The SU-100 tank destroyer by Unimodels 1:72

[KRK4m]

As I have already mentioned a week ago in my T-34/76 entry, I was planning the 2021 to be my "Russian AFV year", but the T-34 STGB temptation proved too strong. Since my childhood this long-barreled tank-hunter seemed to me the most attractive variant of the T-34-based SPG family. And – as it was also the most numerous one (4950 built compared to 2650 short-barrel SU-85s and just 650 of the howitzer-armed SU-122s) – this became the natural choice for the second member of the T-34 family within the STGB.

The SU-100 was also the most numerous Soviet fully-armoured SPG of the WW2, exceeded only by the tiny open-top SU-76, based on the T-70 hull. Powered by the 500 HP Kharkiv (nee Hispano Suiza) V12 diesel engine the vehicle armed with the 100mm gun (adapted later for the T-54/T-55 tanks) weighed roughly 32 tons. Considered the best Soviet tank-hunter it was widely used in the Korean and Vietnam wars, in several Arab-Israeli wars as well as in the civil wars in Yemen, Angola and Yugoslavia. Even today – 75 years after the VJ day – some 300 of them are still in use in Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Vietnam and North Korea.   

Therefore I decided to build the UM #334 kit this year too. There are 195 styrene parts on 5 sprues, 22 rubber items and a small fret of 3 photoetched details in the box. According to the tanks-encyclopedia.com this 1944-built SU-100 spotted in Berlin in May 1945 bearing tiny (20cm, so roughly 8” high) serial 215 belonged to the unknown unit (probably of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade). It sports the standard camouflage of the 4BO Protective Green overall with 20cm wide white band on the casemate - some kind of the "invasion stripe(s)" for the Berlin Operation. On the prototype it was applied in the field without any masking tape, thus I followed this way in 1/72 too. The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 117 for the 1944-49 period 4BO (the bluish one) and 130 for white – painted with brushes. Afterwards the Vallejo acrylic matt varnish was brush-applied overall too.

 

 

Although the tanks-encyclopedia.com shows this vehicle with internally-sprung „pepperbox” wheels, my T-34 guru and a long-time friend of mine Przemyslaw Skulski (of Real Colors of WW2 fame) said that finding a SU-100 on these wheels was almost impossible. Same applies to the colour of auxiliary fuel tanks – black seems almost never (if ever) met in the 1945.  

 

 

The model was made OOB except for drilling the exhaust stubs, the cannon muzzle, and the hoisting eye above the gun mantlet.

 

 

The antenna wire was added too and half of the auxiliary tank endcaps had to be modified (i.e. cut off and glued after rotating them 90 degrees).

 

 

The tiny decals (each digit applied separately) are courtesy of my drawer - some US aircraft serial IIRC.

 

 

The pictures are taken with an LG smartphone. You can also find some more pictures here :

And see some kind of WIP thread there:

Comments welcome

Cheers

Michael

Edited September 12, 2020 by KRK4m
a misprint found

[gmoss]

Nice, clean little build there mate.