Ceadda

Well, I'm really sorry for not updating in so long! Things have been pretty manic lately including five weeks overseas which was fantastic; I visited Serbia and brought back a few finds from a model shop in Belgrade as well as a lot of photos from the military museum and the aerospace museum, too. If you ever visit it's well worth checking both places out! Standing next to a real life Stug III and a Panzer IV was a phenomenal experience, as was being able to do a full walkaround of a MiG 21, Mil 8, Kamov 24 and other relics dumped outside in the grounds of the aerospace museum. Top stuff! So back to the build - things have changed, and I'm modelling something from Tajikistan following finding this gem of a kit in Belgrade: http://www.aviapress.com/engl/icm/icm35005.jpg Pretty much all the figures I'll need to make a nice little scene, so I thought I'd paint my BTR in a heavily worn desert scheme that might have been repainted a few times to suit different battlefields. I've kept the green undercoat but applied desert sand with large green camouflage to the sides, which I've represented as chipped to hell and then weathered, which I'm quite pleased with. The top I've leftwithout markings as pictures I've been looking at don't always continue the markings on top. Instead I've applied rough chipped desert sand paint, and tried to achieve a blistered, rusting effect to resemble a long-worked machine. My trip also took me to my grandmas house - she has tonnes of my dad's and uncles'old 1/35 stuff and most of it is going in the bin, slowly. Sadly not much of it is even worth saving as the paint is thick and the glue heavy so most of the detail is hard to bring back, and it's mostly old Tamiya stuff from the 70's. All the same, I decided to save this BMW motorcycle and I'm half way through giving it a repaint from Wehrmacht grey to sun burnt red, and adding some gear to make it more at home in the North Caucasus. Lastly, here's a shot of two figures for my little dio. The first is a modified WWII German Paratrooper holding an AK 74 I knocked up from one of those K2 rifles from the Korean tank crew figures. He's wearing denim jeans and I tried to sand the german helmet into something a bit more Russian. Hopefully he resembles something a bit militia-like. And lastly, here's one of my favourites from my new ICM kit - Mr Bin Laden himself? I'm not sure what kind of MANPADS he is holding; it doesn't look like a Stinger or a Strela but I've been wrong before, so someone may well know and be able to help. The sink marks in these figures are disappointing and the bodies need filling and re-sculpting to fit properly, as well as a lot of flash removing, BUT they are a niche and come up rather nicely once worked on! Feedback, criticism and comments are always welcome, as usual! Ceadda

Just a note to say this build is still continuing! I'm on mobile currently and I'm not sure how soon I can get to the computer to show you some pics. I've been reconsidering the camouflage again, and I've decided to send my btr to the north Caucasus, perhaps some time around the Ngarno Karabakh war. The overall colour is a pale sand, with heavily chipped green paint hastily applied. I found this video helpful for colour schemes:

Matchbox used to do quite good palm trees. I don't know where you'd get any other than in their kits that came with a little diorama. I remember my dad got me one and it was a brilliant kit - a few people AND a little base. This was the one I had - incidentally, this site is also fantastic for finding info on the matchbox kits: http://www.matchboxkits.org/product_info.php?products_id=340

Well, today was actually pretty damn good. I had a meeting at the university and hopefully I'll be returning to study quite soon, which has put me in a rather good mood - so good in fact that I thought I'd take another dip into the holiday funds and treat myself to a pack of these: Only $5! Not sure why but the shop had about ten boxes of these in stock... bit weird really, but perhaps there's a large Korean modelling niche that I don't know about in Wellington. Anyhow, I don't intend to model them in their Korean guise but as Russians in Grozny in the summertime. They actually go together quite well, although I think I'll only use a couple to sit atop the APC, and maybe one of the standing figures too, but not the tank commander. Here's the sort of pose I'm thinking about, maybe after conflict just relaxing. I'm going off this photograph for the camouflage, and incidentally I noticed that they're sitting on a BTR haha! http://i.imgur.com/7jCUH.jpg The ROKA tank crew come with these weird guns which I have no idea what they are tbh. I'm drawn to thinking they're incredibly bad mouldings of an M16A2, but perhaps someone knows better than me. A quich wiki search of guns of the ROKA didn't bring up anything similar, so your guess is as good as mine I suppose. I cut a few parts away and after a chop up and re-glue, I made something which I think vaguely represents a Skorpion smg, so I'll arm my troops with these instead of the weird rifle from the kit. Lastly, I have cut and sanded the filler, and now the hull is complete. I think this is some of my neatest filling work so far, however I've been working on aircraft with the stuff up until now, so straight lines were always going to be easier. Next on the agenda is to get a film base-coat of paint on, which means adding the last of the more robust details, and leaving the very delicate things to after painting. This is a fun little kit despite its shortcomings; once you get going it all starts to sort of make sense. Ceadda

