IS-3M help! (now finished with PICs!)

http://www.battlefield.ru/is3.html

http://www.thetankmaster.com/english.asp

http://www.jbwholesalers.com.au/reviews/trumpeter/tr00316.htm

Just a brief preview. I've seen this kit built up many times, and it's a fairly nice build. Only area requiring some work will be the tracks.

Thanks guys. There dosn't seem to be a lot of info on-line about this tank and what there is conflicts. Pretty cool looking tank though.

Yeah, I hear ya. Not too much available. Most of my references went from pics of previously built models.
Really is an amazing looking piece of armour tho

Built this kit recently, turned out nice, tracks were too long and the main gun required a fair bit of work- it was kind of square shaped near the muzzle brake. Used thick super glue and spun it in a drill to round it off using file etc. Yours might be ok ,mine looked like it was a fault in the moulding process.

Regards John.

My barrel looks OK but the tracks scream for fruils.

Yea you just have to have idies for that floppy russain track look , I would go fruil myself , they have the weight too !

Here you go:

http://www.armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/is3/

However, it's in Ukranian and you'll have to run it through a Russian/Engish translator (babelfish?).

RLF

I just finished PSTs IS-2M in small scale and under yahoo searches for it, I found some
nice sites dedicated to Russian armor in general. Try different marks of the IS tank since
people sometimes refer to is as the JS.

QUOTE: Originally posted by gderue I just finished PSTs IS-2M in small scale and under yahoo searches for it, I found some nice sites dedicated to Russian armor in general. Try different marks of the IS tank since people sometimes refer to is as the JS.

Thanks for the tip.

For those that may wonder; the differance between IS and JS is the Russian and American abbreviations for Joseph Stalin respectivly.

Here are some pics of my progress.




Yep, there's a bit of putty in that turret. Getting the front to lign-up caused a gap in the rear which needed filling.

Looks good Derek. How does this offering stack up against past Trumpeter kits? I didn't care much for their M1 Abrams. However, they are coming out with a KV-1 that has me intrigued.

Looking good, I have that kit as well. how does the kit fit? any problem areas? Besides the crummy tracks.

My first Trumpeter so I can't compare with others BUT:
The lower hull went together very nice and got my hopes up. This continued on the upper rear plate/engine cover (where the travel lock is) but then I started the upper hull. Nothing too bad really but exercise caution in these areas:
1) Side panels with stowage boxes: These are seperate pieces that have locating lugs, find the locating lugs and then ignore them completely. Line up the outside edges of the panel and tack in place from the inside, allow to set and then strengthen the joint with more glue.
2) My upper hull was slightly bowed down in the middle this made attaching the skirts fiddly but not hard (attaching the side panels pretty much straightened it out).
3) Fuel tanks: I will scan and post the instructions with a caption to explain this problem.

Turret:
1) Turret halves fit terrible, I aligned the front, glued and allowed to set an hour or so then flushed up the bottom and taped it. Then i glued around the perimiter as much as i could (the turret base is a bit smaller than the turret).

I will scan parts of the instructions and provide explanations of more trouble spots soon.

Grrrrrrrrrrreaaaaaaaaaat! another misfiting trumpeter. Well at least they picked the ball up now eith their new stuff.

Thanks for the review Derek. Sounds like they still have a ways to go to catch Tamiya.

OK here's the scans and the skinny.

First pic: On parts C21 check your referances, should be angled up slightly but not hitting the turret use caution and slow setting glue.


Second pic: Assemble the fuel tanks according to the assembly drawing The tiangular handles on the ends will be up when attached to the vehicle NOT down as shown in the attachment drawing. I tore mine off and reassembled before realizing the ends were shown inverted and had to redo them.


Third pic: Parts D28 are too short (or the mounting holes are too far apart). I put them in the upper holes, lined them up with the bottom and secured with a drop of liquid cement. Then I filled the lower holes with a drop of liquid cement, it will never be noticed with the rough cast texture of the turret.
The Parts circled in blue are, I believe, D29. Parts D29 are never mentioned on the instructions except the parts layout!
Part D19 is inaccurate, it's not a grab bar it's the hatch torsion bars and as such should be attached to the hatches(i have a pic if you want it.)

Last pic (for now): Part C12 is shown installed wrong. It should not be horizontal across the turret but rather should be curved up in the middle, just turn it over and all is well. Got pics of that too


I've already done a bit of research on this beast so if you need more info/pics just ask!

Nice! thanks I will keep this in mind. It will be awhile when Iget to this kit.

Looks good so far, nice work dealing with the fit issues.

If you're still looking for reference material at all here are two more links to add to your list;

http://www.onwar.com/tanks/ussr/fis3.htm

http://www.onwar.com/tanks/ussr/profiles/fpis3m45.htm

Claymore: nice job on the ISII I love that tank , huge gun low profile , how can you go wrong ? The russian armour is so overlooked , it was key to thier success on all battlefields. Anyhow check out the cast a coat stuff all the missin lynx crew rave about , ( it gives that rough cast texture so common on all russian armour turret, hulls ,mantles,tc ) cool product from what I have seen in pix! Nice sag on your trax too , almost look like they may come off , but they never seemed to !

After a summer lull it,s finally done! Considering all the info in this thread and how much i documented this build I think this one will get its own page on my site.
The basis for this build is one lonely photo I found but the history intrigued me.
This vehicle was deployed in the Sinai by the Egyptians and then captured by the Isrealies. Pressed into service by it's new owners it got it's pic taken during a parade and then was redeployed to the Sinai and recaptured! The Isrealis ran into it again later, hull down in the sand being used as a pillbox with the engine gone to provide for more ammo stowage.

My model depicts how it may have looked in the Sinai under Isreali ownership. Base coated with Panzer dark yellow (Dunklegelb) and weathered with pastel chalks.






Hope you enjoy it.

EDIT: altered the images, hopr they are a little better.

Quite a menacing beast you got there! Pictures' are a little hazy, but it looks good from here. Thanks for the review also.

Sorry about the pics, my crummy digital. Will try to get better on film.

Looks pretty darn nice Derek. The Russians did have some pretty sharp looking armor. I've got a few pieces in my collections including the JS1 by Tamyia. Of course it doesn't compare to the nice job you did getting the track sag on yours and the finish is really sharp in spite of the bluriness of some of the pics. Thanks for sharing your experience and details on this kit. Great job. semper fi, mike

Hey, good trick adjusting the photos! Quite the bag of tricks you have there...

Here's a slightly better pic:

Still gotta work on this here new fangled pho-to-graphy thing.

Again, I would like to tell you that it looks solid and intimidating. The details are not easily seen from the pictures but I assume that it looks great!