Gamera - thanks a lot, I like the looks too!

The work got a little slower since my woman has returned from the hospital. Anyhow, I'm still working. I have added the armored shutters on the 'scopes of the commander's cupola - white parts, painted, as for now only on one side. The 'scopes are all painted, too:

I had to modify the MG - it's spent brass chute, to be exact. I have made a new one from copper sheet. Next to it there are two length of "chain" made from copper wire with the "twist and squeeze" method. They will be used in the replica of the mechanism, that keeps the commander hatch  with its spent brass tray on top always connected to the 'chute:

I have also assembled and painted the illum mortars (called Lyran) rounds. They will be attached on op of the other hatch:

Now I'm focused on painting and installation of the MG. Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

She looks good with the tracks on. 

Hello everybody!

Bill, Hunter, Gamera, Lodni - thanks a lot for your kind words!

modelcrazy - water might be easy for you! I'd like to learn some day the tricks with water that you do, but for now I would have to start practicing! I agree wholeheartedly about the references, though.

And in the meantime I have put the tracks on here's what they look like:

Now I have to tackle the final decals. Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Nice work, the tracks look fantastic! 

The water is the easy part, getting the scene to look accurate and finding reference pictures, that's the hard part for a non-tanker.

Pawel,

Absolutely awesome job sir! The masking and paint look amazing. Wonderful WiP.

Pawel,

I just noticed this thread. Most impressive model of an unusual and interesting tank!

Bill Morrison

Hello Capn Mac!

It's a pleasure to hear from you. Yes, I did notice those spare track links camo'ed over. I have found it a little strange, but then again those babies are heavy, so I know why one wouldn't be to eager to remove them and put them back on... And in general those camouflage jobs don't look too high level to me. It's obvious thay have taken forrest green tanks, taped over the numbers and warning signs and painted the camo over that somewhere in the units. Things like axes, hammers and shovels were removed, but spare tracks?

So I don't plan to dirty this baby up much. Just some shading, maybe some camo netting, a tiny bit of light chipping and that would be about it.

And that's an interesting point about that washing diorama - kinda makes me wonder why you don't get to see such dios. One thing this is plain hard to do - show realistic water and wet effects on the model. Then I heard this washing is just hated by the tankers - that would be another thing. But it's a challenge for the modellers out there - a wash rack dio!

Best greetings and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel,
As always, lookimg good.
Did you note on the phones of the museum tan, they painted the camo right over the spare track links?  That's one it would be really nice to have a veteran comfirm (wonder if there is a swedish tank veteran association on facebook?)

I'd be inclined to go very easy on track weathering.  Doctrinally, these tanks were meant to be very close to their dispersed motorpools, and were meant to reside in revetments near highways and other strategic points.

Which is likely to frustrate normal armor modeling reflexes.

I'll wager the side-skirt diesel can were filled from a bowser driving along side.  And no doubt under a watchful sargent's eye, so spills were likely wiped up right away.

In fact, you get it too dirty, you'd just be forced, forced, I say, to build a dio of it being washed clean again

Rob Gronovius

With a turreted tank, you can continuously scan left and right independent of the direction of travel. You can traverse a turret much more quickly than you can try to adjust the direction of the tank to get an accurate lay of the main gun.

Lodni, Gamera, Steve - thanks a lot for your kind words! I'm glad you like the painting. I have to admit that I like it too!

Steve - nah, it doesn't grow on tap water, it grows on blood, sweat or tears - depending on what you got!

Gamera - thanks a lot for the tip. I took a slightly different approach - I have mived a rust colour using almost-dry Testors silver (aluminium) metalizer and brown Gunze paints and I added lacquer thinner for solvent. Tha paints mxied fine, with just a slight tendency to separate after about half an hour standing in a jar. That paint doesn't flake off my rubber tracks too bad, so it looks like we've got a base. I have also used sandpaper on the rubber track pads to dstress them a little. My results look like this:

I have also worked on the wheels for this chassis:

As you can see I have upgraded from bamboo to steel front wheel axle.

