SU-152 “8717” providing artillery support from the West side of the Suez Canal on day 3 of the war.
Dragon 1/35.
I haven’t built an armor model in a while, so I tried this for the latest FSM GB.
Squirrely elements were the holes in the hull didn’t allow for the hull fittings, so I had to shave off the lugs on the back of the little parts.
Otherwise, I am truly awed at how part casting technology has surpassed the Tamiya kits I built in the 1980’s.
Aber barrel kit, otherwise stock.
The Magic tracks snapped together perfectly. Thanks to Karl’s tutorial, I glued them up and shaped them on to the rollers after 45 minutes, it worked well.
I had a lot of fun with the figures.
After a lot of research, I used the Tamiya US Army 107 mm mortar team for the bodies because of the bloused pants and boots, added shirt tails and epaulettes, helmets and soft gear from the Zvezda 1980 Afghanistan Soviet Paratroop set, Tamiya tape webbing and Sculpey dittey bags.
May I make two suggestions? The inside face of the roof hatch would not be painted white – but the same as the exterior color. The white would make it too visible to enemy observation.
Secondly, tank and artillery crews typically did not wear any sort of webbing or canteens or pouches hanging off their belts. Working inside an AFV or near an artillery piece, you want nothing that can snag the moving parts around you. The Tamiya mortar crew, while found in the SP Mortar carrier, were deemed armored infantry and were so equipped b/c they were to operate on the ground rather than as APC crewmen.
I love oddball, out of the way subjects! I don’t have an ISU-152 in my stash but looking at yours, made me start researching other Egyptian army vehicles – maybe I can find something that wouldn’t require me to go out and buy another kit…
There are lots of suitable figs out there wearing the appropriate head gear, and I suppose it could be possible to pose the figs you have as “observing” infantry, or recruited" to help load ammo…
I was scared of building any armor because it’s been a while and everyone here is so good.
It’s a Dragon 3 in 1 kit that wasn’t very expensive and came with a Russian sniper figure set and a set of Magic Tracks. I also ordered an Aber 152mm barrel set at the same time. When I got the model I’d have to say, the aluminum barrel is gorgeous, but the kit barrels (including a couple of 122’s) were also perfectly usable.
I remembered Karl Logan had a tutorial of individual track length construction, so I looked that up. It worked well, gluing all the links together, waiting 45 minutes and wrapping them around the wheels. My only goof there was that he suggested leaving the outer halves of the wheels off. I put it all together before I read the articles, but it still was pretty easy to get to work.
My weathering skills are definitely “needs more rust”. I am an old “sludge washer”.
So the bug bit, sure.
I’m looking at a Centurion, or perhaps an Egyptian Sherman, the one with the AMX turret.
