The base kit is the 1/72 kit of the Zil-157 Refueler from Trumpeter (nice little kit by the way, a good addition to any Soviet aircraft diorama).
The P-12 Radar was used in conjunction with the SAM-3. Only decent pictures I have showed a vehicle supposedly used by the (North) Vietnamese, but it had no markings whatsoever.
The rear box is plastic card and foil, plus lots of small sections of stretched sprue. The antenna is (obviously) the most difficult part of this project. The main horizontal rod is copper, the rest is plastic rods. Thin copper wire and thin foil make out most of the other details.
Model is painted (airbrushed) in enamels and weathered with oils. Wash was artist watercolours. Pastel dust to completed the whole thing!
Wow!!!..That is an incredible model. Where did you get the patience to do that antenna? [:D] Just think, when that truck comes out in 1/35th you will be able to do it all again…lol
DJ,
What channels can you get on that thing? Is the cable company worried yet?
What a great build! On the antenna, what was your basic assembly steps? What kind of problems, if any, did you encounter?
Gip Winecoff
The antenna was a huge pain in the a… I first thought of having the main horizontal ‘rod’ and the 6 large vertical rods in metal to support the weight and be resistant enough for transport. However, my metal work is very basic and welding even worse. Could not find anything to solder copper with copper. Big mess! Next best thing was to superglue copper against copper, which is what I eventually did. So I had the basic frame. I added the 'details next: various cables (thin wire) running from the cental post to each end of each verical rods (eventually to be connected to the top (or bottom) of the ‘combs’). The cables seem to be help in place by some sort of ‘o’ rings which I replicated with thin strips of masking tape held in place with yet more superglue. The ‘cables’ help giving the structure some strength. The bracing wires were added next with some more strong but thin metal wire. I now needed 12 ‘comb’ structures to get on top of all that. I used Evergreen rods and strips for that. The elongated ‘O’ at the back of each of those combs is thin metal wire, bent around a home-made jig to get 12 of the same (well, that was the idea anyway!) thing, then superglued on itself (to close the loop) then onto the plastic comb. The hardest part was to drill 12 tiny holes in the middle ‘double’ part of each of the combs to receive the rods. I had to: glue would not have been strong enough and any accidental manoeuvre would have resulted in broken rods.
Embedded as they are, they bend, but not break… To give you an idea, the squared-section strips into which I had to drill those holes are .30thou x .30thou. The rods coming out of them are of .20thou diameter.
The painting included black primer overal then thin coats of various greens (becoming lighter and lighter) to give a bit of highlight, eliminating the need of washes and , mostly, drybrushing…
All in all, things would have been WAY easier had I been able to weld, I think…! But I’m quite pleased with the results. And there’s no way I’m re-doing this in 1/35 scale, Kaleu. NO WAY.
Great job, DJ. What a model you’ve done. I guess I’d better reevaluate my griping over the 1/35 pe parts. You need that puppy to head to the nearest IPMS contest!
I imagine that must be some tail heavy model, how do you keep the front end on the ground?
Did you have to take your eyes into the optometrist for a full overhaul when you were done? I know I’d have to with my eyes if I tried something like that!
There’s metal wire embedded in each wheel through to the wooden base. I did that as a precaution, but at the end, the antenna is surprisingly light. I’m wondering how awkward it must have been to drive that, though!
Dj, all I can say is Wow![:0] All those little antennas would drive me to madness, and in 1/72 scale!!! And that Sherman thingi you are doing is madness too. That thing looks like a cross between a Sherman, and a Gundam Mecha, LOL. Keep up the madness, all look excellent so far.[:)]
