Trumpeter T-80BVD

[virtue66]

Right ... After finishing off some shelf queens and finished the Type 87, I decided to do a full build log for this T-80.

I will not be posting some sprue shots as I have already made a review for this particular kit. You guys can check out the sprue shots over there.

http://modeller-innovation.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-peek-inside-box-trumpeter-135-t-80bvd.html

But just for the sake for it, here's the box art -

Right, so first step, the running gears. This is step 2 in the manual as I skipped step 1, which is the step for making the wheels.

I had to put on the suspension arm swing limiters for both side in this step. Small little pieces, nothing too hard.

After that, I had to make 3 shocker absorbers for the left side.

Here, I have noticed a mistake in the instructions. In stead of A25, it is actually supposed to be A5. That took me a while to figure out the correct part as I have to figure out and dry fit and match with the illustrations.

After that, I finished up step 2 by putting on those shock absorbers along with the arms and the sprocket hub.

Comes step 3 and I started out with the shock absorbers for the right side. I was expecting the manual to be mis-labelled but it appears they got it right for this side.

Further along step 3; I put on the wheel arms on the left side along with some kind of hub or housing for the idler wheel.

The instruction calls for putting on the belt/holder for the unditching log but knowing full well how rough I am when it comes to handling, I decided to be come back to that later on.

I also put on the engineering blade at this point.

Coming into step 4, I put on the Sprocket hub along with the wheel arms -

Further along into step 4, I put on the hydraulic rods for the mechanism for deploying the engineering blade.

After that, I put on the last parts for step 4, where are the little rubber mud flaps that we always see underneath the T-80 series. You have an option of using rubbery material or pure plastic. I choose to go for the former as I believe their natural flexibility would mimic the real thing better than the plastic parts.

Step 5 - Time for the driver periscopes. Unfortunately, the slots are too small and I pushed the scopes into them with so much force that there were physical deformations on the periscopes area. If you look closely, you will see that deformation between the right ( our right, the vehicles' left ) and middle scope.

Step 6 and 7 - Although there are numerous little steps and parts involved, the ERA and some other small parts on the front glacis went on quite quickly. By the end of step 7, something funny happened. I thought the part F4 wasn't labelled at all so I wrote it down but I found that it is called out in the manual to put it on after 2 more steps. Why they even bother to show it on the manual in step 6 is beyond me. LOL.

ြGlued the front half of the hull to the chassis and that brings us to the end of step 7. I had to use a liberal amount of glue as the fitting is kinda loose but it still sits nicely, just had to hold it down for a while.

I then put on the initial parts on the Rear Engine deck; basically just the big piece of engine mesh, the smaller mesh and another part.

Before stopping, I delved a little into step 8 and glued on the engine deck. The way trumpeter made it, you can show the engine deck lifted up assuming that one can find the Diesel engine for the T-80UD.

And this is it for this update. I will keep you all posted.

 

[tommy1drop]

Nice start Gary, looking forward to following this build

 

[monica]

looks to be a nice start Gray, will keep an eye on this one,

 

[Polux]

Nice start Gary, interesting thread so far

 

[dubster72]

Keep it coming Gary!

 

[Lee W]

I'm in, looking good so far Gary

Lee

 

[virtue66]

Thank you all... I will try not to disappoint

 

[Peej]

Ooops, sorry I'm late. Room for 1 more?

 

[aaron]

The detail on these Trumpeteer kits must be a match for Dragon, same goes for instruction mistakes

Great work so far, pity about the optical damage. Are you going for the artwork paint scheme?

 

[virtue66]

Ooops, sorry I'm late. Room for 1 more?

come one .. come all ..... :P

The detail on these Trumpeteer kits must be a match for Dragon, same goes for instruction mistakes Great work so far, pity about the optical damage. Are you going for the artwork paint scheme?

Some of the details on Trumpy kits are better then Dragon's imo .... and yeah, LOL about the instruction.

No, I have decided to go for the green, black and Grey camo ... the one we typically see on the T-80BV

 

[virtue66]

Right... Time for an update for this gal -

Now that I have put on the upper hull and chassis together, I moved on to the rear of the vehicle -

First step, I put on all those parts that I have shown with the arrows-

Followed by two more -

The one on the vehicle's left is a cover for the exhaust

Next, I put on the overhang grille/intake-

After putting that on, I did an inspection of the tank all around and I noticed there is a big gap along the edge of the engine cover over-hang and the rear hull. I cutt off some plastic strips to size,slide them in, glue them and finally closed it up with a great product; Deluxe Materials Perfect Plastic.

Another thing I noticed after inspection was that there seems to be a little slot just infront of the engine cover but it hasn't been called out in the manual. Using observations and logic, I noticed that I have to put on part Y15 in this little slow ( as shown in the photo with the red arrow )but the instruction totally omitted that. Therefore, I just put it on as I'm pretty sure this is where it goes.

Now that I have put on everything I need to put on on the lower hulls and the top hull, I decided it's time I build the wheels and started making the tracks to make painting easier.

I painted the wheels according to the colour scheme I want to go for -

Yes, this is basically a prototype for the T-80UD for the Ukrainian army but I want to see it with a Russian Black-Dark Green-Grey scheme; not to mention such scheme can be seen in the T-64BV in Crimean crisis.

Painted and weather the tracks -

After that, I painted the lower hull, chassis and the top hull with a base of dark green, let it dry and put on the wheels and tracks-

After that, I moved on to step 11 and 12;

Step 11 being the right fender and side skirts -

and step 12 being the left fender and skirt -

Glued them on to the side of the hull and voila - we now have an almost complete hull.

All that is needed now is some more smaller parts between the fenders and the main hull and the the front lights and I should be done with the entire hull.

