Yes, I remember it from the old site. Thought it was very, very clever as it allowed him to match the camo pattern already on the running gear.
Wow, just tried this method on my archer, don’t think I’ll is paper towel and tape again for this job. Took about 1 minute per side and was very easy
Calling the first 4 vehicles in my personal mission complete.
Trumpeter KV-2
Tamiya JS-3
Takom T-55A
Trumpeter T-62 (mod 1975)
I was going to move onto a T-72 but I was remined that I had signed up for the Forgotten Wars campaign with a Rhodesian T-55A. The campaign has a month to run so I will be doing that vehicle. Its a MiniArt T-55 so I may have just enough time to get her done. If I do then that would be 5 vehicle in 3 months which is very good for me.
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Nice looking motor pool of tanks. 
Cracking little collection of Sov tanks - a man after my own heart (well, Cold War ones anyway).
As it happens I have a couple of (rather small) snaps of Rhodesian T-55s; I was there in 1981 as part of a training team and was allowed to drive one. They really are quite small - 110 film - but I’ll get them scanned if you’re interested; they might be of some use, though I’m sure there’re probably others around.
I would absolutely be interested. There aren’t that many pictures of them so any new ones would be welcome.
This one is kind of near and dear to me as my father was involved in the conflict. He was in the BSAP. I grew up surrounded by ex BSAP, Selous Scouts and RLI.
Brilliant! I’ll get on to it over the weekend; just to set the scene a bit, I volunteered for a 6 month tour in Zimbabwe sometime in '81 (pos Feb). There was a BMATT established - that is a British Military Advisory & Training Team, known as BMATT 1, concentrating on the combat arms of the then reformed Zimbabwean Army. BMATT 2 (my bit) was a small team of officers devoted to training their officers - or rather future officers at Grade 3 and above, in what was to be the Zimbabwe Army Staff College. I was the clerical support as a young Sergeant, attached from my normal job in Intelligence & Security in the massive HQ complex at Rheindahlen back in BAOR. We were set up in what was then known as King George VI barracks in Harare (formerly Salisbury)
That’s just to set the scene; I won’t bore you any further save that the work was pretty demanding (setting up a Staff College and courses from more or less scratch) yet I managed to see an awful lot of kit including quite a bit of Sov stuff; a fellow SNCO worked in the Armoured Regiment and it was he who arranged for my brief drive in one of the T-55s. I was also lucky enough to get some R & R in and see a fair bit of the country including Vic Falls, Bulawayo, and a journey through a safari park. All good stuff. It wasn’t all roses though; life was still cheap and a fellow Mess member and his officer were stopped one day by a ZIPRA road block, dragged out of their vehicle and shot down. That concentrated the mind a bit and on our R &R tour we made sure we armed ourselves.
I said I wouldn’t bore you but have singularly failed(!)
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Not boring at all Brian. I was always interested in the conflicts in Southern Africa. I don’t have any books on the subject except for an Osprey book about the RLI for now. It’s an excellent book for its scope. The war in Angola interests me as well as others involving European colonies.
I think I have a South African Oilfant from hobby boss that I’ll get to someday lol.
So far these are the photos I have managed to find online. A few things can be seen or inferred from these pictures.
OMSH tracks
No major changes to the vehicle
DShK machine gun retained.
No “Log”
External Fuel drums not retained
Some Rhodesian tankers had epic mustaches 
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Well, compared to these excellent pics my 2 small snaps won’t add much I’m afraid; prepare to be underwhelmed(!) I’ll try and get them up today.
Rory, my apologies - epic fail on my part; I dragged down my ancient album and to my great dismay the 2 pics are missing. I can only think I removed them for God knows what purpose and then stashed them somewhere else. I’ve racked my brains to try and recall what I’ve done with them; apart from disappointing your good self, it might be that I’ve lost 2 images of one of the more interesting aspects of my career. Sorry again, this is all driving me mad.
Nice work on those! I like green too :-).
I realize I have been remis om updates. I have been updating over on the Forgotten Wars Campaign Thread. So quick run through of progress so far.
Lower hull was finicky and over engineered. Pain in the but to line up and I know I didn’t get it correctly lined up.
Wheels and engine deck added as well as all the front plate gubbins.
Tracks cleaned up, painted and added (180 links with 4 clean up points each. Only took me a week)
Where I currently am at. Lower hull is completed. Just needs some paint.
Next up is the turret. I am aiming to have this build and painted by EOY.
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This is the first kit by MiniArt I have built and I have to say I have not had a great first impression.
From the overengineered parts, sprues laid out in the worst way, vague directions at time to a lack of tow cables in the kit. However the most egregious thing I have found has been the turret. Specifically the rear of the turret. Can anyone spot the issue? 
MiniArt - Get your quality control in order!
Fortunately, it was not as bad as it could have been and some sprue, glue and putty later I had it fixed.
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That is really poor and you shouldnt expect to find that in a kit you spend hard earned money on. Well done for saving it
Miniart does love them parts, not sure if that because of manufacturing process or a desire to have more detail that many modelers want. There accessory and figure sets are more part friendly.
Weird my Miniart T-54 was really good. I’ll ageee the parts aren’t laid out well and some of them are very fragile. I broke about 5 parts trying to remove them vs zero on my recent build with small parts.
I’m shocked at that turret. That is brutal quality control
Nice save on that short shot. But totally inexcusable on Miniart’s part. As much as these particular kits cost, they should be flawless in a QC respect.
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Major hurdle down. She is now completely built and ready for paint.
The turret was actually a pleasure to build. Much more fun than the hull.
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Looking great! I found that too on mine. The turret seemed more fun and interesting to build