Assemble in 150 (?) hours! SU-85 mod. 1943 early production. MiniArt 35178

Completed the lower part of the left fender. It only took two hours. Compared to five on the right side. An experience :blush:

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Update in two weeks.
All this time I did not sit still.
A lot of work has been done on the alteration of welds. Not everything is fixed yet, but the process is underway.
The last detail that could distort the entire hull - the roof of the cabin - is finally glued on. Now I can start working on the chassis.




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Update in 8 days.
:roll_eyes:

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Update in 6 days.

Small update.
Following the assembly instructions, it was not possible to install the balancers exactly the first time.


All the same, it turns out to be a very complex chassis with so many details and mates.
I had to work a little.


I tried to make it as even and at the same height as possible. All balancers are glued to the body in all invisible places.

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Small update.
A little about road wheels.
As it turned out, gluing both disks together so that they are clearly opposite each other is quite difficult. One of the reasons is that they are molded with a mold offset.
The photo shows that the disks of one wheel are at different heights. Also, the wheels themselves turned out to be of different heights.



I corrected this situation with the help of a miracle of the Chinese machine tool industry :smiley:, improvised means, and a metal holder made by a familiar turner :blush:.




Result.
Not everything turned out perfect.
But, the main task - to make sure that both discs of one wheel are clearly opposite each other, stand on a plane across the entire width of the tire, and not pointwise, is solved. And, accordingly, the problem of processing the joint of mold halves and traces from feeders has been solved.


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Very nice solution to the problem !

I really liked it myself!
And, most importantly, very quickly! All 10 wheels I processed in 1 hour! Manually, it would have taken three hours, no less.

If you don’t finish in 150 hours, will you complete the kit or leave it as-is as a display of your challenge?

A++ solution to the wheel issue
:blush:

Not! I will definitely finish it! :saluting_face:
A very difficult model. A large number of details. Difficulties in fitting and joining parts. Definitely not for a quick build. I think some Tamiya would have been flaunting on the shelf for a long time. :smile:

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This is definitely a great experiment, however. When you finish this build, you can probably do a similar experiment with a Tamiya kit that would be much more realistic of a goal and would likely get more into painting and weathering. Or you could do the opposite and do a blitz build where you try to do it within a weekend or so. (not unlike NightShift’s weekend 1:100 StuG III build and diorama).

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The next update.


Friends! Due to the heavy workload, updates are not so frequent. Work on the model continues every day. I allocate at least one hour for assembly.
There is still a lot of work ahead. Small details are time wasters! Fragile plastic is another “headache”. The handrails literally fell apart in my hands. I will change to wire. So, it will not be possible to assemble from the box :face_with_peeking_eye:
And yes :grinning: The figures will. But, that will be another story. :blush:

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[quote=“RougePilot, post:112, topic:21601, full:true”]
a Tamiya kit that would be much more realistic of a goal and would likely get more into painting and weathering.
Very rightly pointed out!!

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I, on the other hand take forever on my kits (due to school and laziness to take everything out). My last model started in October and ended in July.

I’ve been following this build for a while, you’re doing a really excellent job. That’s strange about the wheels – I built MiniArt’s SU122 a few years ago and I think it’s the same running gear as their SU85 - so presumably the same sprues (?) I don’t recall any difficulty aligning the swing-arms/balancers, and if I noticed any difference at all in wheel diameters it was so small as to be undetectable once the tracks were installed. Maybe I’m not the perfectionist I thought I was…

But yes the handrails are so fragile I think several were broken on my sprues too, and it’s the same problem with some of MiniArt’s other kits e.g. trams. I’m convinced they don’t actually test-build their kits from production batches. If they did, they’d know that very fragile parts need to be put on small sprues (and separately wrapped!), not on big sprues where flexing and shipping impacts will always break them. :tumbler_glass:

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Tim! Thank you for appreciating my work!
Regarding perfectionism.
One essence lives in me. Doesn’t let me build models quickly! There is always something he doesn’t like. There is always something that doesn’t suit him. He grumbles all the time: here it should be parallel, here it should be 90 degrees, here it should be … And stuff like that. His name is a perfectionist :face_with_monocle: And it’s nearly impossible to beat him :grimacing: The only way I see is to send him somewhere before sitting down at the table :point_right: Take a breath of fresh air, drink tea or something like that :smiley:
As in the example with the T-34-85. I assembled it in 24 hours and even managed to prime everything! So there, when assembling, there was not even a smell of perfectionism :smile:

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Yep I’m sure there are many others who know exactly what you’re talking about, me included. Exactly right, by definition never satisfied, so it’s like a game of chess to outwit him & avoid being cornered. That’s probably why I never do pristine vehicles, mud & dirt are the best defense although it’s still possible to be check-mated :slightly_smiling_face: :tumbler_glass:

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What is the final result after your 150 hours?

Last week, I worked only four hours. There are still 4 hours left :smile: I will work them out and make a small photo report on what I managed to do in 150 hours!

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