SS-23 Spider - Hobby Boss 1/35

[Andy K]

"I don't envy anyone trying to get the etch ones strait and square"

Yep that's exactly what I had to do with my Miniman kit. Loadsa fun....

[RamboRamage]

Very nice, the chipping effects in the cab look great

[Andy Moore]

After finishing the AT-ST I've finally had a chance to get a little more done on this. Just a small update but at least there's a bit of progress.

The kit features a two nicely moulded turbines for the amphibious drive but they're obscured by cover plates when in place so I'll probably set the plates slightly ajar so you'll at least get a glimpse of them

The suspension assembly is quite complex and the instructions are a little vague which doesn't help. The front unit of each tandem pair needs to be fitted before the rear unit as a long retaining pin needs to be slid through the suspension arms which wouldn't be possible with the rear unit in place

Since all this would be hard to access for painting later on, I've base coated the suspension assemblies then I'll fit the rear wheel hubs. I'm not adding any further details to the underside as not much will be seen and it'll all have a layer of mud anyway

Andy

[Dads203]

Good to see you back on this Andy, it's really starting to take shape now.

[Stesca]

Great stuff Andy, nice to see again.

[Andy Moore]

Not really an update but I did a quick test fit of the wheels to check everything was sitting level, which it more or less is

I can't shake the feeling that it would look good painted up in an International Rescue livery

Andy

[dawkuk]

That's a great job. Interior looks fantastic, it really, really does.

[Andy K]

"I can't shake the feeling that it would look good painted up in an International Rescue livery"

Yep that's exactly what it reminds me of, something that would have appeared in a Gerry Anderson tv show

My Miniman Factory one is actually built as I finished the build last night;

http://andykingsmodelblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/ss-23construction-complete.html

I might even get around to painting it sometime before Christmas lol

[snapper_city]

Great work so far.

[onurkafadar]

İnside chipping fantastic like real Good stuff

[Andy Moore]

What with one thing and another, updates have been a little thin on the ground but progress is happening, albeit slowly

Over Easter I've been working on the missile chamber. I did think of adding some additional detail to it but, in reality, you can only see it from above and most of the space is filled by the missile so it'll be OOB

It would be pretty hard to get in there with the airbrush if it was built up so it'll be painted as separate pieces

The shroud that covers the warhead is a little basic and there were some inconveniently placed ejector pin marks on the inside which, as it'll be posed open, would be very obvious so I added framework from plasticard to liven it up and cover the marks

And the same again with a drop of white paint

I'll be keeping the weathering fairly restrained in here as I guess there would be a minimum of muddy booted oiks trampling around. I gave everything a bit of post shading with a Vallejo wash through the airbrush and I'll be giving it a light pin wash and a little grease and grime here and there. Once that's all done, it can go in the body and we'll be on to the external painting (actually, there's about a million little PE tie downs to add to the exterior first but I'm trying not to think about that)

Andy

[Andy K]

Wow that missile bay is exactly like the Miniman Factory one

[Andy Moore]

This build seems to be turning into a bit of a slog so I'm trying to make a bit of an effort to get some headway with it, and to that end I'm calling the missile bay done. I could have added a bit more detail but not much is seen when the missile is down.

The white was a sod to paint, mainly down to me as I used Vallejo's white polyurethane primer which I know from past experience is miserably awful. I should have ordered some Tamiya white primer but I was trying to use what I'd got. Anyway, I got there in the end although the finish is rougher than I'd like. The final top coat was Vallejo Off White and Vallejo Pale Sand in a 50/50 mix which is white without being too harsh. The four struts down the sides where done in Tam red with a drop of yellow mixed in which seems to roughly match ref shots of the real bay

The interior had some shading with Abteilung 502 Starship Filth which is a great colour for grease and grime followed by an AK brown wash. It was at this point, after the final assembly of the bay, that I realised I'd painted the missile launch rail white along with everything else when it should be in the exterior green, this despite the fact that I'd had a photo of the bay in front of me while I was painting so, this morning, the interior had to be masked and the rail sprayed in green which, to put it mildly, was a pain

The missile's had a bit of additional highlighting with a light overspray of Ammo 058 Light Green Khaki and a dark brown wash

The guidance fins are just tacked on with PVA in case I decide to replace them with PE later on (Although I'm beginning to get the impression that once this thing is done, I won't want to touch it again for quite a while)

More soon (if my will power holds out)

Andy

[Dads203]

Really really nice fella , top work fella.

