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DDR ZSU-57-2 1962 - completed


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This is not something I would normally do, I build and try to complete models that should be consigned to the box or garbage bin of doom, but my AMX  truly is a pile of  :poop:  and deserves to be in there!!!

 

So I need to fill the space that was of a similar theme, in it was odd, produced in very few numbers and not truly successful, and it only ever was used in training exercises and had small cannons.

 

So I have this...it’s odd/ugly, was out of date by the time it officially entered service, it was produced in its thousands, used in a dozen or more wars and is still in service today even though it was first introduced into service in 1955 and has bigger cannons!!

 

Takom’s ZSU-57-2........I was tempted with the ZSU-23-4, but that may come another time.

 

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I’m taking photo’s as I open the box so I don’t really know what’s in there...other than lots of shiny bags filled with plastic goodies.......

 

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....which turn out to be lots of plastic goodies, there’s 5 sprue sets of shells!

 

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There was almost tears of joy to see a complete chassis tub!!! :wub:

 

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The instructions are like a book (I’ve build a Takom model before, the instructions are really nicely done).

 

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It even comes with PE, wire, some nice painting instructions, mine will be an East German one...

 

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Plus some decals which include a rather grumpy looking dude with a beard! I mean with something as awesome as this shouldn’t you be smiling?

 

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....and the obligatory extras.....

 

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The barrels are awesome, I could only afford empty shells, and the track are just models all on their own.

 

This build should be a nice and simple one which should make me forget about that which shall not be named anymore! :shutup:

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wow!

 

your models want me deeper envolved in tank modelling..... for everybody's sake, there are not a lot out there in 1/48 :D

 

looks in way better shape than the AMX, but no resin either!! :confused:

 

 

and no Su-11 either... strange world! 

 

;)

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, exdraken said:

wow!

 

your models want me deeper envolved in tank modelling..... for everybody's sake, there are not a lot out there in 1/48 :D

 

looks in way better shape than the AMX, but no resin either!! :confused:

 

 

and no Su-11 either... strange world! 

 

;)

 

 

 

 

 

Those Takom AFV's are super nice, though they have some slight modelling issues the detailing is really beautiful and they go together quite easily.

 

Good resin AFV's are either super hard to find or super expensive......and there are some super horrible ones out there and they're way beyond being unbuildable! I have two of them!

 

That Su-11!!! There are only 2 things stopping me....not donor and I don't have the new metal nose. But the idea is still ticking away, it'd be a super quick build to, probably quicker than a standard Su-7...well for me anyway!

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Well first update and it should have been yesterday but just got side tracked with this build....I’m sooooo enjoying it. So this update will be for 2 days.

 

First up yesterday I started on the tracks, I couldn’t hold off any longer they’re so nice.

 

Friulmodel don’t actually make tracks for this model but the chassis and tracks for this vehicle are based off the T-54/55 tank. They just removed a set of road wheel and shorten the chassis. So I could use the set for the T-54/55 and just have some left over, which turned out even more that I thought.

 

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It took me a couple of hours to do (with interruptions) but the whole process while a bit repetitive is actually quite relaxing. The only odd thing was that you normally get a set of LH and RH side tracks (the pins are fitted from the inside of the track), but this time they were both the same. Any way they do look rather nice. The front set are the kits plastic tracks, they are well moulded and detailed, but those 7 took longer to glue than making up the equivalent metal set.

 

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The road wheels and track wheels and nicely moulded, even to have the bearing detail moulded in and dust caps to go onto them.

 

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The chassis suspension was next, this is where I came into the first sort of issue with the model. The running gear and suspension is common as mentioned to the T-54/55 which Takom makes. With these common sprues I noticed some flash and mould inconsistencies with the parts. While the detail was crisp the mould lines were very noticeable and there was flash starting to develop on these parts which had to be cleaned off, this was not present on the unique spures to this model.

 

I’ve seen this before of these Chinese models and I wonder if the moulds are maybe made of a material not quite as resilient as that from other countries. I’ve built lots of other models that have common and unique sprues and have not seen this before, I’ve only come across it with these Chinese produced models. 

 

Anyway it looks all nice with the tracks fitted. The “rubber” road wheels have moulded detail on them, I can’t imagine how long that would have lasted in real life, so I’ll remove that before painting (they just slide off).

 

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Now the odd thing is, Takom tell you to make up 2 tracks of 92 links each, which i did with the Friul ones. I tried to fit them and they didn't even come close to fitting, I had to remove this may links from both track! I'm not sure how they managed to stuff up the link count. The T54/55 had 100 links (?) per track, this one only needed 78 links. Not the sort of stuff-up you want when you have to glue track together.

 

The rest of the chassis went together so easily. There was a bit of a join between the upper and lower hull that needs extra cleaning up and a touch of filler. But all in all it all just fell into place.

 

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The rear engine vent covers I “dented” in a bit to give them some wear, people always stand on things like that.

