Captured T-34 in German markings built and weathered at 1/35

Nov 02, 2026 Last reply: 2 days ago 4 Replies

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pnolan84 4 days ago

When finished, this build sits as a static display piece of a captured Soviet T-34/76 running in German service, marked 747(r). The Academy kit's German version gets the full treatment from the maker, Andy's Hobby Headquarters, right through painting and weathering, and the result carries a Balkenkreuz plus the turret number 251 in white.

The construction side is methodical. The lower hull comes together on a blue work surface, with side panels joined to the bottom plate using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. Inside, suspension housings marked with letters and a central stiffener plate go in, and the exterior suspension arms are then fitted and glued. Lower hull seams get smoothed with a metal file before anything else moves on, which seems like sensible discipline at that stage.

Several choices stand out to me. The wheels are attached in a mixed configuration of solid rubber outer wheels with steel center wheels, and the kit also offers perforated rubber and all-steel options, so there is room to vary a future build. The link-and-length track segments are cemented and shaped while semi-flexible, then guided around the drive sprocket and idler wheel with tweezers and a sanding stick. Up top, the bow machine gun mount, engine access deck, cooling louvers and small exterior fittings are detailed on with liquid cement and tweezers. The finish is a three-color camouflage of sand-yellow, green and reddish-brown stripes, and the chipping work on it has drawn praise.

One thing still open: the chipping method has only been shown so far in passing, and the maker has said a more in-depth walkthrough of that technique is planned, so the finer points of it remain to be shared.

Project by Andy's Hobby Headquarters. Watch it on their YouTube channel:

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oak_echo 4 days ago

I would like to know how the track was actually managed during that semi-flexible stage. Did the maker hold each segment against the sprocket and idler with the tweezers until the cement grabbed, or was a sanding stick used to keep pressure along the run while it set? Link-and-length always looks tense at that moment to me.

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ChiselGreg99 4 days ago

The mixed wheel setup is the smart pick here, in my view. Solid rubber outers with steel centers give a captured vehicle a slightly patchwork, field-worn character that a single uniform wheel type would flatten out. The trade-off is assembly effort, since matching two wheel styles around the hull takes more attention than just lining up one kind, but the payoff in visual interest looks worth it.

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GraniteOtter969 3 days ago

Since the kit supplies three wheel types, an all-steel wheel version would make a strong companion build. It would contrast nicely against this mixed configuration and show how different a second example of the same captured tank could look on a shelf. The rest of the process here, from the filed hull seams to the striped camouflage, could carry over almost unchanged.

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SummitWorks617 3 days ago

On the thin lines question, the maker has said the paint is thinned down from the regular amount and then sprayed at roughly 20 psi to get those fine stripes. For anyone wanting to try it with a brush instead, the advice given was to thin the paint and build the coverage up in light coats rather than laying it on thick in one pass.

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