Gamera

As I understand the S tank was inspired by assault gun/ tank destroyers like the Stug, Jadgpanzers, and SU-85 series.

Was part of it, but the Swedes were also trying to plan around a force that could be raised up quickly from Reserves.  So, a two-man tank-killer had great appeal.

At the time, the hydralic technology looked mature enough to support using that to elevate and depress the gun tube.  Having an attached dozer blade meant no having to wait for Engineer units to stand up in case of emergency.  And, being able to dig in defilade just added to the protection.

And, when the traverse was executed by moving the vehicle, it almost makes sense to have the gunner be the driver, too.

The fixed gun tube really simplifies the geometry of the autoloader, too.

Now, whether the terrain in Sweden was suitable for the range of elevation provided, is quite a differnt question.  The scheme also required much of the Reservists, to keep up skills so that they could go to their dispersed laagers and go face off the invading Soviet (or, worse yet, Norwegian) tank hordes.

As I understand the S tank was inspired by assault gun/ tank destroyers like the Stug, Jadgpanzers, and SU-85 series. 

She's lookin' great Pawel, please keep the updates coming! 

You're making a bit of a fan of this tank out of me, my friend. It's looking great!

Are you adding figures, or just building this one for the shelf?

Nope. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103

Looking good. So that tank doesn't have a turret eh? 

Steve, Lodni Kranazon, Gamera - thanks a lot for your kind words!

The week is pretty busy so I don't have too much time to work on the model, but I'm making the most of it. I've been outfitting the hull that is now filled and sanded, with a little primer on to check the quality. Here's what it looks like:

Now I'm working on the "jerry can and poles side armor" to make it ready to be painted separately. Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

She's lookin' good Pawel! 

 Pawel,   This is coming along very nicely.    

Hello Rob!

I'm glad you're reading the forums and that you are ready to help. I don't really know why people get so defensive sometimes when offered good advice.

Who knows - if I didn't want to have a kind of "break" with this one, maybe I'd buy a metal barrel too. But my experience with filling and sanding the plastic ones has been rather good.

After checking the photo you posted I grabbed the razor saw and have made the cut:

After some filing, filling and sanding I have made the "funnel" part fit nicely under the ammo box. Much beter now:

I'm also filling and sanding the hull:

On the rear there are some lines to be scribed (penciled in), to show where the flotation screen frame detaches along the hull top. The front plate has to be smooth, at least in the portion that the dozer blade doesn't cover (it will be installed in the stowed position).

I'm using liquid sprue for filling. About the only downside to it is the long drying time. This can be partially helped by applying it in thin layers.

I have been working on the subassemblies. On the photo below there are the fittings for the side skirts/jerry cans and brackets for stowing the flotation screen poles. I had to glue in those white plastic sheet triangles - in this place the parts were so thin, they were just not there :-)

Then there are the fender boxes - on the real thing there are two forward firing MS in one of them! I had to sribe two lines in every one of the boxes, to show where the cover ends and the box base begins:

Then there are other parts - like the exhaust duct and the telephone box. Lots of filling and cleanup. I'm making all the handles out of wire - I feel this saves me time, first on cleaning up the plastic ones, second on re-doing the ones that were knocked off :-)

So - the work continues. Tomorrow I'll have to go to work, so that will give the filler plenty of time to dry! Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel, I am always happy to assist you; you are one of the ones who appreciate the help and don't try to turn it back into some nitpick or rivet counting accusation. I literally know virtually nothing about this tank beyond the user (Sweden) and that the main difference visual between the versions is the track style. But I do know where to find reference photos of army tanks.

My gun tube purchase was a moment of self doubt, because I had had difficulty working some gun tube seams on a previous 105 mm gun tube.

Here is the link to the walk around, one of many. I hope it doesn't lead to a more extensive project than you intended!

http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/roger_johansson/strv_103c/

As far as that rubber boot, it looks like it is designed to collect the brass. Since the hatch appears to slide backwards to open, it probably prevents spent brass from showering the commander as he opens his hatch.

Hello Rob!

It's yet another time when you are such a great help with my modelling project!

Great photo, just what I've been lookin' for! Where did you find it?

By the way, I find it interesting to see that rubber collar there. I guess it's for collecting spent brass. Looks like some armies dont give a dang about a case or two, while in other peace-time armies you have to account for every one of them babies!

Anyhow, looks like in the Trumpeter model the part B24 doesn't fit like it's supposed to. I have just cut it up and it WILL fit when I'm done with it.

Thanks again Rob, and have a nice day!

Paweł

I think it is the curved ammo chute that rests along the side of the cupola.

Hello everybody!

Rob - I don't think I'll buy any aftermarket for this one. Let's hope I can prevail in my OOB quest! As for the road wheel arms - it might as well be that there is a bug in the instructions. So far I have cut out one pair of those babies for a test fit and I hope I can install them correctly:

The rule I follow is: the arms themselves point down, and those little baffles point up. That should take care of it. I have the temptation to modify the stance of the tank to show it's lowrider suspension in action. Trying to resist that, the decision still isn't made. But I'll be adding the wheels and tracks as a last step here, at least that's the plan for now.

