ICM T-28 Soviet Medium Tank (2007)

[Bill Plunk]

I continued work on the paint and finish stages today with the first item of business dealing with adding some more variation to the green finish by drybrushing in some Deep Yellow to various surfaces. I used a #0 brush and lightly made several passes and then coming back in some of the heavier areas and drybrushing some Olive Drab to even it back out. I also installed all the wheels, drybrushed the sprockets and idlers with Steel on the wear areas, and began the detail work with the pioneer tools, muffler/exhaust, and spare wheels.







The pioneer tools were a bit tricky to get installed, all of their mounting holes needed to be opened up further and the shovels in particular were a very tight fit.



With all of that taken care of, I applied a coat of Future and allowed it to set up for a couple of hours. While that was going on, I weathered up the tracks by drybrushing Steel and applying a light Rust wash followed with some drybrushed Burnt Umber. My original intent with this finish was to do the 1939 Leningrad markings with the red band around the turret and side hull numbers. The kit decals didn't cooperate...first the turret band disintegrated into several pieces...and even when those pieces were coaxed into proper position, they refused to respond to the Solvaset and conform to the complex surfaces, so they were scrapped.

I forged ahead with the hull side numbers and manged to get them to snug down ok...but then a strange thing happened...a reaction with the decals, Solvaset, or something caused the decal to eat into the paint, despite the presence of a Future coat, and I ended up having to scrape them off and hand-paint over the square left behind, truly bizarre...I've never had anything like that happen before and am at a loss as to why. I almost gave up on the finish at this point, in fact came very close to hurling the whole thing against the wall I was so burned...but decided to forge ahead and attempt to use the kit supplied markings for a captured T28 in the Finnish army. My rationale, after doing a quick check online about the Winter War, is that the former Soviet markings were painted over and the Finnish style swastika slapped on the turret. This one won't be going to any contests so that's my story for now at any rate.

I also installed the MK tracks and discovered that the 118 links per side worked only for the right side...the left side needed another link, so it was a good thing I had a couple extras left still.



After letting the hand-painted recover dry, I applied the Finnish markings to the turret sides. I'm guessing due to the European legalities, the swastikas have to be assembled out of 2 separate decal parts and again I had to look carefully at some online examples to be sure to get the alternating white/blue arms in the correct positions. It was a challenge, but eventually worked out.



I'm determined to see this one through to the end...it may end up only being a testbed, but I at least need to complete the experiments I'd started with this kind of green finish and see how the weathering combines with it. As if to add to the frustration level even more...I broke off the last remaining untouched MG barrel from the smaller turrets so that now makes it a perfect score with the MGs at 5 and me 0.

[Bill Plunk]

The experiment continued today with the weathering approach I'd originally had in mind for this beast. I began by spot applying some Forest Green and then using a thinner dampened brush, converted that into a filter.



Since the size of this monster is significantly larger than the usual model, I worked in sections. Next step was to spot apply some Gunmetal to compliment the previous application.



This was all worked together to produce this effect. The same thing was done to the rest of the vehicle in stages. Afterwards, I went back over various areas and adjusted them as needed.





I applied a pin wash of Burnt Umber and tweaked that in some areas after it had dried due to some unexpected and undesired tide marks that got left behind. The missing MG barrels were reattached one more time and everything was given a coat of Lusterless Flat in the rattlecan. In what continues to be a series of unexpected outcomes/twists...the dull coat caused a great deal of the previous weathering effects to disappear or blend in so much that it might as well have. Very strange since all of the weathering so far was done with just thinned enamel paints, not pigments. Still, I'm reasonably happy with the result so far, and will continue next weekend with the pigment weathering approach and see where that leads.

[Bill Plunk]

As a postscript to the last update...turns out the decals silvered despite all the safeguards and is a fitting coda I guess to this whole effort...so this build is over and done with since the time and effort required to finish the pigments won't change the fact that it's got a serious fundamental flaw that I can't fix. It's got a nice "factory finish" to it in the paint department and will go on the shelf as is. Just goes to show I guess that not every build can end up the way you want no matter the effort put into it. It still proved useful though in terms of trying out various techniques and gaining some insight into future attempts at Russian green finishes. Onward and upward to the next build!