Fresh from a foray into “wing-things” (no, I’m not on medication, lol [:O]) I’m embarking on a new project here; a cool new kit of a Russian SPG based on the KV chassis. The S51. Here’s a pic of it in real life.
Here’s another pic…
Construction started with the hull. I have to say that this kit is thankfully not over-engineered. No annoying tiny parts yet, just big, dummy-friendly parts that are hard to confuse. Perfect for people like me. [proplr]
See that little nub on the sprue there, part #16? That’s a malformed suspension arm cover. Pretty sad, huh? What to do now?
Luckily, I was able to fashion one from a German Pz IV one. It’s on the farthest right. I can hide it a bit behind some dirt.
With the wheels on, it would be time to do the tracks, but they have some serious,y nasty knock-out marks to clean up. One nice thing–they come in link-and-length.
Here’s the hull–one weird thing about this: The distance from the last wheel nearest the sprocket varies drastically from one side to the next. Compare the two here:
I’ve triple-checked it, but it seems to be correct? Strange. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Lastly, I’ve got a new “modeling buddy”. This is a doog’s doog. He’s my new 15-week old miniature Dachshund, “Gerhardt”. He sleeps in between teething, lol. Quite the cutie. [:)]
Torsion bar suspension. They are always staggered from side to side to allow the pairs of torsion bars to sit next to eachother. If they were in line, the bars would hit eachother.
Another Russian beast, interesting looking build karl, going to be fun to watch.
Gino is spot on there. I assume you have built a Tiger or a panther. Have you noticed how the suspension arms go in different directions, forward on one side and rear on the other. This is why, and its why they don’t have the misaligned wheels as you have here.
This is going to be such a cool build. Definitely I need to keep tuned into this forum, basically this year I spent a lot of time in diorama and GB builds.
Those sprockets are really weird… does the real tank has the same differences??, maybe on one side of the armor there was not enough space due to the engine or transmission and they had to make it offset.
Hey Josiah! Good to see that you’re still around–you’re one of the “Old Timers” here too. [:)]
The Object 279 is still a project in the works. I just have to decide what kind of setting to put it in, and how much time and money I want to spend on it. Originally, I was going to put it into a setting that I later realized wouldn’t make contemporary chronological sense; i.e., the setting wouldn’t have existed in the time period, and would have been distracting in its error.
I am now thinking of modifying an existing MiniArt kit into a coal breaker such as I grew up around in Coal country, Pennsylvania. It would be so cool–but also pretty time consuming. I just am reluctant to spend more time on it right now as there are so many cool kits that I want to build.
Hope you have a good turkey day, and get a nice buck!
Thanks for tuning in, too. Hugo! (garzohn–it IS “Hugo”, right?)
As Gino pointed out, that’s a characteristic of torsion bar suspension.
You should build more here in the armor forum. I am not a fan of Group Builds as they drain off too much traffic and contribution here in this community. But, to each his own.
I managed to get the tracks on. They’re really a breeze after you clean them up. You’ll want to put one more link than specified on the one side…I want to say that it’s the right side, but can’t remember exactly, The sag is just about perfect in them. As I stated before, they’re link-and-length.
Workin, away…hopefully I can get this ready for paint by Saturday! Stay tuned!
really nice work with those tracks. And as much as I love GB’s, I have to agree with you there, they have got a little to much. that’s one reason I am double hatting by doing WiP threads for builds in GB’s. best of both worlds.