Well, here we go! Just before I head out, I thought I'd put up a few pics.The hull is together, courtesy of Humbrol poly cement and Tamiya Basic putty. Yeah, fit hasn't been superb so far... I really think these instructions are awful. Take it from me, do the suspension first then build the hull, and then put all the details on. I had to remove this swimming shield thing because the fit is poor and it'd get in the way when I ultimately come to sanding it. Anyhow, the filler is on and drying! Fooling around with camouflage + Zvezda plastic doesn't seem to weld together very well. These engine covers keep dropping off. And lastly, to prove my analysis of the instructions works... ...we have working steering! Anyone got any tips about how to fit the exhaust pipes? I've tried, but I can only mount them horizontally if I put them upside down - the pipe receiver thing interferes with one of the hatches. Just one of many unusual features of this kit! Any help gladly appreciated! Ceadda

A quick, photo-less uupdate. I've glued the main hull together after finishing the suspension. The working steering should be quite cool! I'm actually quite impressed with the kit so far, as although it's a bit of a dog it's building up into a rather nice APC. The fit of the hull is poor, and the joins require filler which is going on tonight. The side doors also require a bit of cutting to make them fit flush. All in all though a good microbite of progress. Hope to give you some pictures soon! Thanks for reading 😊

I love the 154. It's almost as if they forgot it needed wheels and added those spiky fins for them last minute.

Progress report from hell on eight wheels! Well maybe not progress, but I thought I'd try and decipher the instructions a little for anyone else attempting to build one of these things as the suspension is quite tricky to figure out on paper, though in reality is quite simple. Lots of dry fitting and cursing was involved, but I got there! The stages of the model break down the sub-assemblies into four parts, and I think this is the part that is most unhelpful, as this big drawing (step 13 - unlucky indeed!) should really be at the start. In fact, I think that the suspension and undercarriage should be the first thing that you build on this model, not the railings and add on bits for the upper hull, but back to the construction... I've coloured the four steps 8,9,12,11 (real logical order I know) in four colours. The numbers are the same on the other side. Assemblies 12 and 11 do not move, so their assembly stages are for the full construction of the suspension gear. Suspension for 8 and 9 is a little different, as these are the steering axles and are therefore trickier too. I think this is where the big confusion comes in, because 8 and 9 are only sub-sub-assemblies, the pair becoming complete in step 10. I've written on the plans in boxes 8 and 9 that these are the bases, unlike 12 and 11. Still following? You thread your B14 steering rod, and B22 connecting rod through the slits in the hull, fit the wheel set piece onto both B14, B22 and your base piece of either 8 or 9. Ignore the D18 markers, I think they're identifying the hull, which is completely unnecessary as where else would you attach the steering to? Crazy Ruskies... Cap off the completed steering rods with a B6, which should really be x4 rather than x2 as you have to do this four times as opposed to only twice with each steering and connector rod. So you've survived the worst, and now it's onto the home run. Join the B14 steering rods up with part A29, making sure you don't glue it to the hull or the connector rods. This will make your steering work properly and ensure the wheels work in unison. Then use a B1 wheel hub without glue and cap the spindle with a B16 (which you must glue). Then close up the inside with a D3 hub cap, and once you've added a tyre, you're good to go. So there you have it. A week of dry fitting and asking my Russian friend for any clues from the Russian words on the page (there aren't any btw, only a nice, centralised address for Zvezda - somewhere to vent your complaints to perhaps!). Hope this helps any other poor soul unfortunate enough to be entrapped by this blighter!

