Syrian T-72AV work in progress - fasteners and glacis

After finishing most of photo etched era bricks, it's time for work on the hull.
First I finished photo etched fasteners for side boxes, and that is one of the hardest things of Voyager pe set for T-72.


Plastic fasteners are removed

Making of clasp

Finally first one is finished.

And after few days they are in place.
It took me a lots time to finish them all, lots of work, but when it's finished it looks fantastic.

Plastic exhaust pipe is provided in one piece and it's realy bad.
For me this is one of the best parts of this pe set, it realy improves model.

Also plastic cages for lights are too thick, and I decide to make new one with wire.
I used 0.4mm wire, it's a bit tricky to make, and it drove me crazy because it's so small and very hard to glue together.
I tried to solder it but it's even harder to do.

I added 4 KMT mounts on the lower plate because that is one of differences between M1 and A version, and they will be half covered with era bricks.

Second distincion between this two models are mounts on the glacis, but that mounts are completly covered with era so I didn't have to change them.

And all bricks are placed on glacis.
I placed them completly same as on the real tank, with overlapping brick mounts and a little bit raised bricks on the KMT mounts.

Also I have to reposition rib on the glacis little lower, because it's been placed too high.
Distinctive Russian pattern welds are reproduced with milliput.
Hedlights are repositioned little lower.

Photos of hull

Next on the menu are scratch build fasteners for side fuel tanks and rest of photo etched works on the hull.






Thanks for visiting my blog!


Best regards,

Aleksa Elez - Aki

Syrian T-72AV work in progress - making ERA bricks

Hello,

I started this project few months ago, but I planned this more than one and the half year. It took me so long to start becuase it's very complicated conversion, and there is no kit of that particular version on the market. Inspiration for this project came from fantastic ANNA news combat videos of T-72AV in suburbs of Damascus. I done a lot of research about Syrian T-72AV, and concluded there is two basic types: Standard A version upgraded to AV, and upgraded A version(with added on 16mm plate on front glacis), also later upgraded to AV. I'll be doing second version.
I'll be using Tamiya T-72M1 as a start kit for conversion. Other aftermarket stuff includes:

Voyager PE35353 T-72M1 basic set PE
Voyager PEA205 Kontakt-3 type ERA bricks
Voyager PEA201 T-72 side skirts
Panzer art T-72 wheels late type
Miniarm T-72A/AV resin turret
Trumpeter rmsh type tracks

And some scratch building.


In this step I'll show making of photo etched ERA brick.



Instruction

There are two of this, in total 205 bricks to assemble.

In this step I need to make attach point for brick, from styrene, 0.5mm diameter

Now I need to add bolts which are fixing brick to the attach point(on the real vehicle)

And the first brick is finished. Only 204 more :P

So far I made about 140 bricks, but I won't make all 205 brick, because tank will missing some like real vehicle.

I'm realy impressed with Voyager ERA bricks, they are like real stuff, bending process is same. It takes some time to finish it, but result is fantastic!
In the next step I'll be doing photo etched parts on the hull and mounting era bricks on the glacis.


Thanks for visiting my blog!

Best regards,

Aleksa Elez - Aki