Robert Stuart

I'm no 12 in your also had bit. happy to be included in

Good luck with this one Alan - especially those tracks. Interested to see some figures, they should give your Build some life.

Going to watch this one with interest Dennis - I too have a soft spot for Defiants.

Looks good. I just can not get on with plastic tracks, they keep collapsing on me, but, I'm impressed with your track jig ... that looks great.

Painting! Started priming today, done most of it Many of the parts inside this vehicle have their own local colour, so I've decided to paint on the sprue, and to touch up cut faces as I assemble the model. Most of my priming is white - I prefer that as a general base colour to grey or black. Parts primed, hanging out to dry ... A few components will be in shadow, so they are black (and yes, I haven't worried about those bits of flash around the axels - yet) And, back in the box The shells are black (black, IMO, makes a good base for metalic colours), and engine was primed grey. Was grey, and now is aluminium The differential (I think), the blurred box at the bottom left here, is also aluminium.

Making tracks ... The track links are MasterClub. MasterClub supply resin pins to join their tracks, two per hinge. A good idea in principal, but having bent four or five pins, I decided to go back to the old fashioned method - wire pins. The wire is bronze wire I have to hand - brass is more usual. I have yet to apply any glue, hence the untrimmed grab handles on those pins (they are over length )

One kit, years ago was OK. A different kit, made at a different time ... take caution

A couple of years back, I built a UM kit that came with tyres. On advice I replaced the wheels with resin examples, but, as a test, I assembled the wheels & tyres and kept them (no paint, no glue, no varnish) ... ... the original wheels are still good.

Ppps - decided that 'tube' is a log, maybe paired with one on the other side? No, the other side is the head lamp

Or ... you could check out MiniArt's Early Production Su-122 They have .pdf copies of their instructions on the web-page ( https://miniart-models.com/products/35181/ ) - 909 is shown on page 16. (Miniart suggest a red circle, not a star, for the recognition mark), P.S. Don't think MiniArt have that tube on the RHS ... but then their vehicle number is supposed to be 909, not 908 as in Troy's photo pps. Suspect image of the parade front of the Narva Triumphal Arch is reversed (look at the periscopes).

This is me skipming that little detail ... Radiator ?Break drums? Engine, and a tank Engine bracket, tank, and ammo rack I can at least say, this build has started

Looks like this will be an interesting build - Think you may have another problem? What might be one of the fuel tank halves appears to be short shot? At least those were not always carried. Good luck with this one Keith

That is a good recovery there JB - not sure, but it looks from the photos as if that break was on a join line? Good luck with the rest of your build, I hope that was the only disaster to befall your kit.

Those images look great @Garethm You may be aware, there is a whole genre of art using miniatures - goole link: https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=miniature+figures+in+art

Lots more, as you say. Sanity? OK, right! The box is open ... By my book, that is pretty dense packing MiniArt did leave a little space, maybe they thought I'd store some glue here, or ... And the sprues ... out of the box. I have, maybe foolishly, ordered some metal track