Next, if you can, I strongly encourage you to have a nice and properly organised work bench....all it takes is a few chest of drawers like what I have, and IKEA full wooden table, make sure its stable type, as I saw, hacks and even hammer the punches on this desk.... Silair compressor below, vice at the left side to hold the airbrush, all solvents on my left, what ever I needed, I organise it into compartments, I also have a chest of drawers table at the left side that is not shown, all in, about US$4,000, Waldron punches, Mission Models Etch Mates, 4 airbrushes, about 25 different types of brushes, wires, cutters, diamond files, dremel below the bench, grainder, small lathe, all sorts of paints and solvents, oils, enamels, acrylics, lacquers, water colour, pastels, pigments, gels, solgel matts, awls, scribers, scratch building materials, butyl acetate glues, acetone, thinners, tarps, filters, metallic buffing materials etc...... one time pain, but you can also grow with the hobby. It took me 36 years to get here. So, don't give up. And my wife married me without knowing that I am this freakish about it! Now she enjoys watching me in action, sometimes criticizing my work!!!!

Now, back to the Centurion, enough of bragging hag.....ok, whose the wise crack shouting back there?!!! Show your face! Lots of critics on the internet, but mostly from people who can't have anything to show for it...now, the stowage, I have done up except that the rope is still waiting to be dried from its brown wash of Acrylic Gel Resin from MIG Productions. I rusted and dusted the tin in the basket. I also 4 tones the tarps and added in the rops and the black shadow edges advocated by Calvin Tan. The basket Tarp and the Ali Baba bag has not been touched up yet, just the black, white drybrush and a few layers of glaze. More work there cut out.

The view from the top. Can see the stowage clearly, the front mantlet canvas still has not recieved the shadows yet. However, for chipping, its completed. Next up, once the mantlet is done and the rope has been dry brushed, we have to paint the antenna base white, then wash and tone it with dust and chips like the rest of the turret. Then, I have to assemble in the 50 Cal Machine gun with the remote firing mechanism. This thing has to scratch as the Legend part is a sham. I have to put in 2 Academy sorted Browning 303 machine guns for the two cupolas.

Another view of the completed chipped turret. The straps and the stowage still needed some work.

I also weathered the top of the barrel too, just for some effect.

After the long break where I took time to do the colour modulations and pre chipping, time was at hand to put in the real chips, which took really long with my favourite JR productions triangular stock Sable O brushes and my favourite German C. Black from Vallejo.Dot by dot, I added, 5 days of 2 to 3 hour sessions, this is what I get. This is before we unite the whole thing with further filtering and some rain marks.

At long last, chipping is 90% completed.....the pre chipping followed by the actual, after 15 man hours, we are still not finished! Not a way to make money to sell on Ebay man....good thing I am keeping my models....otherwise, hungry siah!!!!!

Painting it at long last......2 years on the shelf as yellow, brass, white plastic and green. This Tamiya converted Legend kit bashing is finally about to take on a coat of nice bruised paint.

• I painted the whole thing black epoxy to give it a tough undercoat, as always.


• I mist it with Mr. Colour, red brown, yellow, white and 123 green mixture and dust it 20%


• I mixed the base with 30% 123, 10% Desert Yellow to build the solid colour


• I lighted 10% sail colour to form the highlights and concentrate on the top surfaces


• I panzer filtered it


• I sand filtered it


• I flat brown filtered it


• I green filtered it


• then I modulated a Vallejo Camo Green with Desert yellow, white, flat brown and yellow to form the pre chip patches

Here, you see that the colour has been modulated, and the filters and spluttering colours are blended with Tamiya Enamel thinners to get a patchy and yet, gravity modulated colouring. This gives the base model a interesting depth look to the colours.

The pre chip chipping with the very light green allows me to create some interesting patch work to break up the monotony of the body work.

Then I started to add in the small chips with my favourite Vallejo German C Black. This done dot by dot, 0.1mm dia at a time and not patches like the green.

<<<<T55 Project Finally Completed>>>>

I must tell you what a relief this is to me as the T55 has always been a favourite amongst collectors world wide, no wonder, its the most produced tank in history of modern warfare.

The project wasn't as smooth sailing since a lot of the Marmite mask did not dissolve in the hot water, and it being a partial resin kit, it is very susceptible to hot water distortions. So, it took a lot of brushing with the toothbrush and things break off, particularly, the hopelessly fragile Aber detailed lights. I have since discarded and replaced some of them. I have also painted the IR light black after this photos are taken.

