Painting and Model Building Tools

The T54 project is requiring a lot of tools to do the job.  These little cheapo clamps are good at holding the upper and lower hull parts together.

These larger clamps are good for holding the upper and lower hull together if they need a little more force to hold the pieces together.

This is a cotton swab.  I use it to wipe off excess paint from the windshields of some of the Soviet trucks that I am also painting as part of this T54 project.  I also wipe off excess glue.  I put glue on the upper and lower hull halves and press them together and sometimes the glue will seep out.  A quick swipe from a swap can remove that excess glue before it has an opportunity to mar the surface.

Sometimes I need to do a tiny touch up of paint, and a swab can work for that.  I also have these little hobby brushes that can reach into little nooks and crannies and touch up paint.

The tank turrets sometimes need a little bit of plastic to fill a gap between the gun and the turret.  Filling that gap allows the gun to stay in the up position without having to hold the gun.  I made a bunch of these little pieces so they are ready when I need them.  Since I took this photo I used up all these pieces!

This little plastic cup, lined with paper towels is good for holding a jar of paint.  So it makes it harder for me to knock it over by accident.  Note the T54 tank turret with the white plastic replacement hatch on it.

Soda bottle caps.  I decant spray paint into small jars.  When it comes time to use the paint I use these lids for holding small amounts of paint that I am using for touch up paint.

These are some of the paints I am using on this project.  I take notes of the paints I use so that I can do touch up at the conclusion of the project.

My speaker stand is a wire cup and I store Dixie cups in it.  The Dixie cups get used for holding water for cleaning brushes.

Black paint for painting windows.  Note the silver circle on the cap.  That indicates to me the paint jar has been open.  My paints are stored in a drawer and so I view them from the top.  Lighter colors get a black circle.

Note the hole in the turret horn, it's a mold flaw.  I use Testors Clear Parts Cement and Window Maker to fill the hole.  It is gap filling and works very well to fill a small hole.

This is the same turret as the photo directly above.  Did you notice the hatch was installed upside down with the detail on the inside?
 

The Work Yard

As I prepare the tanks for rehabilitation, they each get their turrets removed.

Any markings, or decals get scraped off.

An inspection is done to see if any parts are missing, damaged, or deformed.

Missing hatches are replaced, and other parts are either sourced immediately, fabricated or the tank is pulled from the yard and sent to the spares pile.

My intention is to have all my T54 tanks, variants and spares back into full operation before the project is considered complete.  Right now I am waiting for a few new T54 tanks to come in the mail, and I also need some rubber and resin to cast a few missing parts.
 

Mass T54 Work

Common mold flaw in the Roco T54 tank.  The little hole in the horn on the starboard side.  Also the flash at the bottom edge of the turret.  Quick scrape with the X-Acto knife and the flash goes away.

This one has the forward hole that is too small for the turret pin.

It got broken off as I was turning it.

The pin is long enough that I can drill out the hole again and not have to put a new pin on the turret.

More turrets are ready for work.

Note the T44 hatch on the T54 turret!  Scraped off the number from the back of the turret.

More little plastic bits for the inside of the turret horns to hold up the gun.

Only a few more to go, actually there are many more to go besides these.
 

Roco T-54 Tank Project and Sherman Tanks

Despite working on the Roco T-54 tanks, I have also found a few minutes to paint some resin and Paul Heiser Sherman tanks.  The ones on the right are Sherman Jumbo tanks.  The Jumbo was built with massive extra armor.  My last major project was to build my Sherman tanks, but I did not paint most of them.  So on a good weather day, on a day when I have a little time, I can whip out a few Shermans and paint them.  I always keep my Testers Olive Drab spray paint on hand.

Roco Minitanks T-54 tanks that have been fully assembled and ready for combat.  Tanks that are fully unpainted are not going to be painted until all the tanks are assembled.  That way I have a better idea of what colors may be most important.

The T-54 boneyard.  The gray tank is a T-54 from some generic Chinese company.  It is very slightly larger than the Roco T-54 tank, just as the Roco tank is slightly larger than the actual Russian made T-54 tank models.

Here is my collection of right side T-54 tank track assemblies, about half of them have massive mold flaws.  I don't have corresponding left side T-54 tank track assemblies.

Some of my Roco T-54 tanks have these little truck type wheels on them for some unknown reason.

I removed then and will likely use them for other purposes.

Wheel close up.