DML Saladin ++

[Valenstitch]

Well, buoyed by the favorable comments on my" first build in donkeys years" I have decided to make full use of the positive waves and start the depletion of my stash! After an exhaustive selection process involving some of my facebook chums(well three or four of them) it came down to the final two contenders, DML`s Saladin or Academy`s M60A2 (I am a mahoosive cold war armour fan BTW).

Both kits have their issues as hours of trawling the interweb have revealed, and both kits have their supporters and detractors. Now I doubt my efforts will alter the opinions out there much but having come back to the hobby after a long time fallow, a lot of it is "new" to me and therefore I don't think I ought to have an opinion either way at this stage!

The other thing that has changed modeling in recent years is this! The internet! It`s a marvelous resource in my opinion although my "significant other" scythingly refers to this as "Tank porn"! Ok, ramble over!

In compliance with modeling law here is the "Bang for your Buck" shot!

Four grey sprues, hull in two parts, turret, six gopping tyres, a small transparent sprue, a PE fret and a small sheet of decals, it`s all there, and IMHO it looks nice, crisp, almost no flash, looks like we`re off!

Now I know I said I was a kind of "returning prodigal" and not yet what you might consider "current" as they say in Crab Air, but I never said I was daft! Here`s the other benefit of the interweb, late night drunken online shopping!

So, here is the supporting cast! A lovely set of weighted wheels from DEF Models and a resin correction/upgrade from MR Modellbau! WooooHoooo! Now this stuff is lush! Very well done, very crisp detail and a marked improvement on the respective kit parts.

Since there is no major surgery involved in this build I expect a trouble free almost transcendental experience! (Yeah yeah whatever Dude!)

So now I`m off to get all hot and steamy! It`s time to wash all the parts prior to the kick off!

Ta for lookin`, no "G"!

Granto

[Nomore Shelfspace]

This will be intersting, especially for anyone who built the ancient Tamiya Saladin...!

[viper-30]

Seat pulled up and watching....

Terry

[Gremlin56]

Keep the photos coming, one of the best looking Armour cars ever built

[Widow 65]

I think I will put my feet up and watch this one...

[Murdo]

Wow! Yeah dude!

[Valenstitch]

Time for a quick update! Nothing fell off the sprues or the pour stubs in the washing phase and the mancave was like an oven yesterday so I was able to get cracking! First impressions, the plastic is in the "Goldilocks" zone, not too hard, not too soft, which is just as well, Dragon have some hefty sprue gates! My immediate reaction was why`d they put it there? Some of them are a real pain to clean up, but a sharp blade and a skinny stick and I was off!

The instructions are straight forward ish! Parts are duplicated because you get two and a half sprue B`s so there is a bit of a hunt for parts, the "manufacturers opinion" as I shall be referring to the Instructions from now on tends to show only one side of the assembly leaving you to figure out that you need to do things twice.

So with that in mind I got the major components together. The fit is excellent, a lot of these parts will sit quite happily waiting for a drop of Tamiya extra thin to run up the seam or join.

There was only one issue, that was with the inner mantlet. The trunnions are held in place by two U shaped pieces, if you go anywhere near it with the extra thin it`ll never move again, so I gave it a tiny blob of regular and then put two reinforcing straps of the back.

However, it`s not all plain sailing! The decal options in the kit are mainly for vehicles in the mid 60`s only one is mid 70`s, the kit however has indicators fitted, there isn't a lot of information out there about when these were fitted to the Saladin, but most of the information I`ve come across points to early 70`s which would mean removing the indicators and cabling if you want to build an early example, not a big job, but best attempted in the sub assembly phase I think. There are also a couple of issues regarding the ride height according to a couple of other forums, it`s not so much ground clearance as mudguard clearance apparently, so I had a bit of test fit followed by a ponder and a scratch, the suspension has some basic articulation built in which might allow a degree of adjustment before its all cemented solid, mind you at least half of the assembly of the kit is in the suspension, Its busy under there!

So day two underway, it`s all ok so far. Shed time!

Ta for lookin`

Granto

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[Valenstitch]

There`s forty two parts been added so far this afternoon to the hull. Like I said, It`s busy underneath, and there's probably another thirty or so to go, before we get to the wheels!

And six to the turret

Jeez, I wonder what goes in all those little holes? Guess, go on, Guess................Yeah,all the tiedown points! So from having no opinion either way I`m starting to formulate one, did the designers get paid per part? And did they have a say about where to put the sprue gates or did they turn that decision over to someone who had never seen a model kit let alone built one? Now I`m not an engineer, but I do understand why some things have to be done a certain way in engineering moulds for kits, but some of the solutions they have come up with are bonkers! It`s a good thing you get extra parts is all I can say!

