The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

I like Ivan. He definitely has a red tinge about him though

Right, back to the model.

Today's progress has been to attach more parts. There are a lot of small bits and not all have locating holes so I've had to get the pin vise out and make some. There's also been some more seams and awkwardly placed ejector pin marks to deal with. Typically Trumpeter again.



The latest seams are on the storage bins and ejector pin marks were on all the mounting brackets and some of the shields. I've assembled the roadwheels, joined up the tracks and loosely fitted the plough. I'll probably fix this in the retracted position. Hopefully I'll be able to make some more progress tomorrow

This is coming along at a fair old pace, Daz. You've made a very neat job of painting the wheels and tyres.

I had heard that this one was a bit...over-engineered as a kit, Daz, but you're making a cracking job of it. Keep up the good work.

ShaunW wrote:This is coming along at a fair old pace, Daz. You've made a very neat job of painting the wheels and tyres.

Thanks Shaun. I use a plastic geometry circle template and an airbrush. I've been using this technique for about 2 years now and it's made wheel painting a doddle.

Spaceowl wrote:I had heard that this one was a bit...over-engineered as a kit, Daz, but you're making a cracking job of it. Keep up the good work.

"Over engineered" is certainly a fitting term and more polite than the way I'd describe it


And now I have a question for all Swedish armour experts out there.

What are these for?




There are 13 of them, they had 3 sprue attachment gates each and were a pain to clean up. Here they are fitted.



They appear to be some sort of stick or pole but I can only speculate as to their purpose. They're too big for ski poles, even in 1/35th scale and look too flimsy to be anything for the tank to run over on soft ground so what are they? Are they sweep's brushes? Do the Swedish Army perhaps sweep chimneys at the weekend to raise a few extra Krona? Do they advertise as "Sven's Sweeping Service"? I'm confused! Somebody please enlighten me

Anyway, on with the build. We're basically all primed up.






A coat of Tamiya XF-19 should provide a nice base for some pre-shading and, while I had the airbrush out, I gave the tracks and MG a coat of gunmetal. I'm hoping to get more paint on before the end of the day.

As far as I remember they are part of the flotation screen for fording rivers, much like on the Sherman DD

Kitaholic wrote:As far as I remember they are part of the flotation screen for fording rivers, much like on the Sherman DD

Correct !

Nice one, Daz, the completed upper hull looks like something from a sci-fi film I never knew these vehicles had a flotation device, you learn something new nearly everyday on here!

I still like the idea of Sven's Sweeping Service Oh well


And....


Pre-shading






A couple of mist coats of XF-65 and some post-shading






And then it's on it's tracks.






It's surprising how fast you can go when you get going with the airbrush. the wheels weren't exactly a joy to fit though and a little fettling was required. Similarly the small track guards which were most reluctant to go on. I think Trumpeter's tracks are a tad too wide for scale. I got there in the end though.

Some detail painting comes next I think

the preshading is excellent it really gives some depth to the painting i'm liking it a lot
craig

That looks great, Daz, I'm very impressed

Very nice!. The pre-shading version looks incredible!!. I'd say leave it like that but....

Me like it.

Thank you chaps.

I've managed to get a bit more bench time it recently and muddled a bit more progress out of the S Tank.

First a little detail painting.




The vision blocks look very blue in the picture , more so than in real life, and they will be toned down further by clear coats.

Speaking of clear coats I did manage to spray on a coat of Klear and apply the decals.




Everything in the picture is what I have left to do so, fingers crossed, it should be finished soon.

Daz I really like that as well. After seeing your excellent build I have another kit to add to my Christmas list.