what if outline thread, I shall be doing a T-55AD from the Republic of Rhodia, post it's disintegration. The tank will be built as a MDH faction vehicle. The kit is UniModel's T-55AD1

Modifications and alterations will also be done along the way. 

Obligatory pre-build workspace photo. 

The running gear. The spokes on the roadwheels are a bit too square for a T-55, but these are replacements built by the ROF (Rhodian Ordnance Factories). 

The final drive + steering gearbox. This part needed a lot of sanding. 

The driver's armchair, an overly. complex part if you ask me. 

The wall between the engine bay and crew compartment. The shells come as separate pieces and need to be painted and fitted. 

[Gorby 17,213]

Nice start Vaastav. Looks like an interesting build.

[Vaastav 2,810]

Some further work was done.

The nice thing about this kit is that despite being a cheap one it actually is good value for money, as you also get some basic interior parts to make the whole thing more interesting. I finished off the engine and transmission, most of which was just gluing 2 halves together and sanding, that's why I'm putting photos of the painted items. 

The steering gearbox/final drive, painted in gunmetal.

The driver's armchair was painted and also weathered a bit

This is a fan like thing which is also part of the engine construction. The fan was made by gluing the 2 circular parts and then inserting PE pieces into slots for the blades. 

The engine of the tank. Rather simplistic yes, but decent enough for its purpose of being under a grill. 

[Gorby 17,213]

It's surprising how good some cheap kits can be.

[Vaastav 2,810]

Some further work. 

I am finding this kit is actually quite nice to build. While there are some fit issues, but nothing too major and it is quite detailed for the price point. 

The engine bay was painted black and all the parts fitted in. Looking quite busy now. 

The shells that go on the side walls of the tank were also painted up. They look decent, though could be improved with stencils. 

The interior was painted white, and then the shells mounted on the walls of the hull. 

The forward ammo stowage is also nicely depicted. On a T-55 this is wet stowage, ie. the shells are surrounded by fuel to prevent fire (diesel doesn't burn like petrol) 

The rear plate was also busied up, with spare track links and towing hooks. I put the mountings for the unditching log but will leave the log off to make it look like it fell off. 

 

[Gorby 17,213]

Looking good. Those shells are huge!

[RWG686 33,100]

5 hours ago, Vaastav said:

On a T-55 this is wet stowage, ie. the shells are surrounded by fuel to prevent fire

Now there's something I never knew.

Model coming along nicely.

[Vaastav 2,810]

Further work:

I started on the upper hull. As part of its modified character, I decided to cut off one mudguard to make it look like it broke off at some point. I also sanded down the headlight mountings, as I decided to have the front glacis covered with additional track links as extra armour. 

The interior was made suitably grubby and grimy using a series of washes and some dirty diesel that I had left over from when I washed my bike. 

The bonnet is a neat piece, with PE parts provided to depict the grills. 

The fuel drums were also built up. These needed some careful work, as they don't have locating pins. The seams will be sanded down. 

[RWG686 33,100]

3 hours ago, Vaastav said:

and some dirty diesel

You've started a trend.

Models which not only look right but smell right 

[Vaastav 2,810]

58 minutes ago, RWG686 said:

You've started a trend.

Models which not only look right but smell right 

Now rivet counters can't get after me for not being realistic enough... 

[Gorby 17,213]

This could be a whole new area for model forums - scratch and sniff models!!!!

Mind you, you'd have to careful which bit you scratched on a farmyard dio. 

[Vaastav 2,810]

After some further sniffing of diesel, this is where the work stands. 

The upper hull was joined to the lower hull, and it went together remarkably well and without issue. I also attached the spare links on the front glacis. These were leftover from when I did the Trumpeter T-72A. The stowage box was deliberately kept open, as I plan to put some stowage etc. in it. 

The turret was also started on. This is the recoil guard + gunner's seat. Overall quite a neat piece. 

The turret ring with loader's and commander's seat attached. 

The kit also provides a fairly accurate rendition of the D-10T main gun. A basic breech is also given by way of interior detail. 

The loader's hatch was built up. Here I made a modification, which is totally historically accurate when it comes to Rhodian rebel tanks. Because of the scarcity of 12.7mm ammunition, the rebels opted to remove their tanks' DShKs and instead fit them with M60s which fire the more easily available 7.62 NATO. The other reason for the mod is that the kit provided HMG is rubbish and I wanted something better. The M60 is from Tamiya's M151A2 Mutt kit. 

The commander's hatch was also made. 

[Gorby 17,213]

Nice work. Will you be able to see any of the internal detail when it's done?

[Vaastav 2,810]

4 hours ago, Gorby said:

Nice work. Will you be able to see any of the internal detail when it's done?

The turret will be removable, to showcase the detail.