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VT-55, Armada hobby 1/72


Silenoz

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Mine will be armoured revovery vehicle based on the T-55 chassis. haven't decided yet on a camo version (green) or a forest fire fighting vehicle (bright red)

07cce1eea9488d0ada5c2c1f2e40316b_f389.jp

 

Boxart:

468633-11032-99-pristine.jpg

and the parts:

658671-11032-51.jpg

 

658672-11032-39.jpg

 

658673-11032-35.jpg

 

658674-11032-46.jpg

 

658675-11032-75.jpg

 

And should hopefully build into:

02.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Silenoz and welcome to the T-55 STGB! As Glynn says above - that is a fine looking kit. It also looks like a lot of work and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in progress. :popcorn:

Kind regards,

Stix

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Thx, started cleaning up and identifying parts...

 

Not an easy task because the instructions are minimal (not throwing a Stone, but for a 45€ kit...):

659342-11032-63.jpg

 

And most parts resemble the drawing to the bare minimum. Also checking how to display this one with the dozer lowered or the crane up... All are cast fixed, so... To be continued

Edited by Silenoz
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  • 2 weeks later...

thx..

 

so after a lot of part cleaning, I am ready to start assembling the main parts:

 

After mating the hull parts, the fender on this side looks ok.

662714-11032-78.jpg

 

The other side is pretty thick in comparison:

662715-11032-87.jpg

 

and after some scraping...

662713-11032-60.jpg

 

and also the torsion bars.

662717-11032-55.jpg

 

next up is checking the ground level, when all the wheels touch the ground, and starting to think about how to lower the dozerblade... It either that or the spade at the back and the arm of the crane in a raised position...

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As stated above, the fenders were a bit warped. I tried to give an indication:

663112-11032-66.jpg

 

Luckily we use this heatgun at work for electronics... pure gold

663110-11032-35.jpg

 

result: the rear left fender got another treatment... but that became visible on the picture. so the warping shown there has been corrected...

663111-11032-40.jpg

 

Next up, primer to check the filling of the seams and cleaning the casting membranes on the wheels 🤮

 

663113-11032-90.jpg

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Great that you have the heatgun to help with issues like the warped fenders. Very useful. And good luck with the wheel clean up! 

Kind regards,

Stix 

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Some more progress, albeit small...

 

driving wheels cleaned up, had to enlarge some of the openings a lot as you can see (reworked + original, in that order):

664780-11032-64.jpg

 

664781-11032-91.jpg

 

also still busy cleaning up the other openings in the wheels (over halfway, some of the small holes are cast shut, that makes it harder)

664786-11032-90.jpg

 

to have some relieve from this, I started soldering the baseparts:

The working platform. The threaded plate consists of a lower and and upper half, that need to be aligned carefully. also added some solder to the protruding parts, just in case not to lose these.

664784-11032-67.jpg

 

664785-11032-61.jpg

 

the sidewalls. These have a rather ingenious construction, but I was a bit to fast. Thought I had to protrude the detail that was lowered to the other side with a needle, but it's a foldable box with an iner part with lowered detail, and an outer part with raised detail that fits as a glove... kuddos to Armada Hobby for this system, to bad their instructions are ... euhmm ... basic. The part with the bars needs some straightening, the PE was very hard to fold due to lack of material, hence the deformations, will try to correct it some more.

 

664787-11032-74.jpg

 

And the the material boxes:

664782-11032-29.jpg

 

So far so good, now I need to add a ton of these:

664783-11032-99.jpg

 

to obtain this:

664788-11032-94.jpg

 

these parts can hardly be picked up by tweezers, let alone being glued or soldered to a surface... after a half an our I ruined one, and attached one to...

 

Looking at that last picture, I notice the wrong kind of tracks are included in this kit... The OMSH-kind are included:

0044-768x576.jpg

 

and in the picture they show the RMSH-kind

ma37050_11.jpg

 

Edited by Silenoz
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unfortunately not... traffic has upped it's amount of cars and last weeks travel time from work to home increased from 50min to 2h's daily... I don't know what's so hard to drive on a straight line on a freeway, but a lot people do have problems with that with regards to the increase in accidents lately. Just hope for myself I don't have to find it out... but that's what's limiting my modelling time... the job ( those little pieces at the moment) at hand is not something to rush...

 

@Jabba: you can only try... If it doesn't work out, you can always say you tried...

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so at least some progress:

 

the platform received it's sidewalls and handles to lower these, sorry to disappoint the hardliners, nothing functional here:

669643-11032-63.jpg

 

669645-11032-70.jpg

 

further some progress with the boxes:

handles, latches and other stuff added:

I start by cleaning the surface of the PE-parts with a glass fibre pen, solder adheres better that way. 

then I apply some (a tiny amount) flux (S39 from Griffon, but it's aggressive, need to look for a better solution) to the contact surface of the detail parts to have some tin there. It's better to do this now, because with these small parts, it won't be aesy after cutting them from the fret.

 

On the box the same process, but bit really tiny amounts, so I squashed a tin-wire as flat as I could and then cut off some parts. The reason for this is to have control over the amount applied, but also, the lesser tin you use, the less easy they will move when soldering close to another part:

669646-11032-61.jpg

 

then a tiny amount of flux on the right position of the box that makes the solder flow better, but also keeps it at it's place

669649-11032-13.jpg

 

then some heat from the soldering iron:

669648-11032-19.jpg

 

then it's time to release the parts from the fret, don't bother sneezing now... (did I mention these were tiny?)

669647-11032-52.jpg

 

then it's time to pick these up (slightly wet toothpick) and position them (a tiny amount of flux aids a lot here)

669650-11032-48.jpg

 

and heat them with the soldering iron. Here they aren't completely flat, so another heating session was necessary, and when they really don want to sit down, you can aid them a bit.

 

first box ready:

669641-11032-15.jpg

 

and when you get the hang of it, it goes really fast after that, so here's the rest of the family...:

669640-11032-78.jpg

Edited by Silenoz
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Nice work Silenoz.

Always thought about soldering PE, as I'm never happy with the super glue finish I get (may just be me of course)

What sort of solder iron do you use?  I'm guessing its a adjustable temp level sort with a very fine tip.

After seeing your results I may have to add one to my Christmas List. (might still go to Telford yet, still in two minds)

 

Looking forward to seeing what the boxes look like after final fettling, and some paint.

 

Cheers

Paul

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19 minutes ago, diases said:

Nice work Silenoz.

Always thought about soldering PE, as I'm never happy with the super glue finish I get (may just be me of course)

What sort of solder iron do you use?  I'm guessing its a adjustable temp level sort with a very fine tip.

After seeing your results I may have to add one to my Christmas List. (might still go to Telford yet, still in two minds)

 

Looking forward to seeing what the boxes look like after final fettling, and some paint.

 

Cheers

Paul

the sodering station I use is this one:

https://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=349590

 

pretty basic, at 50-60€, but it does the job and doesn't cost a fortune...

 

6 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Well done with the soldered etched brass. It's not the easiest job in the world.

 

John.

that depends, after some practice you'll think otherwise, but a lot of people are more scared then they should to do this. Time flies however when you'r busy, so keep an alarm close to keep track of time..

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