Dan

[Andy Moore]

Very small update as progress has been a bit thin on the ground

I've got to the stage were I've got to add all the PE brackets and tread plates and it's reminding me why I hate photo etch

All these treads had to be bent twice into a 'U' shape which, even after annealing, was a pain as I don't have a PE bending jig (I've now succumbed and ordered a hold n fold so, hopefully, the rest will be a bit easier)

I'm sure Andy King will come on and point out that this is nothing compared to what he had to do on his Miniman version

I've also added the hose that can be seen quite prominently behind the side grills

The hold n fold should turn up in a few days so I should get more done then

Andy

[Andy K]

I'm sure Andy King will come on and point out that this is nothing compared to what he had to do on his Miniman version

Andy

[Andy Moore]

Most of the PE tread plates are now in place, a process that has been considerably eased by my new best friend; the Hold & Fold Bug. I always told myself that I didn't need a PE bender but it's been almost essential on this build

The next job is to make up and add all the tie-down brackets along the sides

These have to be folded up from a PE part and then have a length of (supplied) copper wire glued in. They're a bigger pain than the tread plates but at least there's only about 30 of them (in opposed to the 70 tread plates)

Andy

[Gajman]

Wow! Lots of fiddly work but it's looking good so far.

[Andy Moore]

The PE is finally done! It sorely tested my patience at times but all the tread plates and brackets are now on and the Spider's ready for a spot of paint

I'm hoping to get the base coat on later today but the thing is so big and covered with so many fragile parts, I think it's going to take multiple sessions to get it all covered

Andy

[Andy Moore]

It took a few coats but the Spider's finally green. This is just a base coat/primer layer and there will be more shading/highlighting on top. At this point I'm not sure if I'm going with the strait all over green or the grey-green camo but this will do as a base for either.

Over my past few builds I've not been using a primer, just going strait on with a base coat, as I like to keep the number of paint stages down to a minimum to avoid losing surface detail. I base coat with Gunze or Tamiya mixed with X-22 Clear and thinned with Mr Self Leveling which helps it bite into the surface. On this one however, I wish I had primed, not because the paint didn't take but the sandy yellow styrene that Hobbyboss use takes so much covering. There's half a jar of Gunze H303 on this

Andy

[onurkafadar]

paint quality is suberb brilliant work

[Knikki]

Know how you feel Andy, before I got back into the hobby (back in my yoof) I would happy try and paint white on black plastic and wonder why it never covered properly

[Andy K]

I WONDERED what the little holes were in the tie-down brackets were for on my kit? Dammit, something else Miniman forgot to mention in their instructions...oh well...

Your SS-23 is really coming along nicely Andy, mine has been undercoated and I'm trying to fill all the annoying gaps and dings in

[Andy Moore]

Thanks for the comments guys

Got some highlighting done on the green base tone. This was done with a mix of Gunze H303 Green and H85 Sail, well thinned and mottled onto panels and between the ribs on the sides followed by strait H85 on the upper surfaces to give it a bit of a faded look

This was followed by some silly putty masking for the grey camo

The paint guide shows strait grey (Gunze H82) for the camo but the few photos of the BAZ launcher in this camo I can find show a greener grey (although the colour balance is off in most of the photos). I didn't have the Gunze grey so I made a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Grey (bluish) and XF-20 Medium Grey (warmish) to get a fairly neutral grey then highlighted it with strait XF-20. It looks lighter than it is in the shots due to the lighting but I might lightly over-spray it with the base green to darken it and give it a greener hue

Andy

[Andy Moore]

The camo's now done. I've over sprayed the grey with mix of olive drab and interior green, heavily thinned, to try and tie it in with the base green better. Not 100% happy with it but it'll do. It's going to end up with quite a dusty weathering so that will tone the camo down somewhat anyway.

Now I've got the somewhat laborious job of delineating the camo in black (actually Panzer grey in this case). I did consider using a fine line marker but I was worried about any spirit washes making the ink run, plus strait black would have looked to stark, so I'm doing it with thinned acrylic and my trusty W&N series 7

Andy