Hi all.
I hope you have had the chance to enjoy a couple of days off and spend some time with your dear ones.
In Gothenburg we are seeing the first real spring day with the trees turning green in a weekend
Now over to the subject of the thread,
I have been sitting here looking at the sprues in the Zvezda box for some 16 weeks now…
Slightly discouraged by the bad press the kit has been taking since it was released.
The friends over at Armorama.com are debating the accuracy in extence but more detailed and more worrying are the findings that the friends over at panzer35.ru are posting.
The list off issues is getting longer and longer - yet still when you look into the box the content puts a big smile on your face.
The box is loaded with sprue’s and the level of detail that has been captured looks very convincing.
Here is a link the sprue shots, review by Karl N. Hoy: http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=7322
I have decided to go OOB with my first build since the update sets are being marketed by especially Miniarm at a very high speed atm, right now the only thing missing to build a complete resin T-90 from the Miniarm updates seems to be the main tube.
Sprue-ce Goose,
Thanks for stopping by and taking interest
Surprisingly there are very few complete build reviews on the T-90.
Here is one more that I have enjoyed reading, the author is Mac McConnell; http://www.militarymodelling.com/forums/postings.asp?th=63907
tread,
Hope your recovery is going well!
Please join me on this build
Tony,
The west coast is the … coast
No matter what weather.
I am heading your ways shortly, should I drop the spike tires or not?
thanks for the kind words,
that is the scheme I am going for
Short update - no real progress…
The main issue with this release seems to be the hight of the body.
With the main tube beeing slightly oversized the T-90 seems to sit a bit high ( like a SUV someone said…[:D]).
With the overall hight being wrong the side skirts are oversized and it looks - wrong…
This picture published on Armorama by Compeador on March 11 examplifies.
You could obvioesly choose to ignore this - my personal view is that the “Star” offering still looks very convincing - but with the debate going on it seems difficult to ignore.
So here is my list of alterations;
Visually lower the overall hight by reducing the hight of the suspension with 2 mm and take out a 2mm slice in the side skirt.
Create a chin on the turrets lower front.
Change the hight and the angle of the radiator stack.
Fix the turret to body arrangement; brush guards and overall hight.
Replacements;
Road wheels
Possible replacement;
Gun tube ( I will do what I ca to salvage the 2 piece OOB [:|])
So on with the build
Here is the road wheel and swing arm. As you can see the swing arm joint to the main tube is VERY fragile.
Repositioning this 2 mm without breaking seems difficult - I am concidering a replacment with brass tube;
The turret, my only + 4 part assembly so far [:$]
Your comments, suggestions and chritizism are wllcome as always.
This picture shows the original angle of the swing arm:
First idea was to correct this with brass tubing cut to length and fitted accordingly (tested center bellow) but it turned out that the plastic is so soft that it is possible to re-position the swing arm with some gentle force.
This takes out approximately 2 mm of the overall height
Next task is the side skirt that will need to be lowered accordingly.
I started by shaving of the hinges:
And continued with cutting down the height of the side skirt 2mm.
The upper skirt is modified in hight.
I am not sure yet that the end result is going to be what I am aiming for, but I feel that I am on the way with this one now.
One problem is that the shavings are so thin they will melt when I glue them in place again.
Maybe I will use some white glue or paint.
Very Best Regards
Johan
Edited 2013-07-19; picture 2 and 3 shows test fitting of brass tubing, this approach was abandoned.
I’ll watch this with interest, as I have that kit in my stash as well and it looks like you found a relatively easy techniqe for fixing the heigth issue!
Hi Schatten Spartan & Gamera - thanks for stopping by and taking interest [:D]
I am hoping to get some progress work posted this weekend, still worried that the shavings will melt - anyway - we will know by Sunday [:P]
Sorry about the bad link, the second one is unfortunaely corrupt, please check out this link by disur instead: http://panzer35.ru/forum/45-8703-4
Meh, Johan, I wold just build it as you have it. Unless you’re building this model for a national museum with your name beside it as an “expert”, I would just build it as the kit depicts it. Trying to fix that would require major surgery and if the rest of the kit isn’t engineered around that, it will look funny.
Why?, why?, why do you torture me like this?.. [:'(]
So many models… Im about to start a Bradley or M113A2 or A3…also wanted to build a P47D and now this… this tank is beatiful. Liked it a lot with the black and grey camouflage.
Hmmm… [:^)]
So, far your building looks good, can’t wait to see it finished.