The tank in its final finish, albeit with rain marks, chips and sand etc.

The track area, where the earlier CA glue formed the lumps and simply washed with Vallejo and pigments. The tension, since this tank is mainly used in urban combat, was set a little higher, touching only 3 road wheels, from here you can see the tires all battered.

I did put in a lot of parts into this MG. Can't believe that there were actually 27 parts added and it took me 3 days just to assemble the MG and paint it! Sometimes, working with Aber PE parts are a real chore! I also added the anchor points for the wire, two "u" shaped parts and a lot otheres. The mantlet is a resin part from Blast and I reinforced the rear with wires and a whole tube of CA glue just to make sure it does not crack and buckle under heavy stress.

Another look of the finished tank. The right fender is left off to create a point of interest in the model.

The turret has been textured heavily and I added in a hand built epoxy sandbag to increase the interest and variation to an uninteresting front. I also added the PE part and put in the power cable to the lights in front.

The traffic sign is from the Aber kit and the track is weathered and bolted on with Sprue. It is alsp painted in black, brown, orange, yellow and green to give it a weathered look without looking too crusty, as you would in a very old weathered abandon tank. For this look, I refrained from using pigments, but only Vallejo paints. To break the monotony, I also weathered the decals on the stowage box.

I added in some stowage at the anchor points. These are resin parts I took from my spare box of Legend Stowage materials. For the exhaust, as per my last portions, we roughened it with CA and then Tamiya putty diluted. Then its painted the same way as the track.

This photo shows the mantlet, painted with my black, white and wash method which is described in my earlier article on the GRANT CDL.

To further distract the point of attention, I added a Russian Oil tank colours and one Shell drum colours behind. They are painted on with Vallejo by hand using colour wheel modulation and damp glazing. Once it has dried after 20 coats, which took 4 days, its left to dry for 2 more days to cure the paint. Then I added in the chips and colour toning in various harmony colours.

Another look at the sandbag that I made with Tamiya Epoxy Putty. Note the wiring for the driver's periscopes, which are real gems from BLAST of Rue Chateron in Paris.

One good view of the Tarp I made using the same putty as the sandbag, the clips were made with Aber parts and steel wires to hold the tow cable lug. Care must be taken as the small 1 sq mm of CA will not hold the tension in my brass wire tow cable, so, I have to glue the tlug onto the body as well. I also glued on the chain from a Gundam shop.

A good look at the removed fender showing mud stuck at the release mechanism area. The cable is weathered and chipped to resemble a little more neglect.

Then went on the Microset for the decals, which were pressed in with cotton bud and then dabbed on with some MicroSol to conform them to the details. As I roughened the surface with Tamiya Putty diluted with Tamiya thin cement earlier to simulate the sand casting, the decal conformed very nicely onto the tank surface with this age old process. When it has dried for 24 hours, I took the knife and with its point, gently scrape away the carrier film and break up the numbers. This not only eliminated the sheen, it also gave the decal a little battle damage.

I then chipped in the Vallejo German C. Black for the chips, this will be out lined later with Red Vallejo paint to give it a good miltiple depth chipping on the paint.

The surface was also Panzer Grey filtered and Sand Filtered and it recieved a layer of brown wash. Here you see the Calibre 35 engine set. I would have preferred to use the Verlinden set, which has a splendid wealth of details over this simple set. I detailed the set with some parts from scratchbuilding evergreen cards. All the fuel lines did not come as a photo etched part as in the Verlinden kit. The hatch top isn't very detailed, just a 100% knock off of the Tamiya part.

I also added a tow cable made from brass wires that had been twisted to form the cable. I put in a brass chain as well.

See the brass chain and the cable in their pre-weathered stage.

My favourite part of the T55 had always been the exhaust area. Here I painted it basic with German C black, dust some PVA added with MIG Rust, dab in some Andreas Orange, then when all things are dried, draw in the lines with black Vallejo that has been heavily dilute.

This portion still needed some drybrushing of soot using charcoal chalk.

Next up the red chips and green surface fading and bit mapping varitones.

Norman Lim on 2:53 AM

T55 Kosovo Part 2

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Here is part 2 of the Kosovo project. The work around the Aber kit is really taking its toll on my eyes.....I got so fed up with trying to bend them with my two expensive Tamiya PE bending pliers, I went over to M Workshop and bought myself an Etchmate 3C! No more gripes, now for my project proper.

