Dragon 1/35 JSU-122

Sweet grimy pigmented armored vehicle build… grinding through a landscape  

The wooden handles on the pioneering tools look realistic. Are they a single color or multi grain effects ?

When the paint was still wet on the tools I hit it with ligh dust pigment

May I offer three suggestions?

1) decal silvering: common problem that really mars the final appearance.  Google how to fix this.  Very easy to correct

2) Heavy chains.  On WW2 AFVs only seen on some prewar heavy French tanks.  Not used generally b/c vastly inferior to tow cables.  Need to have hooks attached -- not useful.  Your use would have been very difficult for the crew to use.  

3) a full 50 gallon drum would weigh about 400lbs.  Lashing them on engine decks just doesn't make much sense. You see photos of some AFVs hauling some for long road marches.  But then they are VERY secure.  Yours would roll off.  Unless they were barely filled.  But then why would barely filled drums be lashed onto a deck?  Also fire hazard?  Use logic when applying stowage.  If you were going off-roading with your friend in his pick up truck, how, what, where and why would you strap items onto your vehicle?

Good calls, and good advice by Roy.

Otherwise, an excellently-rendered finish. Nice and grimy.

Did you bother to correct the hull/track clearance at all? Doesn't look like it, but it honestly doesn't look too bad at all. All in all, a nice presentation.

Doog is referring to the fact that Dragon made an error when they kitted the JS and JSU models. They got the hull too shallow above the return rollers, making the top run of tracks too close to the underside of the fenders. It's fixable, but like doog says, not terribly noticeable unless you're looking for it.

Nice weathering, keep after it!

As RBaer said, there should be a 2-3 mm gap between the tops of the tracks and the fenders. If you look at a photo of the real vehicle you can see that the tracks don't nearly-scrape the fenders as they do on the model. It's no big thang unless it really bugs you. I did the "fix" on mine, and it was a minor PITA. Funny thing is, if you look at my model, you can't really see much of a difference even though there is a .040 piece of styrene spacer around the entire hull-mating surfaces. As I said, it's no huge thang.