I have also noticed, that it's easy to falsely mount the idlers. As a result your tracks tend to be too long. The photo below shows the right (OK) and the wrong (NOK) way:

I hope it helps you with your build. I'm waiting for the glue on the road wheel arms to set and then I'll fit the tracks. Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel,

Your "S" looks great.  Very much like the colour guides. Well Done

Thank you for the masking patterns.  I have cut them out and laid them on the work bench, it has been about a day, but there doesn’t seem to be any tank growing there. I guess I will wait some more.  Maybe I should sprinkle some water on it?   

Tootles 

Wow fantastic Pawel! 

And thanks for linking the masks in case I ever try one myself. 

I always wash rubber tracks with lots of soap and detergent and give them a good scrubbing. Then prime them with 'rubber bumper' paint from the auto parts store. I'd think you should be able to find it in Poland. Anyway I've had a few flake on me but most times the paint seems to hold. 

Awesome paint work Pawel! And thanks for the masking links!

Hello again!

I thought maybe I can help those of you that would like to build their own model oft the swedish S tank. Here's the masking plan that I have prepared for my work:

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/strv103/Strv103C mask 1-35 done.cdr

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/strv103/Strv103C mask 1-35 done 1.jpg

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/strv103/Strv103C mask 1-35 done 2.jpg

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/strv103/Strv103C mask 1-35 done 3.jpg

It's best to print out the -2 at least two times. One copy is for reference, and you can cut the other copy up and use individual parts as templates for cutting out masks from masking tape - at least that's how I did it.

I hope that helps - good luck and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello everybody!

And the moment has come!

But first I had to mask off the black:

Spray some tan - in this case Humbrol 119:

Then mask it off and spray some light green. Now this wasn't easy to match - in the end I grabbed a can of Revell 362:

Now the thrill - that's the magic moment! - remove the first masks...

So far so good - yay! Let's remove them all:

All right, no major bad surprises, nothing lifted, no bleed-under. Some touch-up will be needed, though:

I't sworth noting, that after spraying dark green you can remove the commander's cupola - I did and it helped the masking greatly.

Now if I may, I'd like to hear your tips on how to paint the rubber tracks, so that the paint doesn't lift...

Thanks in advance and have a nice day

Paweł

Oh yeah, takin' down the masks - that's what I'm also waitin' for!

Ohhhh awesome, looking forward to seeing her with the masks removed. 

Coming along nicely Pawel! 

Hello everybody!

modelcrazy - like Rob said, they help protect the tank. at the same time they hold diesel fuel. Even if they ignite, that's not as big a problem as a dirtect hit would be - the burning diesel would spill and the tank would move away.

All the museum tanks have them jerry cans camouflaged. I was wondering, too - say you take 'em all down to fill - and then you have to figure out the correct sequence to put them on, so as not to scramble the camo? Sounds unlikely, eh?

Then I thought - cold war tank. Most of the time they spent practicing and caring for their tanks. No actual combat - under these circumstances it actually could have been done. Then again - there are tanks that have all the removable stuff in NATO green - much more likely. In my model I'll have them camouflaged, to show a cold war machine.

Hunter, Gamera, Duster - thanks a lot for your kind words!

Duster - hold my beer while I do another update!

Here's what the machine looked like just yesterday - now it doesn't look like that anymore:

Now in primer:

That's Tamiya gray from a spray can. Now pre-shading:

Sorry for the photo quality. That's Humbrol 33 (matt black). The main goal was to cover all small crevices, so that they don't show up on the ready model. The relatively flat and raised areas are left lighter. Now for the first colour:

That's Humbrol 117 - roughly NATO green. Now for the masking:

And the second colour - black:

Well, it's actually not black but the Humbrol 32 - dark grey. I do this a lot to tone down the contrast a little - while the Swedish army often usus "true" black for camo, I think it would use to intense on this baby here. It's important not to spray under the edge of the masks.

More is coming soon - or at least I hope so. Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Mif ib ummink ablng nikcle   Oh, sorry, forgot to swallow my popcorn first; I said this is coming along very nicely. Great Job. 

