Up next - Finnish T-34/85?

You are probably getting fed up of trucks, right? Well I thought it would be a nice change to do some of the more sexy stuff for my Finnish army...The armour!

Finnish T-34-85 tank, Karelia, 1944.

I started off a project to do a couple of T-34/85 tanks based on the PSC 'easy build' kits but this project got put on ice as I wasn't happy with the way it was going...

One of my PSC T-34/85s, this one based on a photo of a Finnish example. These
were 'early days' in my modelling career and I wasn't happy with this.

Amongst other things I boobed with that hideous turret seam I made and also when it got to painting I was really unhappy with the job I made using the aerosol sprays I was limited to at the time. Of course, I now have my wonderful airbrush and so can do a lot better job of the Finnish 3-colour camp pattern (the main problem I had with aerosol cans was I couldn't find the right shade of chestnut brown for the scheme).

My attempt at the Finnish 3-colour camo...The wrong brown! Drat!

...The right brown!

You can even buy a special Finnish armour camo paint set from Lifecolor but I reckon I can get a very good match from Vallejo's Model Air range.

The good news is that whichever of the war game rules I am using to guide my Finnish model collection - Rapid Fire! or Bolt Action - I only need one T-34/85 (reflecting their rarity in the Finnish inventory). In fact, one tank would be enough to get me one the way to a basic game of Bolt Action (once I add infantry and an opposition of course).