MiniArt 1/35 Soviet 1,5 ton cargo truck

[JeroenS]

I like the nail clipper approach, I will try it this weekend. It's true what you say, the sprue cutters sometimes bend the thin wiry stuff almost to the point of breaking, you can see the plastic turning white. Getting the residual plastic off these parts is a challenge as well. I can see the clippers doing some good in those cases. 

[Wiley coyote]

My technique for releasing delicate rods and levers from Miniart sprues is to apply a very thin film of EMA plastic weld to the required part, wait for it to evaporate then remove it with a surgical cauterising tool (a hot blade will also work) leaving a small attachment point.

This stops the part snapping under pressure, and the attachment points are easily removed with a pair of fine sprue cutters

Hope this helps

Martin. 

 

[Rob G]

To add my possibly unwanted advice, I clean up as much as possible of the flash and seam lines while the parts are still on the runner, then use an ultra fine razor saw to cut them off. I have this set,

 

https://www.bnamodelworld.com/hobby-tools-supplies-saws-scissors-manwa-mw-4102

 

but no doubt others are available from other suppliers. At this thinness (0.1mm), you pull the saw, not push it. Does an awesome job.

 

Once they're off the runner, I install the parts and do a clean up of any missed bits once they're fully dry. It's all about supporting the fragile sections.

[JeroenS]

8 minutes ago, Rob G said:

To add my possibly unwanted advice

On the contrary Rob, I like hearing about other people's methods. I have a lot of time planned for modelling this weekend (hope I don't get distracted, of my own doing or not) so I'm going to try out some of the things I read about.

[Hewy]

The engine painting and detailing is looking really well done jeroen

[JeroenS]

OK, the chassis is finished and painted, I can now move on to running boards, cab en load bed. Finally! 

 

There's the first glimpse of the body colour, on the wooden beams that support the underside of the load bed. The colour is Vallejo's ochre green, but I would have believed "dark yellow" as well 🙂 

 

I dry brushed (finally getting the hang of it) the black chassis with aluminium, red brown, light grey and orange brown. 

 

 

Apart from maybe some spots here and there this is good enough for me. Just a bit dirty. I do think the pipes on the engine are to "orangy", I painted them according to specs but I like the rest of the exhaust better so I'll probably go back and do something about it, insofar as is possible.

 

 

 

 

While painting, the rear license plate came off, again, so I'm going to do something about that too. 

 

 

[Bengalensis]

Lovely build, looking very good 👍

 

Maybe just leave that license plate off until you are done with most work? It must possible to mount it at the very last stage?

[JeroenS]

3 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Lovely build, looking very good 👍

 

Maybe just leave that license plate off until you are done with most work? It must possible to mount it at the very last stage?

Thanks, well yes I suppose it's a possibility to just leave it off for now, then when I'm done put it on and never touch it again 🙂 ... Sounds like a plan!

[Hewy]

Well painted 👍

[JeroenS]

I can't help but think of Tamiya's Opel Blitz which I built a while back, in 2 days and an evening or two. This kit takes a whole lot more effort but it's all the more rewarding. I was able to mount the running boards and the bottom of the cab on the chassis. I decided to glue the three parts together before glueing it to the chassis to be absolutely certain that the parts were aligned properly. I think it was a good decision. In this way, I was able to position the whole thing correctly and start glueing from back to front. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can now start to build up the cab. The seat (bench?) is already painted. I was hoping for "scuffed leather", I think it worked out reasonably well. 

 

 

The colour of the interior should be black, according to the instructions. However, I found a walkaround video of this truck in green bodywork and the interior was definitely also green. I like using body colour for this truck's interior far better than black anyway. 

 

Lastly, I already put together the load bed (it's supposed to be the final step), so I can start painting it. 

 

 

Again, nicely detailed with a lot of small parts so it wasn't just a floor and four sides. Anyway, next up is the cab itself. 

 

 

 

[CrazyCrank]

Absolutely gorgeous, Jeroens ! Paint, details, are stunning 😲

[JeroenS]

Thank you Mr. Crank 🙂 ... Well the details come with the kit, but the paint is al mine so I'm glad you appreciate it. I'm really starting to like this brush painting thing. 

[s.e.charles]

perseverance is paying off. I think your choice of interior color will allow details to be better seen than black. paint job is exceptionally nice.

[Hewy]

I really like these types of kit jeroen,military sometimes ,but civil also

Nice work

[JeroenS]

On 18/11/2019 at 20:39, Hewy said:

I really like these types of kit jeroen,military sometimes ,but civil also

Nice work

Exactly, that's what I like about these kits as well. And I'm enjoying the fiddly bits too, I have my eye on some more MiniArt stuff, I'm kind of rooting for Santa 🙂 

 

This is the load bed, with 2 coats of medium brown basecoat and I think 5 or 6 coats of the ochre. It looks really bright in the picture but that's the lighting, it's darker in reality. 

 

 

 

Still need to do the inside, I'll do less coats of ochre there so more of the brown shows through which should give me a bit of a head start with the weathering. I think. 