She's looking really good Pawel. For building her out of the box the little extra details really help! 

Mac and Rob: Thanks for information. All I know about this AFV is what I've read here and there.

Pawel,

Great subject, and you are doing a great job. I look forward to the finished build. Enjoy friend!

Pawel,

I've always been intersted in the S-tank and have even noticed them in 1/72 thaks to my intrest in this thread.
I have a question, for anyone, that I never noticed about the tank until watching your build. What are all the jerry cans for? they seem to be part of the camo as well. Are the used as armor as well as fluid containers?

Hello Rob!

I respect your tanking experience a lot! I just wanted to add, that in my research I have read that in that S-Tank both the driver and the commander have very nice, big periscopes. Maybe that could help with target acquisition? I have also read that while turning the tank when stopped is slower than moving the turret, the S-tank could very quickly turn and stop simultaneously when on the move. That said it's all theory as we all are lucky enough that we didn't have the opportunity to test them in actual battle. And the Swedes also phase them babies out as soon as they felt that the fire-on-the-move capability is already there.

I'm glad you like my work! At the same time I'm happy with my build as I didn't go into any aftermarket parts and I resisted any shots at serious modifications - that's pretty OOB for me! And a little over a week after starting this I'm almost ready for painting.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Capn, Rob - thanks a lot for that theoretical discussion, I find it fascinating and I think it adds immensely to the thread. Did you read about the comparison tests the British and Germans have done on that baby and found that as long as you have to stop a tank for firing the turretless design has no disadvantages over turreted tanks?

Having spent a good deal of my life tanking, I find that utter bs. Target acquisition is the key to winning a tank battle. My first tank required a short halt to engage a target and we trained it on the 60 series and M1 series as well. 

Stopping a tank to engage a target accurately requires skill and training. With a turretless tank, you can only engage, and see a tank to your direct front within a few degrees. With a turreted tank, you can continuously scan left and right independent of the direction of travel. You can traverse a turret much more quickly than you can try to adjust the direction of the tank to get an accurate lay of the main gun.

Any way, I am impressed at the amount of work you've done on a kit you intend to build OOB!

Hello everybody!

Mike - I'm becoming a fan myself, I'm admiring the Swedes for how determined they were to design something themselves as opposed to buying foreign stuff, and how well thought out the tank is.

Capn, Rob - thanks a lot for that theoretical discussion, I find it fascinating and I think it adds immensely to the thread. Did you read about the comparison tests the British and Germans have done on that baby and found that as long as you have to stop a tank for firing the turretless design has no disadvantages over turreted tanks?

I, for myself, am building on. On one side I have test-fitted the jerry cans and the poles:

On the other side the jerry cans are not there yet, but I have fitted a reinforcement (white part) for the jerry can racks, I hope it will allow me to remove a whole jerry can "side" as one part after painting and before installing the runnng gear:

As you can see the poles are removable, too. The cleanup of them looked bad at first, because all 13 (bad luck!) of them have a prominent mold parting line. Some people are even building those poles from scratch, but I think I have found a cleanup method that saves a lot of work.  I have cut off the diagonal stubs and sanded the poles round. After that I have glued new diagonal stubs on, made from stretched sprue:

This doesn't have to be done on all poles neither - at least the front pointing ones are hidden inside the brackets and the tips are not visible, so don't bother with the cleanup too much.

I have alo been adding and refining some detail on the hull:

But it's hight time I start painting that baby soon, before my lady returns and starts complaining about the fumes again!

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

It was designed as a purely defensive weapon system. As stated, a minimal crew can fight from prepared positions and the lower height allows greater survivability. Traditional tank battle positions require a "hull down" and "turret down" position. In turret down, nothing but the commander and turret optics are visible from the front. The tank then moves forward to a hull down position exposing the turret and main gun for engagement.

The Strv is useless in a traditional meeting engagement, i.e. two mobile forces meeting while traveling towards one another. However, in a deliberate attack, where the enemy positions are known; one set of tanks can overwatch from stationary positions and provide cover while another set of tanks can maneuver towards the enemy positions.