T-55/M18 Hellcat Gibrid

By: Ilya Cherkashnev

Manufacturer(s): ACE/Retrokit

Modifications: The model is collected from АСЕ72156 - T55A MTB and Retrokit 72025 - M18 Hellcat.

After-market parts: PE tracks from ACE. Decal from Bison.

Description: Balkan's War. Bosnia and Herzegovina Army. 1990s. Painted by ZVEZDA and Аlanger. Weathering: CMK.

Judge 1: At the building stage you could be more precise, and could do a cleaner job. Lot of glue is visible here and there, ect. The base colors are a bit dark. You applied the camo as the bosnian soldiers did in a hurry. Paint work could be much cleaner, and than weathering would be much more enjoyable. Mud and dust is enough on the undercarriage, but it's too monotone. The fresh wet mud is always draker, and the older, dry one and the dust is always lighter. If there is any wash it's invisble, some rainmarks, shadows, highlights, chips, ect. would be useful. Good subject, hard model. Next time try to pay more attention to little details, clean work, and weathering.
Judge 2: These limited run ACE kits need lot of love and attention to get them over the line and in the main you've do OK but extra care and attention was needed in a few places most noteable are the road wheels. The paint is a little dark and thick in places but the hand painted camouflage colours look authentic. The weathering is a mixed bag with the running gear looking authentic if a little monotone and the rest seems to be wanting for more. The stowage is nicely placed and adds a sense of life and realism. Spending more time practicing your weathering skills will certainly pay dividends in the future, well done.
Judge 3: Well, we're just flush with unusual and interesting subjects this month, and this is yet another fine example. As noted, some of the ACE kits can be quite challenging, and you've made a good effort here. I certainly wouldn't expect a "factory" paint scheme for a vehicle of this genre, so from that perspective your finish may be appropriate, but it could defnietly use some techniques to add some depth to it, even if only a wash and some highlighting (i.e. drybrushing) to add some contrast. The mudding on the road wheels is nice, but again some contrast would improve it even further. Technically, the few things that stand out for me are the run of the track which looks rather uneven on the LHS, the sag on the RHS track looks a bit biased toward the forward end, and some of the road wheel which look to be contacting each other. In general you've got a good base, and with the addition of a few supplementary finishing techniques and refinement of what you are already doing, I'm sure you'd be surprised at how quickly you'll be able to elevate the overall impression of your models. Good effort.