First day of vacation and the wiring is done,
Only after this picture did I notice how tall that one copper protector was. I’m leaving it. The wiring is 0.2mm brass wire bent to shape. I went in thinking it might be too thin, but I like it. After bending the first couple the rest can be eyeballed.
And there it is in place. On to final assembly and painting now.
Most impressive.
Olivier
Very nice, all those cables definitively are worth the effort, looks much better
Thanks guys. Got the missile launcher all painted up. Was a pain to mask, required a bit of touching up in spots.
You might be curious why the missile launcher is a darker green from the cab, because I am too. Both bottles of paint are the same ‘color’ according to the number and name on the bottle. As I’m just about empty with the lighter one I moved to another bottle, and it’s much darker. Not sure if Vallejo went through some color updates as these were bought at different times or just some fluke. Not much I can do now, with filters and weathering it should tone down a bit.
Also started the resin wheels. This is the MiniArm set, B35147. After priming and doing some test fitting I realized I was short two parts, the hubs on the outer side. Luckily I had just enough silicon to make a mold, so instead of complaining I went and made some copies.
Didn’t take all the rivet detail, let’s try again
There we go. I don’t have a vacuum chamber or any fancy equipment like that, so what I did was coat the inside of the mold with some baby powder to reduce the surface tension, and then poured just a little bit in, then squeezed the mold a few times to work the bubbles out, finally pouring the rest in.
So far I’ve got 4 tires completed and ready for weathering
That’s it for now. Next I’ll finish up the tires, and then it’s on to weathering. Probably starting with chipping first.
All wheels built and painted, time for some weathering. I ran into this tutorial a few months ago, and since then I’ve been looking forward to trying it out on some resin wheels.
Went ahead and did 4 in one go. The only thing I did differently was I started with a dust wash instead of straight to blending oils, not sure how much it really helped.
And here they are individually in the order I did them,
I think they could use more weathering around the shoulders. I went a little conservative here as it’s my first try. Might touch it up with some pigments later on.
Finished up the wheels and weathering on the bottom of the chassis today. Couldn’t help myself, had to fix the wheels in place to see how it looks.
The rest of the model has been chipped and is now ready for a pin wash. After that it’ll be some streaking and shading, then a light dust spray along the lower half, glue the doors in place and that’ll be it. Now that I think of it, I’ll probably make a simple wood base for this one too.
Looks fine!
And this is a really odd looking chassis, even for beeing russian. The kind of wheel spacing is very special, indeed.
Regards
dutik
Thanks Dutik. She certainly is an odd duck, and that’s why I had to build it.
Looks great! 
Very nicely done!
James, you’ve done an excellent job on this fearsome piece of equipment. I remember the first blurry photos of the real thing from way back when, and also it was mis-identified as a “BM-22”. You’ve done this kit more than justice.
Any figures planned?
Thanks boys. No figures planned for this one Brian. I’ve only tried doing some figures once like 3 years ago, don’t think I ever finished them, afraid I wouldn’t be able to do them justice. It’s one of those dark corners of modeling for me. Still much to learn.
Stunning build with some fantastic detailing added. Think you have really nailed this. Looking forward to seeing it finished.
Thanks Karl. I got a pinwash on it the other day, but since then it’s just been sitting there. Getting a little distracted with work bench remodeling, but it shouldn’t be long now.
Calling it done. Was originally thinking of doing a few more weathering steps, but I’m getting burnt on this kit, and I think it looks good enough. Just a filter, chipping, pinwash and some oil weathering. Sitting on a piece of poplar right now, might stain it one day. Also got another desk light, so my photography has improved a bit.
That’s it for this one. On to the next project
I think you are wise to stop at this point. I often wonder at what point to stop and I think you have done all you need to here to bring the vehicle to life. I think this is a stellar job from the detailing through the camo painting to the weathering. First rate.
Simply outstanding James - very well done; as I said before (I think) I love these Soviet -era monsters - so very different and somehow sinister.