The Engine bay needed some work on the exhaust area....and I wanted to depict rust later on, so I danced two drops of the cheap CA on the cover and used Butyl Acetate to roughen the exhaust pipe. So that later, I can just use my EAA glue and dance the reds and oranges on the surface and when dry, give some Vallego washes and later dance a little black oil paint on the edges to get the effect I normally do for exhaust pipes. Having danced CA on the surface with a tooth pick will really help. For the under carriage, I danced some CA and used the acelerator to deform it to form uneven lumps below, I used 2 tubes of CA to form this mountainous terrain below the surfaces so that I can easily pigment it to depict dried and wet mud or dirt later with EAA and pigments, washes and patch painting glazing. I hate to use the putty and sand method as grains of 1mm in size here in this scale will mean a 2 pound stone, ever seen any 2 pounder sticking on tank wheels and undercarriage before? I rest my case.

The cupolas are a headache.....no two pictures covering the war had the same system....looked like a large variation of tanks versions were used for the conflict. So, I took some liberty to splice in some Blast options. The fit needed some modifications to the base area and the cover hatch as they will not fit! Then I added melted sprue and chiselled in the weld lines with my trusty Olfa knife.

I did the same for the other side and I am quite pleased with the way it looked. Next, I danced Butyl Acetate, hereafter called BA, all over the front glacis to form the cast look. Added in the clips to the fuel lines etc.

For the mantlet cover, I used the Blast unit, which is a modified Tamiya kit part, but at least it had the side stitches which were missing on the plastic kit part. To get the gun to stick and be strong, I put in 1/2 tube worth of CA and acelerated them layer by layer till it formed a large 8mm circular block to overcome the weight problem and also the infamous character of CA cracking under stress.

Then there is the 8 part crap from Aber to form this wiring and another 8 part crap to form a box 1mm thick! Isn't it crazy? All that crap to try to hype up value? I just cut a piece of styrene and put that in for the box, and used the Blast set, which featured great resin that did not break easily. I cut that into 3 parts and position glued them around the periscopes of the driver. Then with one sprue, I put in the anchor wiring.

Norman Lim on 8:54 AM

T55 Kosovo Project

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The Project started as a commission project. The customer in EU sent me a T55 kit, Aber 2 photo etch sets, which are 70% useless being that its redundant, have you ever try to fold a flower cut into a nut? I just cut one from a Wave set and that settled it, after all, I still have 4 sets of Verlinden Nuts still sitting pretty around too.

The customer also sent me a CMK interior detail kit for keeps, thanks a million! Then I have an Abel metal barrel, a Blast update kit plus a 35 Calibre Rear Engine kit.

To begin, I started with the engine parts, which had the covers open. However, there are no details on the inside unfortunately, on the cover, that is, looked like a knock off of the Tamiya actual kit part!!!! The resin used in this kit is a shame! All the small parts like hinges are all broken! I have to cut them clean and build my own in sheet styrene. Then, I put in the Aber rear engine meshes, which breaks to the touch, it being too thin! Talking about saving money on acid and metal! Way too thin. The mesh breaks and had to be glued properly in place, however, it presents a nice break from monotony.....hmmm....

We can see the hinges doing their disappearing act here. Sigh...but the Aber mesh, though too thin, looked very good above the vents...the fit of the resin wasn't too snug, so we need some serious diluted putty of Butyl Acetate (which is Tamiya Liquid Cement but in bulk...like in barrels in my workshop) and cellulose putty to build up the sides and sanded to a sheen!

The engine is not really a walk in the park. It does not centre easily and all the fuel lines had to be added, there were also missing parts in the non existing instructions (basically useless). I created them when refering to my T54/55/62 book from Verlinden.

Then, after some struggling, I managed to mask the parts that were painted primer surfacer 1000. Left to cure for 4 days to harden, then sprayed the silver parts on the block, then weather it with Vallego colours to get the metallic semi sooted rusty looks.

Then, there was a huge discussion in a flurry of emails of where the lines of the fuel are supposed to be located. Ee Keok Lye, Sgt Ee of M Workshop told me that the lines are as per his drawings below. The customer told me to follow the diagram in the Soviet Bloc Aber kit. Both have serious flaws in them. The Kit Sgt Ee followed is not too bad, quite close but the lines have to travel a short distance on the top. Aber has a serious flaw asking us to link the rear tank forward to the engine.....which is not the case.

This diagram was sent to assist me from Sgt Ee...thanks...but TEHHHHHH.....wrong....so much guessing in the model world...so, to settle the fight before someone shed blood, I scan this picture of the actual Latrun Museum and sent it out to settle the dust.......

Thank God that everything settled then!

Norman Lim on 8:30 AM