[JeroenS]

Evening all, so here's "windshield a la MiniArt".... this thing took hours! You have two options for the windshield, open and closed. The opened one is some more work but of course I decided on that one. 

 

Starting point is the frame, which took almost half an hour to clean up properly, the sprue gate leftovers were rather difficult to remove. First step in the assembly is to glue a very thin strip of PE on the bottom of the inside of the frame. 

 

 

Next step was paint, because I had to glue the glazing in at an early stage. And no way I was going to paint after inserting the glazing.

 

 

Then, the glazing was inserted. Perfect fit, as is standard for this kit. I don't think I've had one part which didn't fit. 

 

 

 

Then it was time for the wiper and its motor. The brass rod had to be scratch built according to the instructions. I think they forgot about this part during the molding actually. The wiper itself is a ridiculously thin piece of PE. So thin that I couldn't completely clean the part where it was attached to the PE sprue. In the process of removing and cleaning (as much as possible) it bent every which way, and of course I managed to lose sight of it at one point as well. But I got it on eventually, although I think it looks more like a squashed insect than a wiper.

 

 

Some more paint... 

 

 

And finally some more really really thin PE for the window openers. 

 

 

All in all I think I spent 4 hours on this puppy.

 

The truck itself: 

 

Thanks for looking in. 

 

 

[CrazyCrank]

Absolutely stunning work and details, Jeroens 😲

[BIG X]

WOW - that's all I can say...

[JeroenS]

9 hours ago, CrazyCrank said:

Absolutely stunning work and details, Jeroens 😲

I can't take credit for the details but the work is all mine 😉 I'm enjoying this kit greatly. I must be developing a thing for 1/35 scale trucks because another one came home with me from Euro Scale Modelling yesterday. And two 1/72 scale trucks of this era as well, I must be mad. 

[JeroenS]

Warning: unflattering close-ups ahead. I think I probably just came across the smallest part of this kit. It is a knob that goes on a (scratch built, as per instructions) piece of rod that makes up the inside of the wiper handle or lever or something like that. On some kits, a part like this is considered flash but nooo MiniArt thinks otherwise. 

 

This is the part, the grey speck at the bottom of the picture. I zoomed in the camera of my phone so much you can actually see the grooves in the paper it's on. 

 

 

 

I tried not to breathe too hard for fear of losing the part 😉 

 

Somehow I got it in place and painted it. For the result I had to get my proper camera out because I couldn't  get the the phone's camera to focus on the part well enough.

 

 

 

I will sure be glad when this windshield is mounted and I don't have to handle it anymore. 

[JeroenS]

I've assembled the front of the cab. The roof and back are separate pieces. A dry fit of the cab to work out the order of march (still thinking about it). 

 

 

Some pin marks on the back wall need filling. 

 

Then, I added the load bed just to see how it looks. A first glimpse of the end result... 

 

 

It's going to be a great little truck!

[Spiny]

7 hours ago, JeroenS said:

 

 

 

I tried not to breathe too hard for fear of losing the part 😉 

 

Great job on the windscreen, but that knob is not something you want to be doing if you have a cold - one sneeze and......

[JeroenS]

The cab is assembled and painted. I painted the insides first, separately. Then glued the rear of the seat in. After that I assembled the three parts and painted the outside. The inside of the cab and the firewall already received some drybrush treatment. Finally I attached the final bits and bobs on the firewall, including a scratch built electrical box shaped thingy, all of which still need to be painted. Several wires were inserted into some of the parts, which will be attached to different parts of the engine. Pedals and steering wheel are next, then I can mount the cab on the chassis. 

 

 

There are actually not that many parts left. Only a couple of larger parts which make up the bonnet still to go. I already noticed that the headlight parts will be a little fiddly. 

[JeroenS]

Another milestone reached, and one scary moment crossed off the scary-moments-list: the body is now firmly attached to the chassis. 

 

 

 

The whole thing is quite fragile so you really have to be careful where you grab a hold of it which makes putting any pressure on it difficult. 

 

 

 

 

A bit of touch up needed on the body, Vallejo paint is easily damaged but, on the plus side, just as easily restored. Running boards already received a few more coats, they look crisp again.

 

One small issue with fit though, apparently I didn't attach the steering column's chassis mount correctly, way back when the chassis was assembled. You can see that the steering column doesn't quite reach the intended spot, while it's in the correct position inside the cab. I think I'll just cut a piece of tube lengthwise and glue it over both ends, it will probably not be too noticeable. 

 

 

 

All the loose wires will have to be cut to length and attached to the engine. 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

Wires taken care of. 

 

 

 

Only have to fix the steering column now. One more part needs to be added on top of that mount on the left, air intake maybe (I don't know a whole lot about engines, becomes apparent now 😉).... Then, two struts between the firewall and the radiator and after that the bonnet sides. You have the option of keeping them open which of course I'm going to do, no point in doing all the engine work and then hiding it.