But that is in my opinion a work of art! DEF Model weighted wheel for the Saladin..............It`s lovely!

Well, I`m debating whether to pile in now and start removing the wiring for the indicators..................on the other hand there`s some ice cold cider in the fridge!

Ta for lookin`

Granto

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[Hamden]

Nice start,

Roger

[Valenstitch]

So, as one of my old drill instructors used to say, "Last time I left you in this position" !

" What we are going on with today is........This!"

You can probably tell by now, I`m a grumpy old sod! Dragon, in their wisdom put the sprue gate in the middle of the tie down, a small delicate part that leaves nothing to hold on to if you want to clean it up,I could feel the rage boiling!! Ah what the hell, I just chopped the lot off and fitted them as they were with a couple of drops of Tamiya`s finest!

Both sides, all 19 of em! This morning they were rock solid and it took less than a minute with a fine sanding stick along the longitudinal axis to clean them up! absolute bargain!

Next up were these little blighters!

Smoke grenade dischargers, not a positive fit in the lot! Nine parts each, so I cemented the two outer parts together and abandoned them overnight, I`ll inspect them later on today and see how much additional work they require, there`s a bracket to come off the outer face and be replaced with a bit of brass from an old PE fret, and a hole to be drilled for the cabling in addition to cleaning up.

But it`s not all doom and gloom, the mudguards are smashing! And the bins!

I fitted the two triangular bins and left them overnight as well, the mudguards even have a turned lip just like the real thing, it`s a quality job, but you have to cope with huge sprue gates again!

So on with the weekend, I will continue with the suspension today and try to set the ride height, the photo is poor but you can see there is a lot of potential adjustment there, this will be reduced by the drive shafts which are straight unfortunately, but I have some ideas to correct that and I also want to put a bit of lock on the steering! You didn't think I was going to do a "vanilla" build did you?

Slaters`

Ta for lookin`

Granto

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[Valenstitch]

Thought there was something missing! Here`s the bad image of the suspension!

I`m off to me shed!

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[phildagreek]

Looking good, it can all get a bit "fiddly" at times.

[fatfingers]

Aye up Granto.

NIce job thus far. Ive got one of these in't stash so am watching with interest. Are you going to tackle the lack of the 30cal on the turret or build as is?

Regards,

Steve

[Valenstitch]

Aye up Granto.

NIce job thus far. Ive got one of these in't stash so am watching with interest. Are you going to tackle the lack of the 30cal on the turret or build as is?

Regards,

Steve

If you look closely in the aftermarket stuff Steve there`s a nice .30 cal there with mounting, ammo box and barrel clamp!

Granto

[Valenstitch]

Nice and windy with a touch of precipitation here in Portsmouth, Ideal shed weather! WoooHoooo! My Significant Other was off doing her thing for the day so I got some quality bench time in between a trip to the bike shop and bacon sarnies!

Today's bench problem was to set the ride height. The issue is caused by the way the suspension has been modeled. The wheels attach directly to the drive shafts, Dragon have these emerging from the hull parallel to the ground and they are separate to the rest of the suspension. In actuality the drive shaft should emerge from the hull into a CV joint then take a downward angle of about 5 degrees to another CV joint in the hub carrier, The hub carrier is about 3 degrees off vertical giving the Saladin its characteristic toe in. The wheel and drive shaft in the kit sit in the hub carrier but because of the lack of angle make the kit sit too low with no toe in.

I checked the drawings and I was able to establish that the lower knuckle of the bottom wishbone sat just below the floor of the hull when fully loaded about 2.5mm, so I cut some "T" section plastic strip which had a 2.5mm depth and glued two short lengths to a scrap of flat hardboard, when the hull was placed on these two strips it was 2.5mm clear and I was able to attach the bottom wishbones to the hull and leave them to go off. My intention now is to build the suspension with the hull sat on the jig which will mean that everything should be solid but using the ride height set by the bottom wishbone and not the drive shaft which I can then modify to conform to my datum point and not Dragons.

A rubber band secured everything while I pottered on with the turret

The scrap of hardboard is flat, it`s off the back of a picture frame, this angle makes it look bent! You can see however that the lower knuckle is just below the hull floor! This one is going in the win column!

Ta for lookin`

Granto

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[Valenstitch]

A Quiet day today, last day of the summer shutdown, back to work tomorrow, not looking forward to that! But I was able to finish the suspension correction, and here it is, Ta Dah!

Happy with that!

And this is one of the drive shafts, all six will need the angle teasing into them so they will maintain the ride height without dragging the suspension back to horizontal.

