The SLA APC-55 was based on a hand me down Tiran T-55 tank from the IDF. A lot of the detail and other profiling comes from that.

The i-sheet for the head light brush guard PE assembly. I used the technique that I used for the 'bird cage' of the BUBLINA and FAVORIT by making a wooden form to bend the brass over.

The first bend was made in my bench vise.

Then another wooden form was made for the water bottle holder on the left fender.

Fording detail

The kit PE for the fording equipment has detail on one side and flat on the other. I searched ref photos and looks to me that this will be glued with the detail on the bottom and flat side up.

The hull and details are basically assembled and ready for primer and paint.

This part (what is this part called?) was very thick and just didn't look right. I thinned it by filing it down on a sanding stick for grip. 
This was done for the FAVORIT and the SLA APC. The BUBLINA doesn't get one according to the SKIF instructions. 

Looks a little better but I accidentally dulled my nice file by sanding across the abrasive stick 

The BUBLINA hull is assembled with kit supplied PE and other details.

The tow bar thing'a-ma'jig assembly instructions:

These parts needed cleanup before and after gluing together because of weird alignment issues. Part (3N) was molded solid in the two ends. I cut and sanded open these details with a razor saw and #600 sand paper 

The brass detail was some scrap PE frame from this kit, cut to size and glued there to represent detail that I sanded off during parts cleanup.

The fender fuel tanks and storage box , tow bar and engine deck are dry fit in place for the picture but will be painted separately.

The head light brush guard "bird cage" was assembled around the same wood form that I used for the FAVORIT.

The FAVORIT is at the skill level of my painting right now but I might need to go further with this. I've read that the Czech armor aren't all thrashed and so I thought this looks used but well maintained.

hmmm  

. . . 

Thanks for checkin it out Doog.

The subject of the kits is what interested me the most 

Wow, Sprue, you are going to town on these babies! I applaud your dedication to these relatively unknown and obscure models. Great reasoning on why you're doing three of them together. I completely concur!

Haha, that's cool  

It's under a green base coat now and still working on the BUBLINA and the SLAPC 

You're spruecing this one up nicely Sprue!!

Sorry, after Steve's comments I couldnt' resist!

Thanks for the comment 

Great handling of that sprue!

Goes right with the name........ SPRUEONE.

I like that.

Thanks, the FAVORIT is almost there.

Perfect weather today so primer goes on today then maybe a base coat color.

Thanks for looking.

Cool, looking forward to seeing some paint slapped on.

Thank you for checking in and you kind words. 

I'm finishing the PE on the hull and infrared light on the turret then I'll prime and paint by this weekend … hopefully  

These are coming along great Sprue!  Love all the work arounds for the details!  Some very nice PE work as well!

 The turret is a simple structure. The turret parts sprue is a different color green and a different plastic. 

Some major gappidge needed filling with putty and the kit iSheets describe metal parts included for making grab handles for the sides of the turret.

My kit did not include this material. I made my own with stretched sprue  

Puttied the gappidge.

Nicely molded in weld seam detail on top.

Dimensions for the grab handles were found by web searching 1/1 and then comparing this to the model part. A satisfactory conclusion was derived.

marked right and left side for drilling 

Gun Tech and JohanT, thanks for checking in and commenting  

I drew the blue lines though the inside dimensions of their provided drawing. While these kits aren't accurate, the SKIF assembly design is well thought out 

Saving the drawing for the birdcage for future reference :)

XLNT, thank you for sharing Sprue!

Very Best Regards
Johan 

This is great stuff Sprue!

Nice to see that you do not get discouraged with the kit's issues and seeing you bashing along!  

Beauty!

I really liked the foil idea, I might have to see if I can refine it and make it work...... 

Thanks.

The silicone gasket material had to be applied in thin layers because it's air dry. 

Very clever idea there to repair the fuel tanks and get the right bends in the light guards!

The head light brush guard is kit supplied PE and is square instead of tubular material. Very fragile and requires careful clean up. The iSheet provides exact size description. I used basic geometry to make a balsa wood form to bend the PE part around.

The fender support PE is identified in the iSheets for specific positions on the kit hull fenders. These were measured and lightly scribed so I could glue them on top of each marked position.

Thanks for looking 

Thanks  

I like your fixits Sprue, especially with the fuel tanks!  Classic!!

FAVORIT upper hull warpidge and solution

Moving right along and thanks for looking...

One of the fender fuel tanks on the T-55C1 BUBLINA was a short-shot cast. The plastic didn't get all the way into all the corners of the mold on some of the sprues. This part was one of them.

I first tried to make a quick aluminum foil form to melt/cast a new upper part of this fuel tank by melting some sprue chips from this kit.

 = Fail  

NEXT:

Try using foil again to make a partial patch, then fill in the back with glue and material.

 = FAIL  because it still leaves an un-sandable layer.

Finally I use silicone gasket material in a tube to make a quick and inexpensive mold:

Then cast with casting resin. This worked and with a little putty and sanding will look fine.

The rear lower hull part was also "skinny" on one of the spare track studs. I snipped off the parts I need from the SLA APC-55 kit to repair the BUBLINA. The i-sheets in the SLA kit says to file off and remove these anyway so it was perfect 

Thanks for looking . . . 

Thanks for checkin' in.

Building all three at the same time was the only way I thought I can get them done. If I started and completed one at a time then it would be like starting all over again and again and again.

That would probably discourage me mentally.

Looking good Sprue!  I like that you're doing all three at the same time!  Should be real interesting to see how different each one looks when done!

The SLA APC-55 hub caps. Filed off the plastic bolt heads to replace with PE.

Now a six bolt pattern.

progress continues ...

The lower hulls are 5 parts and the upper hulls are 1 piece including the fenders.

Thanks for looking...

Thanks for checkin in.

The odd ball subject matter of the box art is what grabbed my attention