1/72 Heavily modified T-55's

[Vorcha]

Looked at an older project I had left unfinished and revised it a little. It's a completely scratchbuilt modification of the T-55 tank in 1:72, I use MS Paint to draw the blueprints, which are based on the original T-55. As I can print them limitlessly I told myself: Why not two instead of just one?  

Here is some background...

Just like all former members of the Warsaw Pact Romania got the T-55 from the Soviet Union at some point. But instead of just using the original thing, they proceeded to not only buy the license, but to make their own domestic tanks based on it - resulting in the TR-580 and ultimately in the TR-85, which they use even today, extremely modernized. So far for the real world.

Hungary on the other hand, as well as all other Warsaw Pact countries, at least as far as I know, just adopted the T-55 and occasionally modernized it. In my fictional timeline Hungary opted for a similar approach like Romania. The original T-55 design was changed several times, finally resulting in the

TM-59/70 "Farkas II" (Farkas means "Wolf" in hungarian) with a 100mm L63 cannon instead of the original one with 56 calibers leangth. The main other changes to the design are the flatter and longer glacis plate with increased armor protection, the implementation of early composite armor in the glacis plate and turret front (using most likely granite plates), the elongation of the hull right behind the turret for more internal fuel storage and the changed wheel setting.

[Vorcha]

adding some extras...

this is how the engine service access of the T-55 looks like...



...and this is how it looks like on the TM-59/70 now... well not really perfect




made a video to show the function...........................................

https://youtu.be/iWWTggEJF_A



...this was a hell of a grind, until it worked. But now it works 

 

[zenrat]

Did you print onto plastic sheet?

[Gondor]

This is going to be interesting.

Gondor

[Vorcha]

Did you print onto plastic sheet?

I print onto ordinary paper, wich I glue on cardbord from the casings of Toffifee caramel candies  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toffifee

 

[Vorcha]

This is going to be interesting.

Gondor

Thanks Gondor! I'm certainly having fun  

[Vorcha]

Now the light's better. I'm really proud that I got it working, still a long way to go, though.

[zenrat]

Did you print onto plastic sheet?

I print onto ordinary paper, wich I glue on cardbord from the casings of Toffifee caramel candies 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toffifee

 

Thanks.  I couldn't see where the paper was glued on.

[Captain Canada]

Oh my. Great stuff. Thanks for the tips and vids ! This has to be one of the most epic scratch builds of 2016....and so small as well ! Can`t wait to see more.

[Vorcha]

Oh my. Great stuff. Thanks for the tips and vids ! This has to be one of the most epic scratch builds of 2016....and so small as well ! Can`t wait to see more.

Thank you Captain Canada!

[Vorcha]

So I finished the hatches on the lower hull.
It now looks like this from the top:



the driver's hatch was actually the easyest part, as I didn't have to make another set of hinges... 

so this is a T-55's driver's hatch. It opens up and then rotates to the left:



It was easy to replicate that, just two paper rolls, one positioned freely inside the other. Once you got that, make a prolonged piece that locks the hatch itself with the free paper tube. of course this will be sanded down quite a bit later.



The second hatch got even tiny'er hinges than the first. I think it looks ok with the unarmed eye...



when I zoom in with a magnifying glass however, it looks pretty nasty... could't see that while working on it 



...next thing will be the turret - finally

[NARSES2]

This is impressive 

[Vorcha]

This is impressive 

thanks a lot Narses2

[Vorcha]

So the turret is built of "Cast Armor", just like all cold war soviet tanks. Here it's compared to a T-72M1, the hungarian TM-59/70 was meant to compete in firepower and protection with that next generation soviet tank of it's time, however unlike the T-72, the TM-59/70 still has a gun loader... The turret roof is cut off, so it will be removable to look inside later...



here it's shown directly up front



...you can see that it is roughly ~10 centimetres higher in total than the T-72 turret, but presents much bigger flat surfaces, especially on the sides... but it will also have much greater gun depression...  
however this is only the inner shell of the turret, this will be filled on the outside, you can see that on the turret base on the first picture...

cheers, Vorcha  

[Vorcha]

...so that's the final form of the turret after it completely dried out. The space, where the cardboard base reaches over the front part of the hull is where the frontal armour will be fitted on the outside. Turret roof separate, so it will be removable and I can build the interior so that it can be seen.