I would like to ask youguys a question, I have a pile of T-34s and I would like to somehow extend/glue a bigger gun to them, to represent the t-34 85mm that came later in the war, do you have any ideas on how to accomplish that?
This is just an idea off the top of my head (I don’t know if it would actually work), but perhaps you could go to a hardware store and buy a small spool of insulated wire – the kind that consists of a solid copper wire encased in a plastic sheath. The stuff probably comes in different diameters, so you’d need to pick one that’s suitably sized for the scale of sculpt for which you’d be using it. Unroll a couple of inches of wire and cut it from the spool, trim one end of the segment with a knife to expose the copper core, then pull the core out with a pair of pliers, leaving you with a hollow plastic tube. Cut the tube to the correct length, test-fit it over the gun barrel of your tank, adjust the length if necessary, then glue it it place and paint it to match the rest of the tank. Repeat until you’ve converted all the tanks you want to up-gun.
Well the turret on the 85 is quite different, it would almost be worth carving a new one out of balsa, although you could build on the existing one using modeling putty. Either way, you need to add a cupola from a small disc of plastic on the left side of the roof in the commander’s position as they all had them.
The gun is best made from a thick nylon bristle from a kitchen broom or similar; a quick trip to the Dollar Store or Pound Shop will provide literally hundreds if not thousands of gun barrels, ship masts, flag poles, spears etc for all your table top armies - without triggering the wrath of she-who-must-be-obeyed :wink:
The 85 is mounted lower in the turret than the 76 so cut off the original and make a hole in the center for your new gun tube. And don’t forget to post pictures when you’re done!
Thx for the ideas guys, I’ll think about them over the weekend and start working on it on Monday, don’t want to make anything too fancy, just a tank with a longer barrel
Correct me if it wouldn’t work but how would a small piece of heat shrink tube go if you only want to extend the barrel?I don’t know if it would work, just an idea i had……
