Build review Pt I: T-72AV Full Interior
From Amusing Hobby
1/35th scale
Three marking choices are included.
Polystyrene, photo-etch and waterslide decals multimedia Kit
Price: $65 USD from Hobbylink Japan
Previous parts of this story:
Painting and weathering the kit
I’ve chosen not to paint any of the interior components pretty much because this is how much you will see of them on my finished model.
Having settled on painting a Syrian vehicle, and already started painting the lower surfaces, I would follow the process with an XF-74 basecoat.
I decided that I was going to do a vehicle that had seen some action. There are many photos of these tanks in action in Syria, beaten, bent out of shape, ERA boxes off or detonated, these are some of the photos one can use for this tank...
After the basecoat, I then sprayed on two layers of AK’s Heavy Chipping fluid according to its instructions, and particularly focussed on the ERA bricks all over the vehicle. After the chipping fluid was dry, I then sprayed the whole model with XF-59, and did a bit of modulation with a few drops of white added to the desert yellow. I then used an old hog bristle brush dipped in water and brushed it against certain areas, but particularly on the ERA and chipped away at the Desert Yellow and revealing the green base colour underneath. I was reasonably happy with the results, although then I thought they looked a bit like I weathered individual bricks rather than weathering the bricks as a whole. Next time!
I deliberately stayed away from chipping away at some random bricks and then masked around them and sprayed them in the base green colour to portray ERA bricks that had been replaced. Most of the fighting in Syria has been in urban areas so I limited the weathering to just a bit of light dusting by spraying a light mist coat of XF-57, and then added some more heavily accumulated dusty areas with AK’s enamel Dust Effects.
And with that the kit was complete! Some close-in photos of the details of the kit...
Me VS kits with full interiors...
I’m sure you can tell that I’m not a fan of full interior models, just because so much of the work involved will not actually be visible on the finished product. You could leave parts unglued so you can remove sub-assemblies to show off the interior, but do you really want to be handling your finished model that much?
The whole kit in a wider walk around...
But!
However, I did build the interior, and having done that, can tell you that this is a kit that is well worth your time and effort, especially if you choose to buy one and go through with building and painting the entire kit which is absolutely perfect for a maintenance or damaged vehicle vignette/diorama. Highly recommended.
Paul Lee
Thanks to Amusing Hobby for sending Paul this kit to make and review. You can see more about their models on the Amusing Hobby Website...
