Hi again… another one that’s on my bench for sometime, after finishing the T-44 last February I started the T-44M.
500 Trillion parts from Miniart again… so far I’ve worked on the engine and the lower hull.
It’s a shame that most of the detailed interior won’t be seen, even with all the hatches opened you won’t see 85% of your interior’s work.
Nice work so far; I have this kit and will be following. I was thinking of displaying the model in an exploded view, not sure yet.
Thanks for the comments !
Last year I worked on the T-44, then I started this one, T-44 M .
I think it’s the best solution the exploded view ( I don’t have the skills for that… )
because there is a ton of work for the interior, very detailed everywhere, specially the turret, and mid / front hull. The engine is very good too.
The wheels have problems with the pins and the fixing on the hull.
I will start a Miniart Tiran 4 very soon… without an interior, this time.
But you are right these 1000 parts kits require some patience to say the least.
I have already built this kit. It is very nice, but a big warning: one has to check the alignment of the center plane of the road wheels to the center plane of the sprocket and front wheel before gluing all the wheels. My model required heavy corrections, else it would have been impossible to install the whole track because of a strong disalignment.
How many kits do you have going at one time? I’m getting dizzy just looking at them all. I am a one-kit-at-a-time guy. I like to do each one separately from start to finish. This many at once would drive me batty and I would never finish anything.
Well I was doing one kit at the time too.
But then with a few kits you hit some walls some times, either with tracks or canopy or some really bad kits.
Then I decided to work a little on some kit and then jump to another kit and work a little on that one too.
And using this method I managed to finish an average of 1 kit per month, last year.
So answering your question…
I’m working on around 25 kits and 3 on hold waiting for some AM bits.
How do you keep track of status with that many ~28 or so in the mix?
To me that’s Scary 
and I’ve had 12 going, counting all shelf queens. Despite notes on the instructions, I forget with specifics of all twelve builds on occasion. However, it’s paid dividends as usually I’ll finish 6 or 7 and this year it’s 13 completed. Down to 4 active builds now and plan to reduce to 2 and stay at two active builds.
What’s your system to keeping everything sorted? Clearly, I need a better system.
Thank you
The part number is certainly dauting -I have the feeling they could achieve the same level of detail with less… however, great kit.
(I normally lift a panel up or do a cutaway to display the interior -makes it much more interesting visually. I have one of their T-55 planned to be like a cutaway museum piece. The part numbers are holding me back.)
I agree, despite the level of detail I think they should read Tamyia’s Hand bookand see that sometimes with less parts you can achieve the same results.
Also using PE when you can get the same visual result with Plastic parts.
I do enjoy their kits don’t get me wrong but it’s tedious and you need patience to get it finished, since it takes me 3x or 4x the time needed to finish a kit.
Can’t wait to see your T-55 on the workbench !
Keep us posted
When I came back after a 2 yr hiatus to Modelling, I started with 6 or 7 on going kits, now I’m close to 35 builds.
I work a little everyday, even if it’s only 5 or 10 mins, sometimes simple things like painting one road wheel or a metal cable, Then I moved on to another build.
Of course with so many builds, some are a little behind than others.
How do I keep track ? I use 2 methods, first one, the instructions, I cross the instructions steps I’m working on and the parts that were used on that step.
The other one is a sheet of paper with a list of the builds ( not all but those that I plan to finish in the next weeks / months ) a bit like :
Tiran 5
Su-7 BM
I cross the tasks I do daily / weekly.
That puts a perspective on which kits I need to work more and also I can see which ones are left behind.
It’s useful for complicated builds like Tristar Panzer38(t) w/ interior, been working on that one for more than 2 yrs but also for kits in Group Builds / Campaigns that have a deadline.
This year with this method I managed to grab 3 Self Queens that were sitting around for more than 6 years and finished them.
With a big Stash this is the method I found, it doesn’t mean is perfect but it surely works for me ( 19 kits finished this year so far, another 1 to finish up this week )
Adapt it to suit your needs / free time .
List you current builds on a sheet of paper, and write down what needs to be done,
either in big steps ( lower hull / tracks / turret / cockpit… ) or more detailed actions ( build idler wheel / build landing gear… ) then use that as a guideline for your daily tasks ( even if only can have 5 mins at the bench )
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more help / advice.
Thank you.
I write on instructions and as a model wraps make an index card “hit list” to follow. The index card needs to start when work pauses not at the end as a hit list.
I track completion status by percentage.
I find painting and finishing much easier than building so that’s reflected in completion calculation. Project status at a glace…
The 101 slot what’s active on the bench. The Meng Leo is wrapping decal step.
In October the RFM T-80UK was shelved so a model with dead line could be finished. The T-80UK is 35% complete so the lower hull, suspension & tracks are completed. Next week an hour will be wasted recalling my line of thought for finishing the build.
Time to refine my documentation of pause periods.
Thank you.
Glad I could help !
Your process is more detailed with percentages and colors for each steps.
That’s nice.
