"Goldeneye" T-55 GT

[OEM]

One of Bond's most memorable rides, a roaring Cold War dinosaur taken for a Sunday drive through St. Petersberg (and every building standing in the line of pursuit). The real machine was a loaner from the British War Museum, with an engine-transplant and rubber-tracks from a British Chieftain tank that allowed it to hot-rod through the street-chase scenes without tearing the streets to rubble, plus a number of modifications lifted from other tanks and embellished by the production prop department. The driver was behind a small concealed plexiglass box beside the small drive-lights (I left this detail off the model because it appeared a bit hokey up close).

The donor kits were from a friend, Andy Harlow, who not only knows mechanized armor far more than me, but knew which kits to bash. The 1/35 scale Esci T-55 was modified with a new driver's compartment opened up on the right front (a small box and drive-handles were scratchbuilt to hold a modified Tamiya M-1 tank commander figure, now cast as "Bond James Bond"), a 'mud-flap' section was made from sheet/strip and attached between the front treads.

Lindberg T-80: tread-skirts; reactive armor; the rearmost roadwheels (lost a T-55 pair somewhere between painting and assembly, so enlarged the diameter with strip-rims); turret fuel-drum/braces; rubber-track set.

Ran through all the kit reactive armor parts, and added the remainder on the uppermost turret with extras cut from a cardboard boxflap and CAed to thin styrene strips. Styrene strip was used to widen the upper tread fenders where they attached to the skirts.

Hull and turret was spraybombed with Krylon Hunter Green. Weathering was drybrushed with acrylic mixes for mud, dust, and brick/concrete dust. 'Grease' was added with a .07 mm black gel pen around the raised/recessed detail, then dusted over with lighter shades of concrete. The vehicle numbers (cryptically "343") on the searchlight-covers were handpainted.

Anyone have a scale Pegasus-riding warrior statue that they're not using........?

[777]

Damn that's impressive. Cool subject too.

[OEM]

Shot some better pictures this afternoon in normal daylight, so the colors aren't so washed out.

[HWR MKII]

Looks good. I have climbed all over the 2 real tanks used in filming. The ERA is slightly different on them. Theres also a dark tinted plexiglass window under the lights on the left side. This is so the real driver could see well for the stunts while buttoned up. The right side hatch, which you did an excellent job adding BTW, Is fiberglass. T-55 onl has a hatch on the left side. Overall good effort. Wish i remembered to snap some shots of the real things. One was full of smashed perrier cans and the other full of spent AK blanks. The one that went through the wall also has flat spots on its 2 front road wheels.

Contact the East England Military Museum if you want more refs on it to do another.

[OEM]

Thanx for the museum heads-up. Had to chase down photos for several days on the net just to find a few detail shots, and all were from front quarters. Bond movie vehicle book has nothing but a small photo. Don't think I'll be attempting another soon beyond the MBT-70 'stealth' tank I'm doing for the friend who gave me the kit-fodder. I was going to put in the small glass box for the real driver, but the more I looked at the real one the less the idea appealed to me, because it just was out of place on something that would be seen steadily rather than in rapid action-scenes.

ERA? Reactive armor? If so, noticed the dis-similarities also, and just assumed some pieces knocked loose during filming and replaced not-too-exactly.

[HWR MKII]

Nah the ERA was just simple sheet metal boxes bolted to the hull. Not as extreme as you have them.

[OEM]

Except for the few spares I placed in front of the turret-hatches, all the RA boxes were the scale-bits from the Lindberg kit; I was just copying those. A few of the photos I used for detailing, and a link to the Bond Museum page with the T-55 on display (looks like its been through 'rinse-n-soak' a few times)

http://www.thebondmuseum.com/pages/17goldeneye.htm

[HWR MKII]

There was a 3rd mockup made of fiberglass based on a armored car chassis. This one was used in some stunt scenes. as it was light enough to do slides and other untanky stunts.

The shots there are from the on set vehicle and a screen grab. During filming they fit chieftain track to it since it had rubber pads. The 2 track types are similar enough that they will fit. They needed the pads so the track wouldnt tear up the russian streets during filming. Operational 55s dont need them. Now i really wish i had taken shots of the things while i was there. I had 3 frackin years.

[HWR MKII]

Duh teach me not to read the first post. I just saw the second set of pics. You knew about the track thing i see.

As a side note the museum that owns the 2 runner 55s and the mockup also owns the Chieftain used in Reign of fire. I have one shot of that here. Its seen better days and all the extra stuff has been removed. Theres still a hint of the odd camo they put on it though. The word KERO on the front right fender is barely visible in the film it was painted over but can be seen if you know where to look.

[OEM]

Decided to upgrade the tank into a diorama. Added the Russian jeep (a lucky find at LHS, might be an OOP kit and was part of owner's stash thrown onto shelves); the jeep was built up and then 'smashed' in right rear quarter with heat gun and a large file over the hot section, with part of the rear axle clipped out and filed at angle till everything in that section lay flat under the tank-tread. The Russian military cops were best approximation of the way they looked in the movie; started with Tamiya WWII U.S. Army figures, both were heavily re-worked with a mix of different limbs, CA, and filler. Jeep and figures were hand-painted with acrylics, dry-brushed with same, and detailed with pens, pencils, and pastels. The cobbled street was an acrylic cutting board picked up at thrift store, spraybombed with flat black enamel and Krylon clear, tread and tire-tracks drybrushed acrylics.

When I have more time, probaly adding a building face behind the tank.

[mech]

That's too cool! Love the crushed jeep!

[Savion]

The tank chase sequence in "Goldeneye" is one of my favourite Bond chase scene moments. Interesting that the T-55 went through so many changes but then again, this WAS a Bond movie..!

Nice work on the tank and the crushed jeep! Armour isn't really "my thing" but I can appreciate good work no matter the genre! LOL!

[OEM]

Thanx.

If anyone's interested the jeep was a 1/35 scale kit from a Russian (?) company, Aer Sal Moldova. Again, might be OOP.

[jay]

Great job Orne!! Love the jeep, nice touch!!

[rider]

That's such a cool dio