UStar 1/144 T-54

 T-54 in 1/144

I was doing some holiday shopping on Sprue Brothers. When I'm ordering something, I sometimes poke around and see if there isn't anything I can add on while I'm paying for shipping anyways. This time, I looked in the armor section and set it to, "lowest price first." These little kits from U-Star popped up and I was curious. They ran about $6 each and, from some of the pictures online,  it looked like they afforded a fair amount of detail. I already had Iraqi paints from my Type 69-II and so I decided to get the T-54 and do it in an Iraqi color scheme.

The kit is understandably small. When I opened it, I was surprised to see that, in addition to the sprues, there was a small set of photo etched (PE) hand rails. 

 

The kit looked okay. My only complaint was that the connection point for the tracks wasn't hidden in any way. They'd be hard to see under the fenders, but it still bothered me. I told myself, "it only cost $6," and moved on. That proved to be my mantra.

The kit went together well. There were some fit issues in a few places. There was a lot of cleanup necessary to get the hull sides to connect without a gap. Some filling was necessary where the front glacis plate meets the lower hull. You have to carve out a hole in the top of the turret to put in a periscope. I snipped off the periscope molded into the hull. Then I drilled out a small hole molded in the underside of the turret with a bit in a pin vise. Then I used a sharp hobby knife to widen it until the mark left by the periscope molded into the turret was gone and then more so until the new one provided would fit. It required some putty to integrate it with the surrounding surface. Through all these issues, I kept the mantra, "it was only $6." One thing I liked was that the hand rails were flat. That made them easier to hold and install. When they're rounded, they don't like to stay perpendicular when you hold them with tweezers. At this scale, you won't be able to see that they're flat without a magnifying glass.

The build was all right, considering the price point and the completed model looked pretty good. The only big change was that I stippled some modeling putty on the exterior of the turret to give it more of a cast look. In this scale, less is more on that. I had the putty out anyways to fill that space in the turret and to do a coat on the handrails. I'm going to prime anyways, but I've found some PE could use a little extra coating.

The next step was priming. I used Mr. Surfacer Mahogany as I did on my Type 69. Clayton Ockerby pointed out it is a good color for exposed oxidized metal. There's a certain consistency it gets in the desert where there's not a lot of moisture. If you've ever played on an old playground where the paint has worn away but where children's hands have prevented the buildup of rust, it's very similar. After the mahogany, I put on two coats of Mig chipping solution. I waited a full day between coats and it yielded a much better result than last time. I think a good way to think about it is you need two separate layers of the chipping solution because it doesn't bond to itself well. So one layer stays on the tank and the other layer sloughs off with the paint. They have to be clearly delineated to do that. Here's the kit with the mahogany, chipping solution, and basic color.

I then set about chipping the model. A little warm water and some toothpicks worked wonders. The paint came off much more easily than on the Type 69. I wasn't totally happy with my part of the equation. I think some of the chipping was out of scale. It's hard to make the really small scratches necessary. I also think I went a little overboard. Less is more, people. I tried to think about the crew. How would they climb on? What surfaces would they touch regularly? I also looked at raised surfaces like the stamped lines on the storage boxes or on the tops of the fenders. In the end, here was the result.

As you can see, I also painted the tracks, rubber tires on the road wheels, the shroud around the gun barrel, and the machine gun. I gave the whole thing a coat of matte varnish to prevent further chipping and provide a protected surface for weathering. For weathering, I used an Ammo by Mig filter for desert vehicles. That unifies the model and gives the surface a warmer look. I then used Tamiya black panel liner to bring out some of the finer details like the crevices around hatch covers, the bolts on the road wheels, the grills. I took a q-tip (cotton bud? British people?) and gently scrubbed some of the wash away from the raised surface and blended it in places where it had left lines. I added a little Mig engine oil to the exhaust manifold to make it really grungy. Finally, I added some rust pigments to the tracks (lightly, this is the desert," and some middle east dust pigments over much of the model. 

I didn't have a specific reference for this vehicle. This paint scheme is based on one recommended in my Type 69-II kit. They had a version that was all this sandy color and had the yellow and white invasion stripes for the invasion of Kuwait. Some better informed person may come along and say, "the Iraqis didn't send T-54s into Kuwait," or "the yellow invasion stripes were only for Republican Guard units and they weren't equipped with T-54s," or something like that. So, don't take this as gospel.

Overall, I was pleased with this kit. It had a few headaches and corrections to make, but it went together much easier than I expected for the price point. Remember, it's only $6. The finished kit has a lot of detail and I actually like the size. It doesn't take up too much space on the shelf, but provided hours of entertainment. I will probably circle back to UStar. They make a Patton and a Maus that both look pretty cool. Stay tuned.