I see a few people biffing models on here, and this isn't a personal attack, but I think it's a bit unnecessary! Sometimes I get some truly dreadful kits (The aforementioned Airfix Grumman Gosling is horrible) but on a boring day with hours to kill it was a delight to basically rebuild it. If anything ita a model I'm more proud of than some others, as I've done more than slap it together and paint her up.

Okay I've messed that up a bit, but I'll improve hopefully. I'm using a mix of HU 110, 34 and Tamiya XF 26 to make this pale green. I gave the upper and lower half a once over, but then started adding more parts so I've resolved to just stick all the bits on and then sandwich the two halves together (not including railings and other fine parts. Construction has proved a real pain - I can definitely, definitely see why Eduard make a PE set for thiis beast - Zvezda have done an utterly crap job of moulding the railings. They're either far too brittle and fragile, or have far too many attachments to the sprue that even with careful cutting (and an experiment in hot knife work), they still broke. Because of this I''ve just filled all the holes of the ones I couldn't put on, which I'll sand back and then paint over. A little bit of a disappointment, but there's a lot more to be done and not too many more fiddly bits, so I'm hoping the rest of the build should be smooth. I should really stop saying how hard can it be though, as I often discover in life! Zvezda instructions man... words just don't fill the huge gaps the instructions leave. I've got the rear suspension sorted and glued together (the front is a little more tricky as the model has working steering and I'd like it to work). Anyhow, I painted the axles and suspension gear in the same pale green (I'm brush painting btw, I don't have enough $$$ for an airbrush!), then added some weathering powders made into a sludge wash to hopefully look like caked on road dirt. I don't think you see too much of this area once the wheels are on, however all experience is good experience, especially with weathering! And side by side. Are my pictures too big? Sorry if I'm unintentionally causing some computers to lag. I'm better in the workshop than in front of a computer! Any questions, comments or tips are gladly welcomed!

Well I've finally been able to get onto the computer! I find these days that I don't need a computer as phones can do so much, so when my laptop packed in I didn't bother getting a new one. At least you can upload pics to Photobucket quite easily from mobile to save you transferring them via email. Anyway! I'm sure you're not too interested in my life aside from modelling getting lost in technology. Back to the BTR!

I'm also trying to work out how to post photos... I'm using mobile on an HTC One M8 and even on full it's a complete pain. Maybe I'll use the big computer when I get home! (I'm reading the help topics, too)

Whilst going to my local model shop (which is some 100km away!) to get a tin of Hu 90, I came across this lovely Zvezda kit for only $30. As paint here (NZ) is about $4-5, I thought I'd put the underside of my RAF Grumman Gosling to another day, and bought the kit. I'd seen the wonderful detail packs for this before by Eduard, but I'm really working on a budget as I dipped into the holiday funds for my trip to Serbia this summer, but for a 1/35 model of quite a large apc, I felt this was a pretty good price. This is my first foray into 1/35 vehicles; I once bought some German Paras by tamiya a few years ago, but most of my modelling has been 1/72/6. I've also got a model railway so I'm comfortable working small scale. I'm going to be building the kit as seen in the Chechen wars or perhaps the Nagarno Karabakh conflict. As I'm traveling to Srpski this summer I was tempted to paint it up in the Kosovo scheme, but for lack of pictures and lack of heavy mud, I've opted for something in the Caucasus. I'm new to the forum, so this is a hello as well as a build post. It'd be ace if some of you master builders could help with tips for this kit, as the instructions are a little brief... Perhaps paper is expensive in Russia as everything is crammed onto one sheet of limp newsreel, printed both sides. I've been dry-fitting the hell out of this thing to work out the best way of putting it together!