 

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It does look a bit odd with that huge turret.

 

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I’ve started working on the guns now, this is very time consuming! This is where I have my only grips about Takom. This is the second model from them I’ve built and it has the exact same problems. One, while the instructions are very nice they are not so good in showing/telling you where exactly some of the parts actually go! Which doesn’t help with the second grip, they seem to have an aversion to using location pins on the majority of the parts and if they do use any then they will only use 1 or 2 really tiny ones. Gosh does this make building assemblies like the cannons really hard!

 

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It’s been really nice to just build something that’s sort of falls into place  without having to resort to major surgery/modification/customizing/obligatory swearing!! I may spend a couple of more days on her before normal service resumes.

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Great work on the model. I love friul tracks specialy if they hang like that on a model.

I have never took the count of tracks serious in a manual. I always looked it on the model and did some dryfitting of how much was still needed. But this one progress nicely. 

 

Cheers, 

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On 8/6/2018 at 7:16 AM, Arniec said:

Great work on the model. I love friul tracks specialy if they hang like that on a model.

I have never took the count of tracks serious in a manual. I always looked it on the model and did some dryfitting of how much was still needed. But this one progress nicely. 

 

Cheers, 

I agree they do look great when they're hanging correctly, especially on the E-100 I have. I could believe they got the count wrong for the tracks though, with glue together track it could have gone quite wrong!

 

anyway back to the build...

 

I’ve been a bit slow with the updates on this one, but really it’s just been lots of assembling .The gun mount and all the associated bits have been a right pain to assemble. As mentioned Takom is a bit slack when it comes to using locating pins and as a result the fit can be quite sloppy! 

 

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Ok the new barrels have been fitted, they look soooo much better than the kit ones (these old ones will be used on another project).

 

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It looks pretty impressive when fitted to the mount. I still need to do some painting before I can start fitting the actual guns to the mount.

 

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This horrible little basket took ages to assemble...I really do hate PE!!  The basket fits on the rear of the turret to collect spent shells as they are ejected (not too sure how that actually works).

 

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The rest of the bits (well most of) were fitted to the chassis before it was given a coat of grey and some basic panel line pre-shading.

 

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She does look good with the turret fitted. 

 

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Next up was more pre-shading work. The colour scheme only uses one colour so to help break it up a bit I’m doing some extra pre-shading. All the shadow areas were given a light coat of dark grey, this’ll help to darken up the green in these areas. On the upper surfaces that are more exposed to the sun I gave a light coat of yellow. I’ve found yellow works much better than plant white for this sort of pre-shading (and even with dry-brushing over green), it lightens and fades quite nicely without changing the colour too much, which is what I’m after.

 

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I’m doing the same thing with the EBR so hopefully by the end of tomorrow I’ll have most of the major painting out of the way. I may even get to start painting the tracks!

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Painting time today and it went really well....but first!

 

I did for a while think Mr. Hobby’s Levelling Solution was the best thing since sliced bread until I found it caused all my clear paints (Tamiya’s Clear/Semi-Clear/Matt plus even normal Mr Hobby acrylics) to go a yellow/orange colour in their jars, after a couple of months!!! It works ok on the day but if you’re like me and like to pre-batch super thin paints, it just ruins them colour wise after a few weeks! Tamiya’s own acrylic thinners or Isopropyl alcohol work well but you just don’t get the same nice finish as with Levelling solution.

 

Well I’ve found something way and even better and it won’t affect the paint! Tamiya’s Lacquer Thinners! It goes on much nicer than the levelling solution and you can thin paints right up to 90:10 and they don’t go on wet! Plus it works perfectly with Mr Hobby acrylics as well........probably not with anything else though!

 

The finish is sort of what I wanted.......not actually knowing what I wanted, if that makes sense? The upper surfaces have a bleached/sunburnt tone while the under surfaces are a bit darker.

 

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I did the “tyres” plus started on the tracks....not so good here the burnishing solution didn’t seem to work that well....maybe because I forgot to wash the track properly beforehand! I may have to paint them now, but at least they sit nicely though.

 

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The gun mount/s and barrels have been given a coat of clear already for shading and detailing.

 

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It’s starting to look really nice...

 

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.....and that’s where I come unstuck!!

 

I don’t really know how to proceed now! :shrug:  On an aircraft I know how to (well sort of) do all the panel work/weathering etc. But on an AFV...well I’m completely out of my comfort zone and not too sure how to progress. It’s way too flat at the moment and the next steps will either make it or break it. I may have to go onto youtube to see how some of these professional guys do it!

 

I was also hoping to have had the EBR painted as well, but after a few hours of research (there was no paint guide for that model) I found don’t have the correct paint for her, NATO Green.

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Very nice work Rich, your pre-shading certainly seems to have worked well.