And this is something I never believed possible, straight from Beverly Hills cop 2! My fingerprints exposed by superglue fumes!

There is also a cunningly disguised mistake in the instructions

They would like you to fit the commanders rotating episcope into the top of the gunners sight! Don`t worry, you can`t actually do it, the gunners sight fits into an indentation while the commanders episcope is a"through" fitting, and you put it in from the inside facing rearwards!

Like that! The commanders forward episcopes are on now as well, I used my lazy mans trick again, chop em off, glue em in and clean up the sprue gates when everything has gone off! There isn't much more to do on the turret without cutting resin, so that`s next on the agenda!

Ta for lookin`

Granto

Edited September 11, 2016 by Valenstitch

[Widow 65]

The build is coming along well and good on you for highlighting ALL the errors and difficult areas. It's a shame that a little more research isnt done before committing instructions to print, after all its a lot of money to pay and we should get the real deal.

[Hamden]

Nice work on the suspension and turret

Roger

[prowler0000]

I'm really enjoyin' this build!

I built the ScaleCraft motorised one when my granddad got it for me back in 1975, & always wanted a 'proper' one. The Tamiya one? Never found one....

Any thoughts on colour scheme?

[Valenstitch]

The build is coming along well and good on you for highlighting ALL the errors and difficult areas. It's a shame that a little more research isnt done before committing instructions to print, after all its a lot of money to pay and we should get the real deal.

Ah, I agree Widow 65, if only the manufacturers were proper enthusiasts, but at the end of the day without their mistakes we would be nothing but assemblers!

[Valenstitch]

I'm really enjoyin' this build!

I built the ScaleCraft motorised one when my granddad got it for me back in 1975, & always wanted a 'proper' one. The Tamiya one? Never found one....

Any thoughts on colour scheme?

Well prowler, I was tending towards an early to mid sixties example, I found a nice image of an 11th Hussars vehicle which I quite like, and being ex Royal Hussars myself I've been quite swayed by that, but I haven't gone firm, There were a lot of these around and they were in use for a long time, so there's a lot of choice. I personally don't much like the sand/green or sand/sand middle east camouflage, and I don't like the later faded green/black that you see a lot of. I like the idea of doing a mint bronze green one, possibly a Yeomanry or TA one, I`ve got time to have a ponder and a scratch now I`m back to work!

[simmerit]

Well prowler, I was tending towards an early to mid sixties example, I found a nice image of an 11th Hussars vehicle which I quite like, and being ex Royal Hussars myself I've been quite swayed by that, but I haven't gone firm, There were a lot of these around and they were in use for a long time, so there's a lot of choice. I personally don't much like the sand/green or sand/sand middle east camouflage, and I don't like the later faded green/black that you see a lot of. I like the idea of doing a mint bronze green one, possibly a Yeomanry or TA one, I`ve got time to have a ponder and a scratch now I`m back to work!

Sorry for the hijack - Cyprus. Loads of possibilities with these. This is an old FiringLine Saladin I banged out a few years ago.

Great start fella - looking forward to seeing this one come together

[Valenstitch]

Well it`s been a few days since I got any bench time, mainly because of this!

A weekend in the woods at Military Odyssey! Heaps of fun! But back to work again and so to the shed................

I put a cut with a razorsaw into each of the drive shafts for the six wheels, only about 1mm deep, this was followed with a drop of extra thin to soften the styrene, a couple of minutes and I was able to tease the angle into it, this enabled the six shafts to fit neatly into their stations without straining

Like that! I am going to leave them to go off overnight so that tomorrow I can fill any remaining gap with some dissolved sprue because this is the weak link in the suspension. I also started to put a lip around the two hatches with strip, something completely ignored by DML! You would have thought that a basic and very visible detail like that might not be left out, but then again...............

I also removed the cable run for the indicators since I intend to build an early example, I was surprised that it wasn't too difficult although a little tedious, but the plastic is very forgiving "Goldilocks" zone stuff!

And finally for the afternoon, on with the gimp mask and out with the saw to take off some resin pour tabs!

Wheels, hatches, mantlet, commanders sight guard and exhaust! Oh, and the postman left this......................

Ta for lookin` No "G"!

Granto

[Arachnid]

Looking good so far,might even dig mine out(+_+)

[Badder]

My father drove one of these and later commanded one when I was a kid. (T.A. Wiltshire Yeomanry, A Squadron) He regularly used to drive it down our Cul-de-Sac to show it off to the kids and let us clamber all over it. I can still remember the smell of the thing, the grease and the diesel. I saw this kit a few months ago and will be getting it to build for him as a pressie.

Watching with interest.

Badder