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Hi all,

 

after finishing the Saracen I started a new project. I don't remember why I bought this kit, as I am not really interested in WW II vehicles, maybe it was the strange look of this light tank or I just wanted to see how a kit of this company builds, I don't know.

 

Anyway, I looked at it and decided that it was about time to pull it out of the stash.

y4mVCZZ8snR0W5nJ1I8dneMfU1SuZNo8gN_dGVEu

 

I forgot to take pics of the sprues and started right away as the kit landed on the workbench. These are the main parts that make up the hull.

y4m_dv26Kzr1cfrVYel5FwodER8Kk5FBG3BTZWyr

 

The green plastic is on the softer side, but no problem at all. Hull put together plus the rear suspension.

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y4mdq1LnDonHWB5zz4cpqGss7pD4rD2aAoVFWFo_

y4msKg30mluH3KDIBAW5vsBAEarX-G3otZ1od6Pz

 

Fit is not so bad, better than I thought, only a little bit of filling and sanding will be needed.

 

That's all for now, thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

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Hi all,

 

I've made some progress with this project. Filling and sanding is done, front suspension is attached, and the big hole at the turret's position is closed.

y4mgaySn_P5OWpBaz8uKywf3R2SAiN5qzpstNOjk

y4mrBl6BEBhUy1XvNWpcj6_NtmqLv4FT6HPW-aSf

y4mvljFM2D9xQZ0_M96SJdLcGyLIdxo7HDPA7mA2

 

I also built the turret. During this process I've learned that the plastic is not only soft, but brittle too. While trying to put the gun mount into the mantlet, the mantlet broke in two. No big problem, easy to fix and hopefully not visible in the end,

y4mNWlH0FmxlgRQ7U6EPXqP0R2es82d6qgOzZir3

y4mwrll-3vt5u2HWrAJesqflnF5hybNIaJRAIFUp

y4mduGwOJLbLy4A15mRS7crbJDK3ZVu1EIM6XMTY

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

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Hi, very interesting build. Will follow it.

Just a suggestion- hope not too late, the height of the turret in this kit is slightly off. It is about 1mm too tall, roughly for the thickness of the "roof" part. Might be sensible to sand off a bit from the top of the walls. 

Also the armored patches on the sides are way too prominent. I would suggest to sand them off to about a half of its current thickness...

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@edjbartos Hi Ed, thank your for the nice comment.

 

@BallsBuster Thank you for the very good and interesting suggestions. If I'll ever build such a tank again, I will keep them in mind. Regarding this build now it is intended as a quick oob-relief build to gain back my sanity from the photo etch seat belt horror at my Kamaz Typhoon-K build and to improve my weathering skills. Therefore I won't care about details. So I won't tear up or sand down anything, sorry for that. Anyway thank you very much for the constructive and very useful input.

 

Not much to show today as I didn't have much time at the workbench. Only managed to attach the fenders, which was quite tricky, especially to get the front parts over the front suspension. This is how it looks now.

y4mrhzn_V9x4R0tXRs10G_CILyBBNzL9BSYUVvbM

y4mhsDdTmZwXilTDlKSZIw3Jym_khpeKVuILtmWH

y4mDkzhQGXtj5RPedhZd7yPILKPhYG32SMqCpHiU

 

It's slowly starting to look like a tank. That's all I could do now. Next step will be some photo etch I'm afraid.. 🙄 But this seems to be quite simple, hopefully.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

 

Edited by flashlight
forgot something
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

just some small progress to show today. I had to bend some PE, the first two were easy to do.

y4m70eiShofKN7LAxBbVIMfnBS99YLZ7tYCiTWEx

y4m51wAFxN2w-naXh7dveOPtGPGgTfNB93ajZQQg

 

The next two parts were even easier, no bending necessary.

y4mKxNKqeS1lye-Z0vEsc8DximlkBnjeARWkjQmM

y4mlh0ly-mYlQpuyAUvgk_USuqQ6uqfs2w4zngBW

 

Next step was to bend the grille according to the curvature of the two parts left and right of the big hole. I nearly broke this PE part and I nearly ripped the mesh out of the frame, but somehow I managed to get it in place, but it doesn't look very nice due to my clumsiness.

y4mSkjGVI8hDtoK6-c4PkIvPTlSdTAN3WoOpettz

y4mnzGP6D-5P9NBaBMG-aOEtzwhhIFuiFTlltop1

y4mxhV_rKNEPdVo-JVR6ZWbqG60NZeyL0RqycwTJ

 

After this I attached the two front hooks and the rear mudguards.

y4mh-FpIXnYCb_bzFg_h8R_YkYVVa8uW5o3ixkSv

y4mObNzxCfYVYl87BWMsQ9PTWK3wGsTaiTa-bvI6

 

With the PE parts finished the tank can now go to the paint shop.

 

That's all for now, thanks for looking.

 

Stay safe

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all,

 

had some progress, the little tank has been in the paint shop and has got a coat of Gunze 4BO green.

y4mD_v4YWK4B_ML2e2NoxWqmaJ_q7noVbwgT6vQi

y4mOMXhlOHjk2KkBaU-_7YkJ2O2JBZgJOxT94xTk

 

After the colour has dried up I painted the mesh at the rear black.

y4mY1N0skGQ1XLz7PlUhyyWHRJrjjDikaGfWXjzI

y4mqrbaLogB8Qoa2iyIhTcgBnp3xPHogaX3gQfPy

 

I also painted the wheels, here they are, dryfit.

y4mEO0Xvtt37e7-WX0E4kSwciGhSlKkSdO68iV1N

y4mxfHW2ib4Bv4RTHDr4DtPSaNu1_bXFk0M6RWXW

 

Naturally I lost the rear right hand side mudguard,will scratch it from thin plasticard.

