Hi guys, here we go again back on the ruskie stuff this one keeps rising to the top of the pile so this time its getting done, this is the Dragon kit #6013 and i am going to see about using the external fuel tanks and PE i had left over from the T34/85 w/bedspring armour kit and any other bits and bobs i have in the spares box.
The box-art, this beast looks very menacing it should be fun to paint up.
Upper and lower hulls include some nice casting detail and weld joins.
Step 1, as per usual the wheels, no problems here.
Step 2, consists of the lower hull wheel attachments and wheels again no problems to report.
Thanks for looking in and as always feel free to comment or ask questions.
By the way, how do you paint wheels? it looks like you already have them attached to the vehicle. How do you paint wheels that are facing inside and rubber parts?
It should be pretty similiar to their JS-2. I don’t recall any problems with that build except with the back panel. It was an easy fix, a little filing and putty. Good luck and look forward to more “Motherland” armor.
Glad to see im not the only one that likes the russian stuff. Past aor presesnt, it all just has a really cool look to me. And russian green accepts Biffas weathering quite nicely.
The ruski fans are out in force heh, Zoran i thought this might catch your eye if you were around [:)]
m1, ill answer that one in the paint steps as im really not for sure yet how i will approach it.
Tread, but its better value for money you get to build it twice [(-D]
Eric so far so good i just got through putting the tracks together and they are cool they friction fit with a slight pressure so i was able to shape them around the wheels before putting any glue to them,
Hey guys, thanks for tagging along although this may be a real quicky, basically it is already in the paint shop with flat black for a primer and a base coat of MM acrylic Dark green below are a couple of pics of the build but to be honest there wasnt much to report as this is a very simple build and the only problem i had was a bit of adjusting of the rear plate to get it to fit right like Eric predicted.
I removed the front and rear fenders i prefere the way it looks, i used the PE for the fuel drums out of the T34/85 kit i had left over and decided to leave all but one drum off. I will be adding a few bits like tow cables and maybe a tarp later.
[:O] biffa,I don’t know how you do it…it took you less than a week to assemble and prep this kit and it takes me 2-3 weeks just to do the suspension on mine.[sigh] I can only marvel at your tank factory and hope my miserly production can at least produce the same quality as yours![:D] I know the JSU-122 will be another winner…can’t wait to see the finished build!
Thanks guys, Bufflehead it may actually be a curse i have an inability to put something down without finishing it drives me insane weather its a book, a model or home improvments i simple cant rest with something half done [:)]
Small update the fuel tank straps were wrong for this vehicle so i had to do some adjusting now they look closer to what they should be and with a little weathering and some extra stowage thrown on i think they will be ok, so far i have painted the whole thing in flat black primer then a base coat of MM acrylic dark green which i then lightened with a little yellow to do some slight fading, then still with the air brush i painted a base on the tracks with MM acrylic leather.
Eric this is the first time ive done them this way so im winging it but i will probably give them a couple of washes with the rest of the vehicle then a dry brushing with steel then finally some powders and maybe a bit of mud but all this could change at any time [:)]
usually i brush paint them with craftpaint “nutmeg brown” and follow the steps above but i decided to airbrush these one knowing i will be weathering them quite a bit so overspray wasnt an issue infact i wanted it to aid in the weathering. Plus i like trying new approaches.
Hey Biffa, nice work so far…I kinda hesitate to post this, as I fear I’m too late, but maybe in the interests of anyone else…I don’t know if this is a new casting or what, but I would assume it hasn’t been retooled from the ISU releases of about 10 years ago. MILITARY MINIATURE IN REVIEW did an article/review/build on these; specifically this ISU-122 and said that,…
“there is too little clearance between the kit’s return rollers and fenders. Measuring from plans in TANK MAGAZINE FEB '94, the space ends up about 3to 5 scale inches too short. While this degree of error is minimal in scale, it shows up when the tracks are put on. My suggestion to the modeler would be to shim up the upper hull with .030-.040 strip styrene”
Now, let me just say, I’m not really one of these guys who goes about fixing fenders, rear decks, etc, that are a hair short, but I have to agree that, when consulting my reference sources (most notably the excellent CONCORD book “Stalin’s Heavy Tanks”) I have to admit that When I recently built the ISU-152, I couldn’t leave that alone; the difference really bugged me, and I used a .040 X .040 strip to raise the hull. I don’t have a photo of the ISU-152, but I have a lousy shot of my IS-2 which got the same treament. In this photo (it’s basically OOB with a bit of admittedly excess battle-damage) the clearance looks slightly exaggerated because the fenders are banged upwards a bit, but you can see that the clearance between the hull and tracks is more in the ballpark. I guess it’s probably too late to correct that now, but maybe it can be done for your next ISU…perhaps the 152? It’s a monster!!
Hey Doog, yea i was aware of this and after carefully weighting up the options decided with the front and rear fenders removed and the track sag giving the impression of more space i would let it be, the rear plate was already a bit off and this would have made it even worse i appreciate the heads up though, yes generally everything is painted on the vehicle except for a pershing i painted at the same time as this, which i painted off because of the rubber band tracks i seldom use rubberband tracks but when i do i paint them off the vehicle.
