Egyptian Army T34-85

[BradG]

This is the reasonably new Miniart kit with crew figures in 1/35. If it's detail and parts you want, this is the kit for you. There's multiple decal options which require many different parts for different configurations of tank. There is also an extensive photo etch fret. I have deviated a little from the instructions; I changed the road wheels to the open kind and included the heavy machine gun on the cupola for this version as I liked the look. I also played around with the tools and stores on the tank.

The kit includes 4 figures. I didn't use the bloke squatting down as I thought it looked like he was taking a dump. I did however cut off his hands and put them on the figure sitting in the turret as I liked them better than the closed fisted hands supplied. AK-47s come from the spares box. I decided to use a brush for this model as I figure it probably wasn't all nicely spray painted with and air gun, more likely being painted with a brush, or mop. I like the hard edge to the camo pattern this gives. Weathering was done with various washes and sandy pigments worked into the surface.

These Miniart armour kits are very nice, but require a lot of work due to the high parts count and complexity of the build. I also found the plastic very soft and broke several smaller pieces trying to get them off the sprue. It's also worth noting these don't have anything like the Dragon Magic tracks, so every track link has 4 sprue attachment points to cut and clean, times by about 150 links. That said, patience will result in a nice looking model. I do have their T-55 and Panzer IV in the stash to build as well.

[Martinnfb]

Nice, Czechoslovak production T-34. The Arabic camouflage schemes seems so unnatural on this type, yet cool at the same time. Well done.

Cheers

Martin