 

That's all for now. Next steps will be gloss coat and decals.

 

Thanks for looking, stay safe!

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Hi all, some progress here.

 

Gloss coat is on...

y4mtR4yMVko0hI34a0YxRUKxIVs53ZKdTnpV8BSM

 

...and I scratch built the lost mudguard (right hand side) and painted the rims of the drive wheels in steel colour...

y4m2AQfU_ojsyJPmiQQ_v5T4CFHX2Vh1K5OzgTZ1

 

...then I painted the exhaust in steel...

y4mJrmO8u4ol9g3ojqPdk1I5OHyxc60AUxfBWBKc

 

...and drybrushed it with Floquil Rust...

y4mPG1Td36-X3sVtpw05rVdY4uXj6G2YNaitubYL

 

...attached it...

y4mUE1Rur_EY243pTKWl7Pc2PuMc2LwE1mxqru_z

 

...and put on the decals, which I think are way too big (the "Stalin"-letters)...

y4mAwtW_l7v8C8FTvpTqmD3I5MgkgYz5nyP4o06G

y4mJ-tMp8qLKOgK1BW92Js4tI076_ibxcGhnsZSM

 

...the white cross was treated with much decal softener to get it into the panel lines. I plan to treat it somehow to make it look worn and torn.

 

Next will be another clear coat to blend in the decals, After this I will start the weathering process.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

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Just picked up on this little build Nick. It's a fascinating tank in this scale and yours is coming along very nicely. The shade of green looks pretty good. I bet this will look the biz after a bit of weathering!

 

Terry

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Hi everybody, some progress here.

 

First I gave the wheels a dark brown wash...

y4mezSNiv17QAVgZqO2-zV9P5O6f4TupHBbiy0zV

 

then the decals were scratched to give them a worn look...

y4mpvzA2UY3Opa_rsv1WV0GNHN9WR4gAbD1xNHoo

y4ms86Vs7SrOcATMtFfFCD3Q1f9SoQuNpv8iHb5Z

y4mJqSjZbTpBzcfXCiG8zEN5eE3RkU-onj4CAI96

 

After the next clear coat I modulated the green colour by slightly drybrushing some very light grey and then the tank received a dark brown wash and a little sand wash here and there...

y4mL_4qixXDa3eyDlnRREL935g8oISSmMBw0BSzV

y4mJDY5RGpKPDYxItsmCAB2XftvN26ntKLki0Li7

y4mmF3m__ZoNOXQnH4xRZFFYjPxqcf4qRmDF6Zb6

y4m-_Ele_rGalKFeZb3xwPjUn825b_m1sMA2jOpq

 

This is the current status. Next will be some mud.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

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Hi all,

 

I'm back with some progress, this time I had been playing about with mud. I tried not to do too much and keep it restrained. This is the result.

y4mHZQCSjm1QBiUe7p-cBFqRhCS5FEgUQU2PunUZ

y4mB9Wv7o7QL_y6hkborGoqBxnzIgQFni3td9Gzb

y4mH6iTIEWtQ1ptPHKS9N7IWFsf8MkdvOaK7220F

y4m_YYIgWiYIqqX3LJ3KjpgrXsDpsCGn9H-3JQks

y4mdMBe5Tt0Yhe66lNUDzHAgFiRU5usw8I1u4FfU

 

The wheels were also treated.

y4mLRQ2oa9Rm7q_ewlXTUsc105BROrokznbaPRf8

y4mmxHurfAqJr51gwxHEDJiGG2W-KadRLN9RT1Hu

 

I am quite happy with the result. Next will be the tracks. They are link and lenght, I hope they'll fit.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Stay safe

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Hi all,

 

the tracks were trickier than I thought. First I realized that the idler wheels were way out of line and stood too far out. Whatever I did, nothing helped. In the last consequence I clipped off the locating pins and sanded down the arms until the wheels were in line with all the rest of the wheels.

 

After this the tracks were painted in steel colour.

 

The next problem occurred during the mounting of the tracks - by using all individual links they were too long, by leaving one link out they were too short. So I had to do some surgery - I cut out a piece in the middle of the one link, glued it together again, much shorter than it was before, and with a lot of luck the tracks could be connected. The same procedure had to be done with the second track too.

 

This is the result, after the weathering of the tracks:

y4maJikk57NvavBwbM-bgvhfDKQzh-VqmA5D86ep

y4m1mHlYgHeomFXq0B48DK0KQ46_2jxK3HQp5C1l

y4mhgQi_aOuF_e9LuchZl0A9PObtE7JIksKGAzMty4mgdFme-D9U2nQbRtBzvKWxXDZhG6XRG4rmWDQD

 

Unfortunately I lost both headlights, maybe someday the tank will get some spare ones, but for now I'll leave it as is,

 

I consider this little beastie finished. Next pictures will be posted in the RFI section. Thank you all for looking and for the incouraging comments, much appreciated!

 

Stay safe

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  • 4 weeks later...

That is a lovely build of a tricky little kit.....These are probably the L&L tracks that I fear the most and having around a dozen assorted UM BTs in the stash it's a fear I really need to overcome!

 

Do you think the issue could be dealt with by very slightly shortening each length &  indy link individually or perhaps by shortening the long run under the roadwheels (where it's easier to hide)?  I'd rather not shorten the indy links or one of the shorter lengths as they are always more visible.

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