– windows in the doors, attempted imitating seals with acrylic gel and paint;
– weathering, and a lot of it. An experiment with a new technique went so far as to lead to completely strip-down of the paint on the hull/cargo bed assembly.
In the first part of the build I basically completed the lower half of the vehicle and the cargo bed. Back to the crew compartment.
The AT-T’s front lights reside at the very front of the bonnet/hood on metal supports. In the kit these are PE parts, which supposedly butt-join the resin engine compartment, and on top of which the lights are glued. Images of broken-off detail in my mind lead me to soldering a piece of wire (in red) through each support like this (looking from the front):
I started construction with the chassis tub. First thing to do is gluing the back wall. Next I cut the suspension arms out of the casting block and it turned out the holes for their pins are much too small. Off with the pins, arms are drilled through, as is the tub itself – naturally observing the locations of the original holes.
I decided to use thick copper wire passing through the whole tub to make new pins. This would ease me in terms of affixing the pins and make the whole thing stronger.
“An old soldier, but not faded away yet” – that’s the way the fate of this kit can be summed up – at least in my own collection.
It all started up about 5 years ago with the impulsive purchase of the kit. Nice details, simple construction, interesting decal options (both shark-mouthed), and a comprehensive weapon set at a very reasonable price. A few months later it was destined to become the cure for a modeller’s block. Then it was cutting the flaps out, then some scratchubilt details in the cockpit. Guns are replaced with needles of two different diameters, filling and sanding of fuse seam are in order. So far so good (that’s middle of 2007):
For any of you out there that have had issues with decals not conforming to model surfaces companies would offer all kinds of magical potions. My favorite since the beginning of this year is Gunze Sangyo’s Mr. Mark Softer.
Mr. Mark Softer
This magical clear liquid comes in 40ml bottle, complete with a built-in application brush.
So far it has been successful in subduing Cartograf decals on Eduard’s MiG-21MF, DML’s own decals on the 1/72 amphibious vehicle seen here:
One of the many helpers I’ve come to appreciate in recent months is Gunze Sangyo’s Mr. Paint Remover. The clear liquid comes in a 40ml glass bottle with red cap and no brush inside.
Gunze Sangyo Mr. Paint Remover
The test subject here is the gun barrel of a Dragon Panther G. It has been painted with Alclad Stainless Steel, then covered in a layer of Revell 37 to simulate the typical German tank red-brown primer. While painting the tank I didn’t mask the barrel off, so it also received the yellow coat you see on the rest of the turret – a mix of Revell 12 (gloss) and 15 (matt).
Here’s the complete MiG-21 MF in Bulgarian Air Force service from the late 90s at the then-still-active Dobrich AFB. This particular machine has been overhauled in 1996, it has possibly been rewired to use a recce container since the MiG-21R versions were no longer flying. This local modification is known as the MiG-21 MFR. A total of 7 conversions were made.
The AT-T (Russian “Artilleriyskiy Tyagach – Tyazholiy”, Artillery Tractor – Heavy) was developed in the late 1940s using elements of the T-54 MBT (notably the running gear).
The main purpose of the vehicle was to tow heavy artillery pieces like the KS-30 130mm AA gun, the S-23 180mm gun and the B-4 203mm howitzer, so the machine got a 415HP version of the famous B-2 V-12 tank diesel. The standard 5-roadwheel chassis was used for a number of recovery and engineering vehicles. Extended versions (7 roadwheels) include the P-40 „Long Track” mobile radar, and an entire family of polar expedition vehicles.
Here’s the work done on the MF so far. Essentially the model builds itself. On this dry-fit picture the only glued parts are the halves of the vertical stabilizer and the rudder, which is offset to port.
Dry fit
Glued main office parts together and gave them a splash of color – my own mix, which when dried turned out to be very different from the kit-supplied PE variation…
Painted cockpit
Here you can see the floor. Everything in this area is basically “click-fit”. Rudder pedals were inserted later on.
As pointed out in the review below, building this kit has been a small hell. Truth be told I started building it twice, but only the second attempt is now finished. This has been the single most frustrating kit I’ve ever worked on – investing so much time and effort yielded an average-looking model – “Good from far, but far from good” as they say.
Closing the weapon bay doors, cutting out their inside frames to add supports for the doors and filling this whole mess flush was the single biggest filling-sanding challenge. I am totally not proud of my first attempt at the vertical stabilizers – ended up in different angles and gaps, with filler constantly cracking on me. Potholes down joining lines due to the plastic melting under regular Humbrol modelling glue. Two nose jobs on my second attempt due to the same reason. Sanding the **** out of the nose and arrestor hook cover. Rescribing multiple zones more than once due to lost panel lines. Landing gear unstable at best. Multiple strip-downs and resprays for various reasons and about 10 meters of Tamiya tape lost in the process.
