"Wrecking the Airfix T34" Topic

The Airfix T34 was great back in its day, but it hasn't aged well, so what better base to use to make a wreck for use as scatter terrain or as an objective? If you're interested, there's a step by step tutorial of how I did it here Kaboom! Making a wrecked T34 but essentially I had fun with paint turning this:

Into this:

I like the idea, cracking piece of work

We used to use an air rifle on one to make 'realistic' holes in 'em

Well Done!

Looks great!

A hot metal pin, or nail would work too, depending upon the size of the hole(s) needed.

We used to use an air rifle on one to make 'realistic' holes in 'em

same here..or pushing a lit banger into it

Very Good!

A hot metal pin, or nail would work too, depending upon the size of the hole(s) needed.

I did think about making one or two penetration holes, but I've found they are very difficult to do convincingly. It's a bit like painting blood on a casualty figure, it's almost impossible to get right and to look convincing, so I've decided to avoid it altogether.

I love the old Airfix T-34. The only isssue was the size of the gun barrel.

I swapped them out with thick piano wire for the 76 and plastic tube for the 85.

Cool! I'm doing something similar with a Revell 1/76 T-34/76

This is genius but I thought you should have stopped at photos 7-10 in your series. I once started a model of USS Arizona on Dec 8th 1941 and tried to show the burnt out look. I was trying to achieve what you showed in those pics 7-10, but did not.

Burnt out means no original paint is left, rust red, black of course, but, strangely a lot of white. (Never understood that last bit, ash I guess, like a BBQ)

The burned out look can be tricky, being a pipe smoker gives lots of ash availability which is what the white is but you can get good ash from burning roll your own cigarete papers, .Black and rust pigments ( powdered pastels) give a more '3D' look to the burnt areas.
Decal fixer dotted on, ash added then fixed with varnish.
TMP link
L

Real ash…..so obvious that I never thought of it. Brilliant.

I now have an idea for my seventh Sherman type for the 2eme DB…and HVSS one (they did have some eventually)

Set fire to it!!!
link

Thinking of doing this in 15mm

Cheers

Losh

Combine the air rifle with motorized Tamiya tanks, and you've got a wargame I called, "Little Wars of the 20th Century."

Burnt out means no original paint is left, rust red, black of course, but, strangely a lot of white. (Never understood that last bit, ash I guess, like a BBQ)

Well….sometimes, but not always. Relevant to this discussion note the condition of the T34 (it's the same one shot from different angles). It's been on fire but still has original paint showing (as does the M113).

Indeed, 'burnt out' covers a lot of different states.
L

They are great pictures. Burnt out tanks, you have to remove any rubber tyres on the wheels. The tracks look very different on some tanks once anything flammable is burnt off (as the three US built AFVs above show). I hope to show all the hatches open too!

Great modelling challenge

I hope to show all the hatches open too!

An often-missed detail. In the pics, you will see almost every hatch open. Even engine hatches are often open.

Fires, particularly in the fighting compartment, are often driven by ammunition propellant (if not initially, then eventually). These fires tend to drive very high over-pressures that pop hatches and fittings (gun mounts, etc.), and sometimes even pop turrets off.

What you are not likely to find is a tank that has had the turret popped off, but still has closed hatches. Anywhere.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)