I generally leave most of my builds in a ‘museum display in running condition’ aesthetic but depending on the mood I have starting making bases and some lend themselves to dioramas. This one I probably won’t dirty up too much; just some dust from driving around the field in front of the ‘audience’ but I did do more with the Pz. II Ausf b I posted in the Hot Out Of The Molds 2024 thread.
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That’s cool - it’s an impressive beast!
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The tool is done. I’m leaving it pretty clean, as it’s pictured in the original photo that got me going. I ended up taking about 5mm off the front and back of the gun tube, based on how many segments are in the thermal sleeve.
IMG_4432 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4433 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
It still looks like a lot of gun for a small tank, but I guess that was the point: fire[ower in a small package.
IMG_4434 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4435 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4436 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4437 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_4438 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
I need a couple of guys in short sleeved white shirts, bow ties, nerd buckets and white motorcycle helmets in the turret hatches.
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That looks great!
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Looks fantastic, Russell! It looks great in clean configuration. It would be impossible for me to resist the temptation of adding decals, but that’s just me. 
Congrats on a great build! 
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I couldn’t see any markings in the pic I worked from other than the tank’s original serial number, but I did look for something that might indicate either a test or promo status in my decal stash, found nothing.
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Time to apply glue to the T-74; as I always get bogged down with figures I thought I’d try and complete them first. I’ve extracted the requisite figures from the 2 sets. One of course is a WW2 figure so I have to modify his uniform a bit. The figures are a tad on the large side but for once I’ll use them as they are, including the heads. I’m a bit all figured-out after the M103 project(!)
As a reminder the donor kits:
And progress so far:
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Does the FV4005 Stage II count for this?
There were prototypes built, but was a cancelled project because it literally shot it self apart.
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Of course it would! It never made it to series production…
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Progress on the Object 450 (aka T-74); the kit comes with the bane of my modelling life - link and length tracks. Try as I might, and for once I did indeed try, I could not get them to align or fit decently enough. I loathe them. Accordingly, I donated a set of Trumpeter individual tracks from the stash. These have the great advantage of just clicking together. They still end up a little fragile but at least I can work with them.
Fitted and model railway flock added to the hull sides to represent all the clag that accumulates on AFVs:
I’ve decided that I’m not too happy with the heads on 2 of the figures; the tank helmets just don’t look right, so despite what I said earlier, I am now going for some Hornet Heads which hopefully will arrive this week.
A little bit of test fitting and tinkering;
Just to recap: remember, as I described above, Trumpeter have merely made a model of a model, so I’ve had to imagine a fair bit; for instance, the cannon would, I’m sure, have been a 30mm 2A42 so I’ve fitted one. To add a bit of interest, and remember I’m really making a What-If prototype, I’ve chosen a gun barrel with a fume extractor. I’m sure that any service version would not have had the fume extractor fitted, as there is no need with the weapon mounted outwith any crew!
I reasoned that a “normal” gun barrel would be used for a prototype, not least as it would be coming from stock. You know the sort of thing: Tank Plant No 57 would ring up Gun Barrel Plant 15 and enquire, “Hey Ivan, it’s Boris here, we need a 125mm gun barrel for something old man Morozov is building, have you got one we can have?”
Ivan would reply, “I’ve only got 3 left Comrade, so you can have one of those; I’ll send a truck today, should be with you in around 5 months” – or something like that. Anyway, that’s my excuse for making it look a little more interesting, and in any case, I was unsure as to how to remove a fume extractor from a resin barrel I had without destroying the thermal insulation which would, I’m sure, ultimately be required. The gun barrel I chose was the Aber one:
“Aber 35L-250 1:35 125mm 2A46 metal gun barrel without thermal sleeve T-64 T-72A”.
Just for the record, a 130mm gun was also envisaged,.
By my build standards, this is fairly hurtling along, reflecting perhaps the endorsement of my recent Bundeswehr What-If project and the encouragement of members on the site. Long may I maintain such impetus!
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Well, forging ahead by my standards! A few shots of progress including details to the hatches – a bit fictitious but then, this is a What-If in a way; details also to the 2 sights including wipers – just discernible. I’ve decided to locate the antennae on the hull, simply because I feel the turret, unmanned though it is, will be rammed full of other stuff and even comms cabling would take up too much room.
Other fittings, tow ropes, details to the 2 x 7.62mm ammo boxes, and the 30mm properly installed though I’ll add a little gizmology later.
I’ve also added a hatch on the sponson rear as I’m sure the discarded 125mm cartridge stub will have to be ejected somehow, somewhere.
I’m sure that NATO would have been more than a touch concerned if this ever saw the light of day! Imagine a couple of thousand of these within the Group of Soviet Forces Germany.
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Is the rear wall made of lead? That barrel will take some serious counterweight to keep the turret from jamming as it turns…
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I have no idea; I assume Morozov knew what he was about. The turret - in addition to the breech, must have contained some components of the automatic loader - the remainder (of the mechanism) being in the ammo compartment but as to details - all a bit thin I’m afraid.
I can only deduce that a breech (quite a substantial piece of metal) plus a few mechanical extras
would have balanced the gun.
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The rounds, look like they wouldn’t be able, to be loaded be a automated loader, and would be tight with split rounds loader,
going from vertical as 2 parts may do it, with the constraints of that turret size, I still think it’s to small though.
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I’m going to be building the middle of these three vehicles:
On the left is a YP 408, in the middle a Mowag Piranha 8×8, and on the right the only Fuchs 8×8 ever built — the last two with the same turret as fitted to the YPR 765. This was apparently a trial to find an alternative in case the YPR was unsuccessful, but no more than these single vehicles were procured, and temporarily at that.
This model is inspired by a thread on the TWENOT forums in which the Fuchs is being built as a what-if, and somebody else posted the two photos above of the trials. That in turn reminded me that I have the following in my stash:
An Italeri LAV-AD, from which I had taken one of the missile launchers to put onto my IDF M247; the turret from an AFV Club YPR; and a set of LAV wheels from Trumpeter, which I had bought for when I would build the LAV, because the Italeri wheels are pretty poor, and for €3.95 new I could not really pass these up as a quick improvement. The LAV-AD doesn’t appeal to me much anyway, so this way I can make something more interesting out of the kit.
In all, this, plus some more bits from my spares boxes, will become a Piranha PWI-GR (Pantser Wiel Infanterie — Groep, “Armour[ed] Wheel[ed] Infantry — Group”) of the Netherlands Army, sometime in the late 1980s as it might have appeared had it gone into service.
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Wow! looking forward to this - I love the YP 408 (and am lucky enough to have a kit of it) but the 4-wheeled Fuchs - Wow again!
The top pic nearly caught me out - I thought for a fleeting moment it was an OT-64(!)
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Doing all three together, would really put the cat amongst the pigeons, at a show, with photo hidden on base to prove it
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I take it you mean eight-wheeled 
But yes, the chap building it showed that it’s about as big as a Boxer — slightly longer, but also slightly lower, by the looks of it. The Piranha, OTOH, looks top-heavy with what’s not even a very big turret.
That would be a cool thing to do, yes 
I had fun at a show earlier this year with my “M70A2” in Gulf War colours, especially when someone I was talking to about it went and fetched his friends, who were self-professed “Abrams nuts” and just couldn’t place what they were looking at
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