As for how to weather it I wouldn't know, I would just proceed as if it was an aircraft with a coat of clear then a dark wash followed by matt varnish and then highlights and extra weathering. Probably totally wrong!

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Nice work Rich. The pre shading has worked a treat. 

 

Good of work on that pe basket too. I'm with you, I hate the stuff but still end up using it when necessary.

 

James

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8 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice work Rich, your pre-shading certainly seems to have worked well.

As for how to weather it I wouldn't know, I would just proceed as if it was an aircraft with a coat of clear then a dark wash followed by matt varnish and then highlights and extra weathering. Probably totally wrong!

thanks, I was figuring I might just do the same, still I have some good stuff on modelling AFV's so I'll have a wee read of them as well.

6 hours ago, franky boy said:

Good of work on that pe basket too. I'm with you, I hate the stuff but still end up using it when necessary.

 

 

1 hour ago, Hewy said:

That horrible little basket as you called it looks superb, even more so painted, looks like you'll be building in the armour section before long,  seems your good at this

I really do hate PE some days! This basket was hard, there are wee locating tabs (about the only time Takom uses them on this model!!!) that are so perfectly positioned they they wouldn't interlock when folded. So you ended up bending this out of shape, some modification was required on them!! They actually recommended you soldered the PE bits together, I know how to solder (or in this case silver solder) and it would have ended up in tears!

 

But as you mentioned with a coat of paint she actually looks really good and worth all the cursing and muttering that occurred!

6 hours ago, Learstang said:

The ZSU-57 - excellent work on this interesting-looking beast! I wouldn't mind having one of these in 1/72nd scale.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

I wasn't too sure if I'd like this model at the start, but she's really growing on me!! I know I now have to get an ZSU-23-4 to go with her!! :D

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6 hours ago, exdraken said:

Pe and paint work look rather good!! :)

 

thanks, I've put her aside for a bit to concentrate now on the Sabre Dog, I've nearly finished the new ejector seat so should have an update toworrow...plus now have the right paint for the EBR.

 

Will be a very busy weekend!

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  • 2 weeks later...

It has been a little while since I’ve done anything to her but I have made some good progress, the end is in sight and I may actually finish an AFV!!! :yahoo:

 

Right all the painting is pretty much done and dusted and it’s time to finish off the guns and then get down-n-dirty!

 

The gun cannon breach units are finally mounted after first being clear coated, panel-lines (?) done and some dry-brush detailing work. Then the mount was fitted to the turret. As can be seen no one cleans their feet before climbing into the freshly painted turret!!! 

 

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The sighting setup was fitted as well, what I pain that was!

 

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Looks impressive with the barrels fitted!

 

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I still have quite a bit of work to do here before I actually fit the barrels.

 

I started doing work on the inside of the turret as well.

 

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One of the only two decals on the whole model. I’ll tidy up some of the grubbiness before it gets a coat of clear flat, then I can start on the weathering it.

 

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Some of the final bits painted, the seats need some work to make them a bit more believable.

 

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The tracks are about halfway there, the colours right, now they just need some dirt to finish them.

 

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Speaking of which, I had lots of fun getting her nice and dirty with pigments and stuff!

 

It’s a bit over the top at the moment but this is the initial coating. I’ll now spend some time knocking it back, changing bits and getting it a bit more realistic. I must say its lots of fun!

 

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The tracks sit perfectly and this area does look really good, I think.

 

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All together she does look really impressive. Once the outside on the turret is done it’ll tie in a lot better.

 

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I can’t fit the basket until the turret is completely together as it’s just too fragile to fit now.

 

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There is still quite a bit to do on her but the end is in sight with this AFV as well, I’m now really looking forward to starting the SA-4 beast!

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  • 2 weeks later...

close but not quite.....

 

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on her on and off over the past week or so and she’s nearly there.

 

All the main bits are complete and it’s just some minor stuff to finish.

 

I really have no idea what I’m doing with the weathering other than playing around with stuff and generally having fun and making a big mess!!

 

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I think she looks quite cool and very much a used vehicle. The tracks arn’t perfect but for a first go I’m pretty pleased at how they came out and look.

 

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The "cockpit" (you can't take the plane out of me!!! :D) is now quite busy and a bit cramped!!!

 

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With luck this will be completed this weekend.

 

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Looks good to me Rich. In my experience AFVs came in two conditions; freshly washed and in parade condition or an absolute mess. Always the latter when they needed worked on :rolleyes:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well she finally finished, not quite as soon as I had hoped but it’s the first AFV that I’ve managed to finish in under a year!!!! :yahoo:

 

I had lots of fun playing with the dirty finish, I’m not sure if it’s right or not, it’s all new to me so I’m learning as I go.  

 

It was such an enjoyable build I can see some other AFV’s in the stash being moved up the build list. 

 

There will be different (if I don’t get them too muddled up) photo’s in the gallery and RFI sections.

 

enjoy

 

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