Dwayne: She looks good!!! Love the dusty dirty look you've got going there. 

Gamera

Dwayne: She looks good!!! Love the dusty dirty look you've got going there. 

 

Hey LA, that is a pretty frustrating kit issue!  Seems like that should be basic, and not require any work on your part.  I know some folks like to thin the mudguards more to scale, but you shouldn't have to do that just to get the tracks on!  Hope you are able to figure something out.

LA: Looks great!!! 

And frankly I'm surprised you haven't had more issues than this. Alan kits are well.... horrible. I've tried to build two and didn't finish either. 

The Alan SU-76 is not a bad kit, but not a great kit either. On the one that I built three years ago I left the fenders off until after I had the tracks glued on.

That looks really good Stik, how did you pull off the painting? I had wondered about doing a bottom half paint job, then assemble the running gear. Get the tracks on and painted, then mask it off and finish assembly and paint the top. 

Although I have jumped ahead of myself, cut half the fender off and made a brass replacement that I can mangle...

And how did you get the tracks together and get a good sag? I am starting with the easy flat part, I have a plan for the sag, but any thoughts will help...

LA, for he tracks, I first do the bottom run, then the parts that lead up to the sprocket and idler wheels. Once those are all dry I build the top run, and while the glue is still setting I will form the sag over the return rollers.

As far as painting goes, I think what I did is that I paint the green, add the markings, then do the weathering. For the running gear I think I do a heavy base coat of Raw Umber, then spray on a lighter coat of Raw Sienna to give the look of dried dirt and mud.

Nice job.  The Beast is one of my favorite movies.

Upper hull on the Su-122 is done!

https://pin.it/rrihnkipevvl6p

https://pin.it/2f7j2e6tclqhc3

https://pin.it/5gjeed4fzsw6uu

AA: Lookin' good there!

Gamera

AA: Lookin' good there!

 

A_A: very nice & clean work. That gun looks scary!

Comrades, having been reprimanted by the local Comsomol leader, for watching World Cup games instead of working for the motherland, I was finally urged to make some progress. After fiddling with artist's oils, soft pastels, coffee (spilled) and sweat (dripping from forehead, no A/C in this tank factory), the shading and weathering works reached a point that I consider satisfactory. Furthermore the various boxes, wire rope, etc were placed on the tank. Hope to have it announced completed in a few days. As always, all criticism, comments, denouncements to the KGB, etc more than welcomed.

Awesome job! Everything is very well balanced. Did you come up with the ammo boxes on the sides? Gives it some nice flavor. It deserves a base or a small vignette scene. Great job.  

Excellent weathering. I guess coffee and sweat make for dirty tanks.   

I really like the boxes on the sides.  They really do look like wood.  You can't be far from done.

No reprimands for watching World Cup in Mother Country.  Very exciting competition this year.

Your T-34 looks great Zvezda, I really like your weathing and shading. 

I've finished the construction of my KV-1, although I'm waiting or some accessories to arrive to dress it up a bit. Hobby Boss don't give you much stowage for it, so it looks a bit too factory fresh. I've also started on the base for it, which will be simply a tank traversing the snow covered steppe with a couple of Soviet soldiers alongside. It's made from an old picture frame and some plaster of Paris. However I felt that the tracks I made on it weren't deep enough so I took the mototool to it to gouge it out again and remade the tracks using a different material. That's hardening now, then I'll refine it a little more before applying paint and finishing it.

Cheers

Tony

Zvezda: She looks fantastic, great job!!!

Tony: Looks good, love the KV-I- what a brute of a tank!

Tony, your KV-1 is coming along great!  The base and accessories will pull it all together nicely.

LA: Despite your problems you're making great progress. Looks good!!!

Looking good bud. Those tracks look like a pain in the butt but your doing a good job with them. 

LA: Nice progress on what is looking more and more like a challenging kit.  Looks like you have beaten those tracks into submission.  

ManCityFan

Zvezda, you are doing a great job of weathering your tank!  Oils are definitely worth learning how to use.

Tony, that sounds like a lot of work.  I think Gam may have a good idea there.    Mud can fix a lot of ills.

So I am calling my KV-1 done.  Got some smoke pigment today, and just wanted to add some smoke effect for the exhaust.  Here are the final pics:

IMG_0840 by Dwayne Munk, on Flickr

IMG_0844 by Dwayne Munk, on Flickr

IMG_0843 by Dwayne Munk, on Flickr

IMG_0841 by Dwayne Munk, on Flickr

IMG_0842 by Dwayne Munk, on Flickr

I am OK with the vinyl tracks.  Not sure I could do much better with them. 

I might add an antenna.  I read somewhere that cat whiskers work well, and I found one while cleaning the other day.  Nice of my cat to part with one so I could try it out.

Any and all comments welcome!

 

Dwayne I missed that you finished up your KV. Great job! Looks the part. Can't tell that those are vinyl tracks. It needs a base. How come nobody puts their projects on a base, man !!?? LOL. Just jkn. You did a great job.

Thanks Griffin, I appreciate the compliment.  

I do plan to put my finished kits on bases at some point.  Was focused on getting the kits looking decent, but basing them would definitely help them to look better.

That looks really good Dwayne, well done.

I've primed my KV-1 with black, and painted the base with cheap black spray paint. The snow area has been painted with Tamiya fine white primer.

I plan to use Tamiya Diorama Effect snow (paint) once I get to it, but I'm waiting for some figures to arrive so that I can locate them before painting it.

The next step is to spray the tank with Vallejo Russian Green, with a little colour modulation. Not too much because it's getting a whitewash anyway

Cheers

Tony

Here it is with a basic Russian green spray job. I still want to do a little colour modulation, then start work on a whitewash. It was still wet when I took these photos, but ut's settled down really well now. I like the way that Vallejo paints do that.

Cheers

Tony

Oh wow, she looks great Tony! Great job on the colour modulation!!!

Thanks Cliff, I went a bit further today. I had intended this as the base for a white wash, but I'm a little tempted to go with green.

Lots more to come.

Cheers

Tony

Looking good there Tony, nice colour work. The green will pop out over the snow.