Factory Progress Before Shutdown: WARNING! LOTS of Pics!

Well, awhile ago I had to shut down production at the Factory due to my two jobs, one of which was giving me Overtime. Just yesterday my car's engine failed, and now I have a couple days to stay at home while my mechanic drops another engine into my beast. I thought I'd take this time to post photos of my works in progress that I'd been working on before my spare time disappeared. As a reminder, this is all Russian Armor, and it is all in 1/72 scale. All but one kit pictured here is an ACE kit, the other one is Model Wheels. All of these kits have been stretching the limits of my modeling skills, but I find I'm enjoying the challenge somewhat. I am just glad that I finally have these in 1/72 scale! Also, I wish to apoloogize for the quality of some of these pics. White plpastic is very hard to photograph!

Now that I have a couple days to rest and recuperate, I'm ready to resume production. But first here is the progress I have made before I had to stop for awhile:

These first two pics are my 1/72 scale Model Wheels 2S6M Tunguska Mobile AA system. This is a cool model and I can't wait until it is finished! The quality of molding is about like ACE's, (lots of flash!) but it looks to me that it will build into a nice looking kit. The detail on the parts is crisp and sharp.

Here is the lower half of the lower hull:



The black things are twist ties that are used by electronics manufacturers to hold power cords and such during shipping. They are being used here to close the two gaps that are indicated by the arrows while the glue dries.

This is the top half of the lower hull here:



It came in three parts, and here they are glued together. You can see some of the detail I mentioned earlier.

Moving right along, this is ACE's 1/72 scale offering of the BRDM 2 Scout vehicle. These are the parts that make up the top hull:



Here they are assembled:



This is the underside of the hull showing the smaller drive wheels and the chassis/suspension. I'm waiting until I paint it before I put on the wheels.



Here is the turret for the BRDM. I placed it next to a No. 11 X-acto Blade for a size reference.



Then I installed the turret on the hull here:



Moving right along:



What's this? Did I double post a pic?

No, what you are seeing is the underside of another ACE 1/72 scale BRDM I'm building, this time carrying Sagger ATGW's.

Here is a pic of the interior with the Sagger missiles and launcher assembly.



This next shot shows a test fit of the BRDM with the launcher assembly retracted, and the follwing shot shows a test fit with the launcher extended and ready to fire:





In both the above pics, you can see the gaps I'm going to have to contend with once I assemble that beast!

I apologize for the quality of the second pic. It is tough photographing white plastic!

Moving right along again, we come to the assembling of the ACE 1/72 scale BTR 60. Here is a shot of the upper and lower hulls side by side. The lower hull also has the first two axles/drive shafts assembled:



This next shot shows the lower hull with all the axles/drive shafts assembled:



I'm going to be painting it before I install the wheels. The tires are rubber as well!

While the axles were drying, I built the upper turret and mounted it on the upper hull:



BTW, the turret is the same size as the BRDM turret above.

And now, here is the top and bottom hulls glued together:



I had to use the twist ties and a small bench vice to insure that the front end glued together correctly. There was significant overlap of the top hull nose over the bottom hull nose due to slight warpage. I think it came out rather well!

Now we come to my powerhouse! This the tank I've been wanting a model of since a decade ago, and now I finally have it!

Here is the lower hull of my ACE 1/72 scale T-72 with the wheels attached:



Here I am test fitting the upper hull to the lower one to make sure the lower hull is built correctly:



You can see the crisply molded detail in this shot.

Now I've applied the tracks to the wheels. This was made more difficult due to the thickness of the individual track links that went around the drive wheel and the idler wheel. They were three times thicker than the longer length tracks.

You can see the gaps and irregularities in this shot:



This next shot is the upper hull with all the headlights, exhaust, and side skirts installed:



And another test fit to see if the side skirts would interfere with the tracks:



I did alot of test fits with this model since there is so much that can be misaligned; not to mention some of the irregularitues due to excessive flash!


This next shot is the white turret being held together by three black clamps to close several gaps in the joint between the upper and lower turret halves:



I apologize for this picture. It probably gave my camera a seizure when I tried to take this pic!

Next I filled a few gaps that were still in the turret back and then sanded down the gaps and other irregularities in the turret from the above assembly

These next two are shots of the turret with everything installed except for the smoke dischargers and the machine gun.

Front:



Back:



And finally, this is the most recent test fit to see how well everything goes together:



And now, it is time for all these to go to the painters to get their coats of paint. Tune in to the coming thread to see how they look!

Thanks for taking the time to look. Again I apologize for the long post and excessive pics; I was cramming several days worth of work into one post. I'll try to spread things out a bit in the future for those on slow connections.

I hope you enjoyed this latest tour!