Real G - that paint scheme is a big reason for building this baby. But I'll worry about the masking when it's ready for paint. After researching the net I noticed that the C's could also be seen in one-colour camouflage, so that's an option for somebody that doesn't want to do all the masking.

As for the accuracy of the kit - there are definitely problems with it. But nos as bad as you described them. Here's a photo of the hull top against plans by mister George Bradford, taken from his book AFV Plans: Cold War Armored Fighting Vehicles, page 85. I have scanned them and scaled on my computer, then printed out:

As you can see the bins would be no real problem here, but the hull is a few mm short in all directions. It's hard to say how this error came to be.

As you can see on the above photo I already made some progress. I have glued, filled and sanded the gun tube. I have primed it to check for flaws, but it's all right, so I have dry-fitted it to the top of the hull:

I have read, that the fit of the sprockets to the hull stubs is a little iffy and I'm afraid the rubber trucks will pull on them, so I drilled the stubs out and modified the sprockets a little to mount them on an axle going through the hull in one piece. Maybe later I'll find a nice metal 3mm axle (84mm long), for now it's bamboo, still a lot stiffer than a piece of sprue:

The next one shows how I modified the sprockets:

I have also worked on subassemblies. The commander's cupola is pretty complicated:

The MG (called Kulspruta 58 Strv - it's actually an FN MAG) is still detacheable for painting. I have holowed the barrel out a little. And I'm very sceptic about the fit of the part on the right. Can somebody tell me what it is? Does it attach to the ammo box or not? I have also left out the commander sight's window for painting. All the scopes lack armored "shutters". Gonna have to do something about it.

Other subasseblies that I tackle right now: dozer blade and the stowage bins (fiberglass style):

There are also smaller parts and almost all of them need attention. I have hollowed out the tubes of the illum mortars (what a gizmo!). The small lights on the rear were plagued by sink holes, so I have drilled those sink holes out and plugged them with (stretched) sprue:

No I plan to join the hull halves, there's a lot of filling and sanding to do there and I don't want to break anything in process - that's why the gun tube isn't permanently installed yet. Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel,

You have an interesting project going!  I also had a fascination with the S-Tank, ever since childhood.  I loved the fact that it had a diesel engine, but it was also equipped with a gas turbine to boost output during combat.  I believe those Jerry cans on the sides were supposedly filled with diesel fuel?  I would think a HEAT round would ignite the fuel and barbecue the crew!

Masking the kit is going to be a chore!  I look forward to seeing your build progress, as I have the "B" model in the stash.  It's just one color, so it's much easier to paint! My kit came with gunpowder residue in the lower hull - the box smelled of fire crackers when I opened it.  I collected the powder and lit it - yup, gunpowder!

i have read somewhere that Trumpeter goofed on the overall hull length by including the rear bins.  This causes the model to be too small.  Try fitting a 1/35 figure into the hatch and you will see the problem.  BUT - it looks like an S-Tank to me, and the scaling error is not obvious.  Plus it scores 10 out of 10 in cool factor.

I picked up one of these a long while back at the end of a show and the vendor was trying to get rid of it. I paid $10 for it. I ended up also getting the Fine Molds barrel for it, but it was $12. So what should have been a cheap project doubled because I decided I had to have an AM gun tube.

I haven't touched it since I bought it. I don't even remember if I have the -B or -C model. I was only interested in it because I have a fondness for modern kits that once existed as old Aurora kits.

I hope your project will motivate me to take another look at my kit. If I had to guess, I'd say mine is the -C.

I've read that the parts A13 & A14 were reversed in the instructions, but the parts were keyed so they can't be put in wrong.

Gennulmen - thanks a lot for your comments!

You're right - I have to watch myself, but I'm determined not to bog myself down on this one. The kit looks relatively nice and the fit of the parts is good. The parts count is high and they all require some cleanup, mostly it's the mold partition line. Not too many sinkholes, but they are there. The knockout pins are nicely placed, so that is a good thing. I didn't find good info on dimensional accuracy of this particular kit, but from what I see the model is a bit narrow for true 1:35 scale. Of course I'm not touching that :-) The details on the model match walk-around photos well, at least so far. Anyhow, I'm building on - thanks again and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel 

Out Of the Box ????    .................OH,

you are trying to be serious?

Sorry.....Good Luck, I know you will do the right thing and I shall enjoy watching and learning as you go 

Very interesting subject, Pawel. I've been tempted to buy the kit many times, so I'm looking forward to your WIP. Having followed several of your builds, odds of your doing it OOB are not so good - you tend to drift into detail, as do I.

Happy in my work;

Mike

Oh very cool!!! I saw one first hand owned by a private collector a few years ago. Seeing how it could lift, drop, and wiggle around on the hydraulic suspension was pretty awesome.

Looking forward to it.

Nice subject. Looking forward to seeing this.