There are always some sorts of vehicles in history, that tend to appear litteraly everywhere and thus become some must-have subjects for us modellers. For the modern armour enthusiast the Russian/Soviet T-72 main battle tank fits into this category... And I noticed I didn´t have one in my collection!
On the search went for a kit and I quickly ended up picking the Modelcollect T-72 SIM-1 in 1/72, as I was intigued by the designation... If only Modelcollect had not just given a slightly changed T-72AV! But more on that later.
So, what is a T-72 SIM-1? To put it short, it is a T-72A/M with ERA used by Georgia. In the early 2000s efforts where made to improve the combat capabilities of the T-72s, which ended in the creation of an upgrade package focussing on aspects as such as target aquisition and communication. The vehicle features an Elbit systems GPS system, Kontakt-1/5 reactive armour tiles, Harris-Corporation radios and a polish made FCS akin to that of the PT-91 Twardy. The vehicles were deelivered from 2005 and participated in the 2008 hostilities.
The kit made by Modelcollect from China contained lots of plastic giving you a load of potential spare parts. Only one of the many sprues was exclusively dedicated to the T-72 SIM-1. Details where nicely executed and tracks are of the link and length variety. Additionally, the lower hull is cast and gives the finished model some good weight of its own.
However, the one most distinct feature of the SIM-1 was missing in the kit! This is the antenna at the rear of the turret behind the loader, which is part of the GPS system. Thus, I had to scour the internet for photos of the device. As there is only a limited ammount of photos, I decided to go for a rough "guesstimation" of the positioning and size. That meant sanding several layers of platic card into shape for the upper part and cutting smaller strips and bits for the mount.
Instead of fitting the toolbox as described in the instructions, I added a snorkel to the turret side which I also textured a little with MR Surfacer 500. This represents cast stell, as the basic turret structure of the T-72 is cast from steel.
As additional visual interest is always welcome on a scale model, I decided to mobilize my limited sculpting abilities and created some tent-rolls and a tarp. Together with the fitting of the PE lightguards this concluded the initial assembly. I left the side ERA-plates seperate to be able to better paint the rubber protion of the side skirts.
While painting I decided to give the vehicles colour some variation by doing a so called "distressing" by spraying chipping-fluid (or Hairspray) onto a lighter base colour and then adding a darker one, which is then chipped to reveal some of the lighter "worn" colour.
Sounds nice, eh? I did however encounter a problem: If you want two distinct layers, it is advisable to make the two tones a little more different from each other tah I did here... well lesson learned :)
I continued by painting the bigger rubber poirtions of the side skirts in a rubber colour. Here one has to note, that it should not be black, as 1.) rubber isn´t completely black IRL and 2.) smaller scales require lighter shades of paint to look appropriate. Thus I went with a (still really dark...) grey.
I also used acrylics as a glaze (heavily thinned, translucent paint) to differentiate some parts and give some highlights to the model. The unditching beam and the stowage were also painted and very subtly highlighted.
A pinwash helped to bring out some additional depth from an average viewing distance.
After that, I did not proceed with chipping, but gave the model aflat-coat in preparation for a first weathring layer using chipping varnish.
As the T-72 SIM-1 often operated in a dusty environment, I wanted to have a layer of old dust on the lower portion of the vehicle that looks like it had been worn and washed away over time. Theoretically, this would be a very fitting foundation for some "fresher" dust/dirt made with enamels.
I mixed this first dust colour from Tamiya Buff and Earth and then sprayed it heavilly thinned in light layers onto the chipping varnish applied beforehand in 2 layers. After about 5-8min, I took some wet brushes and proceeded to wear down the dust coat. Vertical surfaces were treated with a streaking down motion, the horizontal ones where randomly tapped. The result was again sealed with varnish.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the result I got and it was an excellent base for further weathering.
Fits, I however added the chipping effects via paintbrush. The dust coat nicels gave me an orientation of where chips would be visible and fit int with the weathering. This was the reason for leaving chipping until after the dust coat was applied. Chipping was done with two colour. A lighter green for the light chips and a dark grey for representin some deeper ones. On modern vehicles, many parts are from aluminium, thus I could have used some metallic colour on the chipped fenders, but decided against it.
The further weathering consisted of first speckling AMMO splashes effects (which has a nice texture of its own) over the dust coat, representing thrown up and dried earth and then giving some variation by speckling a bit of an earth colored AMMO wash over the previous effects to give the weathering even more variety. Thus, there are technically 3 different layers of dust present on the vehicle. I finished that up by adding som very light spalshes from Rainmark effects on the upper part of the vehicle.
The tracks ahad been painted in light gray and where weathered with the same first two washes.
It is important to not, that the dust coat and the enamel effects should be fitting to each other!
Now it only remained to put a black wash on the engine air intakes to simulate the space beneath and backen up the muzzle break and the exhaust using pigments. For the exhaust, I did some streaking using the black wash, as the Russain diesel engines of T-72s, T-55/64s etc. tend to "digest" a lot of oil and fuel, which is then being "spit out" of the exhaust as a black-ish sud. For representing engine oils, and fuel stains, it is a nice touch to add some gloss effect to the enamles colours (in my case Wet Effects) to set the stains apart from the rest of the surface.
After adding some metallic colour spots on the exposed track cleats and headlight, I called the model finished.
I hope this article was a good representation of what I did on this model and it contains tips or maybe even inspiration for anyone wanting to to a similar weathering approach on their models :)
Thus: Enjoy the final pics!
Cheers,
Tom
