Silenoz

Kit is on the way too... looks good so far. Did you also go for the RFM-upgrade set?

I hope it will still be visible after all... so packed it completely in again... and then painting time.... got me some shivers because the paint was thinner then expected and had less coverage for such a dark color... it will only be visible after unpacking, so here it go's Me happy... just came to the conclusion that I'm missing a part... hope I can still find it, but... some lines are a bit blurry at some points, but the tape has it's thicknes, and I did my best to press it around the details....

A whole lot of masking tape later: And then paint... The mix proposed didn't even come close to what it should have been... not even by a longshot Playing with the ratio: darn... Finally I reached out to the clubmembers which could be a better mix, and then after an hour of mixing, testing (on a bottle) instead of the model...: Me happy, some corrections and then restart for the third color...

Thank you guys... How I tackle the camo? With patience... 2 evenings of taping later: still a lot of work to do on this cupolla. Found a guide with 4 views, allas top and bottom are missing...

Thank you

Another one in the series of modern Russian vehicles in 1/72 is the MSTA-S also known as 2S19... Don’t you like those Russian nomenclature? It still doesn’t say anything. The MSTA is a selfpropelled 152mm howitser, comparable to the American M-109, French AUF-1 and German Pzh-2000 and is the successor of the 2S3 Akatsiya (and no, you don’t have to sneeze to pronounce it, dangerous times by the way). This gun also has a towed version with a lot of common components STA-S: The base is a T-80 chassis with a T-72 Diesel-Engine and a complete new suspension. Development started in 1980 with the Ferma project, as object 316. This gun has an automatic loader, a semi-automatic loading-systeem for the munition, NBC protection, passive nightvision for the driver, wading kit, dozerblade, smokegenerator, 81mm launchtubes for countermeasures and was recently upgrades with An automatic firecontrolsystem. All types ammunition can be fire like HE, chemical, tactic nuclear, lighting etc... Max firing range is 36km, dependant on the munitiontype. Also laserguided ammo can be used... Other facts: Crew of 5 Range of 500km, max speed 60km/h 6-8 rounds/minute Weight: 42t Length: 7.15m Width: 3.38m Height: 2.99m The kit: And the parts: A lot of handles molded shut on this one : So the first steps are to replace these by wire : And how I do it: I start with removing the part to replace with a knife. Be gentle not to cut away other molded on detail. The white line after cutting is ideal as a reference so trace a hole for centering with a needle or the like. The markings: Next up is drilling the holes using the center holes. Here Is use a wire 0.3mm, so I drill slightly larger with 0.4mm. After this the part can be cleaned: Next cut two lengths of wire (1 for each handle) they can be too large you need some length for glueing. Bend them 90° to make the first leg. And fit it through one of the openings: The easiest way to determine the length for me personally: I use some flat pliers (no teeth) and slide it over the free arm. Then I aim for the furthest border of the correspondent hole, hold the pliers there, remove the handle from the hole and make the second bend: Remount the handle: And push it to the end, apply a drop of CA on the non visible side: And slide it to the right depth… by this the hole gets slightly filled with CA. Also a gauge (small plate) can be used to obtain a universal distance. And finally some more details on the cupolla like the ammo loading system, Mg, cable throughs, etc... MG is still dryfit, so if it doesn't sit straight, no real pain yet… Also made a choise for the camo: And first layer (buff): This pic replicates the color the best, the rest seems darker So far the easy work… taping will take a lot of time I suppose...

With regards to the rivetting, elsewhere some people said it wasn,'t that visible... I don't want any craters, just some effect Construction of the wingtip lights. Started with a piece of thick plastic... just saw/cut/sand whatever it into it's basic shape, then drill a small hole and fill it with either red or blue (in this case, thought green was universal) paint. Paint the contact surface siver and glue them in place with CA. Sanding time: almost there... same for the other side. Last dials for the cockpit: Interior PE for the flap-housing added: Needs some more sanding where the hull meets the wings, top and bottom. Canopies are taped in. Hardly to believe, but it's almost time for paint (Mostly my projects finish right there due to circumstances...)

thx, will update the text, or remove it altogether. With regards to the handles, next time I'd reinforce them with solder. Now they bend if the wind changes direction... lesson learned Some progress: a bit of a heavy wash with van dijcke bruin oliepaint, added certain dials and some small damages. Dito here, some heavier damage where the feet hit the floor. The IP : Looks better when mounted I do not want to pretend that the kit fits good... but dryfit without blutack or anything else: Some sleek lines... And here something looks off.... the height of the engines is equal, but the wingtips differ 1mm in height... to examine before final mounting. 1 Wing (left) was slightly bent in the kit, maybe that's the reason... to be continued...

Waiting for paint for the Zvezda projects... So time to pick up this one again. Made some brakelines on the landing gear: Just bende a wire into shape and glued it into place with CA. Then cut some tiny making tape strips and glued these as holders for the wire. The footsteer tot lost in the building process, and made a new one from bits of sprue... A bit crude, but hardly visible in the end. So ready for primer... And after Mr Surfacer 1500: Next the cockpit in it's basecolors: Front: Rear: Seats and radio: Some touchups still need to be done, but also some handles... A lot of them... Tried painting them first and building up layers to thicken the knobs... Next time, cut the knobside loose, apply some ca, paint then... Paint is to weak for the tweeters... 10 levers for this piece Ready for weathering: Engines ready: Also crude, but they come in very narrow cowlings... So not much will be seen. And the main reason why this one was temporary parked... rivetting:

Damn, a true work of art and love.... Splendid result, and a pleasure to follow along the way...

Now the hardest part, painting... Not my cup of tea...

Finally some progress on this one too. I've installed the slatarmor at the sides (permanent) and at the rear (temporary): The first dryfit of the bottom piece of the lower sidearmor gave me an instant facepalm moment... The part was ok, but mirrored (jigs... you have to mount the parts upside down, yeah, you know...) So back to start, spend some time in jail thinking about it and don't receive money for a job not well done... jadajadajada... so all was desoldered, resoldered and a half an hour later I was ready to start ... again... so more to cut away, but it looks promising. beware of the beautiful original parts... The PE isn't a necessity, I can't stress this enough) The bottom protruding corner was left, mainly becaus it was like this on the original part, but also for some extra gluing surface... still a bit of CA to clean, but so far so good... Next, the rear armor, a plethora of small parts, all needed to be aligned during mounting... didn't work out like this... So I took the soldering apparatus again, and soldered the brackets and top-parts as a whole... gave me the creeps, but it resulted in a manageable and mountable part... albeit fragile... and dryfit: The barrels are from Zedval, they also included the antenna base, but that part is still in their bin, and I received some burrs, Also a wire has been added to the camera: The tow-cables needed some small PE, also added a small locking handle: and a rear view: ready for primer....

Very nice...