That's it for now. See you at the next update

 

[virtue66]

Update time.

This time- I will be focusing on the turret.

Started by gluing the two halves of the turret together. The turret comes with moulded on cast texture but it's a little soft but since I'm happy with this so I didn't put on the extra cast texture.

This is how the turret looks -

After that, I started putting on the ERA blocks (this is the kontakt-1 bricks according to sources).

I stared on the right cheek of the turret. Each single set up of the blocks involved 5 parts and it took quite a bit of effort and steady hands-

You can see in this photo the photo etch support that goes in between the upper and lower bricks -

Imagine doing that for 5 times. But that's not all. this is only just for this area.

Followed that up with more block set-ups for the side.

The side blocks are vertically facing outward and these were quite fragile and fiddly so extra care has to be exercised.

Next, I moved on the the left cheek. For some reason, the blocks are set up in an easier way for the left cheek so rather then each individual blocks, I just had to do a whole row.

Still, not an easy job as you can clearly see on the photo.

That entire row goes on the left check along with some roof blocks on the edge of the cheek and side -

Followed up by the side blocks and SGLs -

Satisfied with this, I moved on to the back of the turret. I had to put on two little pieces of PE as indicated by the arrow. I don't know what they are but the manual say I have to so yeah.... and I also put on one of the boxes. What are those boxes anyway?

Next, I put on the turret basket.

while putting it on, I realise it was really wobbly at the bottom and after inspection, I found out that the two supports for the bottom of the basket is missing. I am not certain whether trumpy forgot to mould it entirely or I broke them or cut them in mistake. Regardless, I used the evergreen rods I have ready and made some fixing.

It's not glamorous but hey, it works.

After that, I put on the fording equipment. Bear in mind, this is not the big fording tube of the T-80BV. As far as I have looked, these are found on the T-80UD.

I also put on the 2nd box on the right side of the turret. The upper portion of that little rack is empty as I haven't put on the machine gun ammo box yet. I want to paint them first in different colours so I'm leaving them off until I painted them.

Next, I moved on to the gunner hatch. For a hatch, this were is some intricate steps and engineering involved.

I then put on 3 of the P.E parts on the roof and sights and the base of the gun. At this point, I have glued the two halves of the gun together and now, this is how the model looks -

That's it for now.

 

[dubster72]

That's a lot of careful intricate work there Gary! Great detail on that kit

Cheers

Patrick

 

[Wong Ryan]

woww ... nice. but the PE parts look pretty difficult to manage to me ... but u did a great job ... keep it coming.

 

[tommy1drop]

Coming along lovely, as Ryan stated that pe looks fiddly, this is really turning out nice,looking forward to seeing more

 

[virtue66]

Ryan, Tommy - The PE was so fiddly that i was so ticked off to a point of smashing the whole block set up with a hammer ... but I didn't give in ... I soldiered through.. hahaha ...

I used a huge amount of cement to make sure the blocks stay well glued to the turret and once dried, I also applied small amount of superglue on top of the cement as a double measure ... so far, it is holding all the parts well

 

[Peej]

Looking good. Enjoying following this build. Can't wait for the next instalment. :D

 

[virtue66]

Right ... up date is due on this baby. Haven't touched it for a long time. I been on a vacation with sister and family friends.

Works continued on the Turret.

Last time, I left things here -

Before I work on it, I had some almost empty bottle of green paints so while cleaning them, I decided to spray all those green on the turret as a mean to serve as a primer so you will see a very light green painted turret on this update :P .

Anyway, I started putting on some of the things I need to put on.

This is the turret left side -

The search light at this point has no lenses install so as to make masking easier. The gunner sight comes closed which would be a PITA for some people who like to show the sights open but I don't mind; less masking job for me.

This is the turret back top -

I don't know what is that little thing is; it kind of looked like a speaker or a ventilator. The instruction calls for the little P.E parts to be closed but after careful dry fitting, I found out I can leave it open so I left it open as you can see from the photo. On top is the back search light ( or is it a convoy light? a little big for a convoy light no ? )

Turret left back -

I put on the last of the little box that we see on T-80s ( this is the third and last one on this T-80 version) along with a larger storage box on the turret rack.

Come backing to the front left again -

I put on the shade or cover for the gunner sight. I think this is the direct sight. Care was exercised not to overly apply the CA glue to avoid a very messy attachment.

After that, I moved on to the Commander Hatch and the RWS.

The whole thing is a quite complicated and it strained my eyes to the braking point. Luckily, having build the Zvezda T-90's commander hatch and MG, this is nothing. After about 3 swear/curse filled hours, I finally got it -

Back top view of the hatch and gun -

At this point, you will notice that I haven't put on the MG ammo box. I'm still thinking should I or should I not put on the ammo box at all.

After that, i moved on to the last piece I need to put on the turret; the big light ( is it IR or normal light or switch-able?) on the right side of the gun -

and Last but not least, the front lights. Again, no lenses are install so as to make masking easier.

Finally happy and confirming with the manual that I have nothing more to put on, I masked all the running gears and tracks and started painting.

Firstly , I gave it a blast of Tamiya Dark Green for base coat -

After that, I sprayed on Aircraft Grey from Mr. Hobby Aqueous -

The airfact grey I used is glossy but once I flat coated it, there shouldn't be a problem.

And Finally, finished off with VMA Black.

Since I am a very lazy guy and couldn't be bothered to mask, there were over-sprays but nothing a few precise re-spray of the previous colour couldn't fix.

And that's that. Almost complete. Next step is the weathering. Stay tuned for more. Thanks for reading.

 

[steve scan]

This is looking great Gary, I like the colours.

 

[papa 695]

I don't know how I missed the start of this Gary great work so far I will watch the rest of the way now