Altaya 1/72 T-50 - Part 2

Modification to make a Finnish T-50
As I mentioned in my previous post on this project, there isn't a lot to do to the standard Soviet T-50 in order to make it into a Finnish version. Although the Finns took to changing captured armour to their tastes their one and only T-50 only had a couple of new hooded headlamps added and the very front of its fender mudguards 'clipped'.

A lovely photo of the front detail, including the areas modified by the Finns.
Source: SA-Kuva archive

I'm afraid I have no source for this photo, but it is a very interesting one. It clearly
shows that the Finn's solitary T-50 was given the Finn's 3-colour camo scheme
and it shows the 'sawn-off' mudguards at the front.

Still, any modification to the fenders is sort of bad news for me as my Altaya is diecast metal (at least, its main hull is) this means I'll have to get my trusty Dremel out to clip off the mudguards. It also means I may have some issues with the scale thickness, as the model's diecast fenders are a bit thicker than they should be.

Here's the area of the T-50 that I will me modifying...

And here is the same area after I made the initial changes in order to facilitate the Finnish WW2 modifications...

As you can see, the thickness of the model's fenders are far too over-scale. I'm going to have to thin them down a little. Removing the original headlamps to make way for the hooded Finnish lamps was easy enough, though, they were just plastic.

While I work out how I am going to finish off the fenders, I thought I would try priming the turret (which needs no modifications). Using Humbrol's aerosol Dark Green, I gave the turret a couple of light passes and was pleased to discover that this covered the model's original paint scheme very well!

This 'Dark Green' (I don't think it's all that dark) is, I found, a nice base for the Finnish 3-colour camo scheme that I have been trying to fathom. Anyway, next I will be completing the minor modifications and then giving the rest of the tank it's primer coat.