Nice, nice!

The ZSU-23-4 is an interesting and cool looking vehicle! One thing that caught my eye right-on was the saw - I wouldn't paint it two-colors, but don't have any reference to back it up... Keep up the good work and have a nice day

Paweł

Very, very nice work Fred!  Makes me wish I hadn't sold my kit of this a little while back.

Thanks, guys

Pawel, the only picture I could find was on an all-white vehicle, so I have no way of verifying if the saw was body color, or otherwise.

Thanks, Frank.  She builds into a nifty little vehicle.  The indy track links are a headache, as they are all individual (the last Dragon I built had some of the "straightaway" sections, prebuilt).  She's definitely different from all the more common AFVs you see around here - I guess that's why there's only 7 views and 2 comments.  If it's not a Tiger or some other german tank, no one's interested .

I'm hoping to do an Ontos, sooner or later.  But first, more planes.

-Fred

Very cool! It's great to see something different. I've always thought it was a neat looking and rather frightning looking (if you're a pilot) vehicle.

Great job on building and the camo and weathering look very sharp.

Excellent work Fred .  Thanks for sharing.

Regards,  Rick

Your Shila looks really good, nice to have something different for a change on this site. You will find that M1's, tigers, panthers, and shermans are the norm for any website. Your's is a refreshing model and hope to see more. The saw on the side of the hull has been seen in both it's natural color and painted over with the vehicle's color. It all boils down to the unit commander and how he wants his equipment painted, nice thing about russian equipment, no set standards. But other than that, I really like your build.

Chris

Thanks for posting the finished pictures. I think it came out great...thanks for sharing

Dang computer...duplicate post.

Nice Fred, very nice indeed.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone .

As much as I enjoyed the build, I whish it didn't take as long as it did.  I think I spent twice the amount of time of the treads as I did on the rest of the build - and that includes paint and weathering.

Definitely a fun build though and  a little something off the beaten path

-Fred

Fred, for an aircraft guy, you've got a knack for AFV's. I like the hard edge camo and the tracks look great.

I think it looKs MEAN!

Very cool model, for sure

i've built a few of these kits. you are right the tracks are a nightmare...too bad i found out about the after market ones after the fact. lol. maybe for the next one i build. i like yours and agree with the concensus...nice to see 1) more modern builds/russian and 2) something other than a tank. nice job!

Agree with what the others said about being off the beaten path and love it!  As far as the saw,  from what I know they were mostly used for cutting down tress for unditching logs and there probably weren't alot of trees to cut down in the Sinai desert so I think the body color on it is quite plausible.  Thanks for posting this neat build and keep up the good work.

                                                                                                  Pat. 

This is really good........... I like it a lot.

Really nice finish.

Overall, really beautiful work, especially the weathering. What colors did you use for the camo scheme? My only critique would be the white on the inner surfaces of the hatch and armored flap for the driver. More than likely those would be the original Russian Green the Shilka was delivered in. Also that headlight on the right side next to the blackout drive light is an IR light, it should have a gloss black  lens. Well, in any case you did a great job capturing the menacing look of the Shilka!

tigerman

Fred, for an aircraft guy...

HEY!  Easy boy!

Very nice job Fred. That IS a different looking beast, isn't it?

Nate

Sweet, looks great.

Terry.

Thanks again, everyone

Stik, I had no reference for the interior, so it was just a guess.  I'll gladly go back and repaint it, once I get the correct color.  And  I completely meant to gloss the IR windows, it just keeps slipping my mind.

-Fred

looks good

No worries Fred Since you are primarily by admission an aircraft guy here is an armor tip- on nearly every AFV ever built, the inner faces of hatches that can be seen when opened will be the camouflage base color that the vehicle was built in: OD, Panzer Gray, Dark Green, etc. If the vehicle has a camo pattern or was repainted in lets say a desert tan over the original color, in nearly all cases the original base color will remain on the inner face of the hatch.

Check out this site for lots and lots of reference materials online

http://www.primeportal.net/home.htm

I happen to have the same kit as yours but also decided to go for the ModelKasten tracks RB Model Barrels and Eduard Photo etch. Guess I want to go whole hog on it. But as for the kit tracks those will probably go to replace the Trumpeter link and length tracks on my SA-6 kit .

Gigatron

Hey guys,

This has been on the bench for a while.  This build represents a lot of firsts; hard-edged camo, dot filters and multi-layer washes.

This particular Shilka is in the 3 color camo of the Egyptian army during the October 1973 war.  I chose this scheme because the other 3 options were more green and I already have a few green AFVs

As always, constructive criticisms are welcome.

Enjoy.

-Fred

 

Thanks again, guys .

Thanks for that tidbit, Stik.  I refernce the primeportal site quite often, but I never really made any correlation between the inside hatch cover and the body color.  Learn something new every day .

Mikey, I'd love to see what the shilka looks like, loaded out with AM goodies.  But, if you're getting new tracks for the shilka, just keep the originals for spares.  Leave the link and lengths on the SA-6.  They look the same and it saves you a butt-load of work.

I built this one a few months ago:

-Fred

Very nice work there.  Just the right amount of weathering.

Wow! Between the SA-6 and the Shilka, you have the nemesis of the Israeli Air Force in 1973 in one beautiful set!

LOL I've had the ModelKasten set a while it is the repop that works for both the SA-6 and the Shilka. The original production run only said ZSU-23/4. BTW the Nato codename for the ZSU-23/4 was actually ZEUS and the saw on the SA-6 you need to "beat it up" a little bit mostly  a little bit of chipped paint on the face of the saw and a strip of bare metal showing above the saw guard to simulate wear from use on wooden logs.

Gigatron

 

Thanks again, guys .

Thanks for that tidbit, Stik.  I refernce the primeportal site quite often, but I never really made any correlation between the inside hatch cover and the body color.  Learn something new every day .

Mikey, I'd love to see what the shilka looks like, loaded out with AM goodies.  But, if you're getting new tracks for the shilka, just keep the originals for spares.  Leave the link and lengths on the SA-6.  They look the same and it saves you a butt-load of work.

I built this one a few months ago:

-Fred