Gun Tech and JohanT, thanks for checking in and commenting [H]
I drew the blue lines though the inside dimensions of their provided drawing. While these kits aren’t accurate, the SKIF assembly design is well thought out
The turret is a simple structure. The turret parts sprue is a different color green and a different plastic.
Some major gappidge needed filling with putty and the kit iSheets describe metal parts included for making grab handles for the sides of the turret.
My kit did not include this material. I made my own with stretched sprue [I]
Puttied the gappidge.
Nicely molded in weld seam detail on top.
Dimensions for the grab handles were found by web searching 1/1 and then comparing this to the model part. A satisfactory conclusion was derived.
marked right and left side for drilling
These are coming along great Sprue! Love all the work arounds for the details! Some very nice PE work as well!
Thank you for checking in and you kind words.
I’m finishing the PE on the hull and infrared light on the turret then I’ll prime and paint by this weekend … hopefully [:D]
Cool, looking forward to seeing some paint slapped on.
Thanks, the FAVORIT is almost there.
Perfect weather today so primer goes on today then maybe a base coat color.
Thanks for looking.
Great handling of that sprue!
!http://www.leasingnews.org/items/roping.gif
Goes right with the name… SPRUEONE.
I like that.
Thanks for the comment [H]
You’re spruecing this one up nicely Sprue!!
Sorry, after Steve’s comments I couldnt’ resist! [:P]
Haha, that’s cool [:D]
It’s under a green base coat now and still working on the BUBLINA and the SLAPC
Wow, Sprue, you are going to town on these babies! I applaud your dedication to these relatively unknown and obscure models. Great reasoning on why you’re doing three of them together. I completely concur!
Thanks for checkin it out Doog.
The subject of the kits is what interested me the most
The FAVORIT is at the skill level of my painting right now but I might need to go further with this. I’ve read that the Czech armor aren’t all thrashed and so I thought this looks used but well maintained.
hmmm [:^)]
[*-)] . . .
The BUBLINA hull is assembled with kit supplied PE and other details.
The tow bar thing’a-ma’jig assembly instructions:
These parts needed cleanup before and after gluing together because of weird alignment issues. Part (3N) was molded solid in the two ends. I cut and sanded open these details with a razor saw and #600 sand paper
The brass detail was some scrap PE frame from this kit, cut to size and glued there to represent detail that I sanded off during parts cleanup.
The fender fuel tanks and storage box , tow bar and engine deck are dry fit in place for the picture but will be painted separately.
The head light brush guard “bird cage” was assembled around the same wood form that I used for the FAVORIT.
This part (what is this part called?) was very thick and just didn’t look right. I thinned it by filing it down on a sanding stick for grip.
This was done for the FAVORIT and the SLA APC. The BUBLINA doesn’t get one according to the SKIF instructions.
Looks a little better but I accidentally dulled my nice file by sanding across the abrasive stick [:(]
The SLA APC-55 was based on a hand me down Tiran T-55 tank from the IDF. A lot of the detail and other profiling comes from that.
The i-sheet for the head light brush guard PE assembly. I used the technique that I used for the ‘bird cage’ of the BUBLINA and FAVORIT by making a wooden form to bend the brass over.
The first bend was made in my bench vise.
Then another wooden form was made for the water bottle holder on the left fender.
Fording detail
The kit PE for the fording equipment has detail on one side and flat on the other. I searched ref photos and looks to me that this will be glued with the detail on the bottom and flat side up.
The hull and details are basically assembled and ready for primer and paint.
The SKIF hulls are about ready for primer.
left - FAVORIT
middle - BUBLINA
right - SLA APC-55
Next will be the turrets. Thanks for looking [:)]
BUBLINA T-55C1 turret build is complete with some work required and some just added for interest.
The company sprues that were added to the FAVORIT, BUBLINA and SLAPC-55 kits are from Master 44 UA.
The casting is rough.
Removal of .5 mm of material from inside of the TC hatch opening is required to fit (part 3G) hatch ring into top of turret. I used a rat tail round file for this operation. I should have used a larger radius half round file or maybe a, sheet metal step drill, that has the perfect diameter cutting step
https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/easystore.co/14425/images/products/1493877.jpeg
The method I employed resulted in a very rough shape. Once the hatch ring part fit snugly but without distortion, I glued in place with liquid cement to give me time to position level and correct. After that set and cured over night, I filled with CA and let that run into the remaining space and gaps
Front turret plugs were also kit supplied parts and were used as instructed and not puttied smooth because I saw reference pictures and those looked like roughly plugged cavities
Putty filled the gaps left over on the TC hatch ring now.
The 2 view scopes on the top of the turret were modified together from parts on the sprue of this kit that were designated as “not to use”. I saw more reference pictures on line so I added these to my model for added detail interest
The kit provided plastic grab handles for the sides of the turret were used but are very fragile. The only way I could clean the seams off of these parts were to cradle them in a piece of neoprene tape while sanding and filing smooth.
The turret ring keys need to be filed down in width to fit into the hull key ways.
This turret is now ready for primer.
Thanks for looking [B]
Really nice FAVORIT my friend!
I enjoy seeing all three of these kits coming together!
I will have to bookmark this tread to make sure I can refer back to a few of your ideas. [Y]
Very kind words [H]
Thanks for checkin in on this