Steves shilka

[Guest]

This is coming along a treat Steve.

[Steve Brodie]

Pay day !!, bit the bullet and ordered these guys direct from Paracel (no uk stockist's), Exeter company in Germany had them in and looked a good price till they whacked 15.00 euros for shipping !!;

For the Shilka;

[ATTACH]276521[/ATTACH]

For the ZSU-57-2

[ATTACH]276520[/ATTACH]

[Steve Brodie]

Drivers compartment painted and dirtied up 'a bit'

[ATTACH]276572[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]276573[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]276574[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]276575[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]276576[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]276577[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Those figures look like a nice addition Steve and the drivers compartment certainly has that well used look.

[Steve Brodie]

Managed to get some time on the bench (lounge chair, tray on lap and box of parts balanced on the chair arm ) and started adding the various bits and bobs to the upper hull of the model, general fit is excellent, but Meng’s stupid sprue attachment points keep rearing their ugly head, why attach a part to the sprue on a sloped angle, which means loss of detail when sanded, no matter how careful you are (one tip – cut high up on the sprue point, then cut flush on the part – less chance of the plastic tearing a hole in the part )and while on a moan, why not put the majority of parts that are glued right next to each other on the same sprue. In some areas you need to remove parts from 4 different sprues. Have to get out a sprue, check it then get the next one, put all back in the box and next step – repeat. I saw somewhere ‘sprue self-adhesive flags’ and laughed, now might have to get some – brill idea , most importantly, still enjoying the build so on with the photos -

[Steve Brodie]

Front of the Shilka finished (I think) last night. Quite a few fiddly bits to put together most notably the headlights and IR lights. Headlights – 3 pieces ; front cover – glass – rear cover and IR lights front of unit and rear cover. Now sounds simple enough except (on both items) the front pieces have 4 ‘clasps/clamps’ which need to line up with four very small and shallow indents on the rear cover – they were a right pain to get to go together, seems there is only one and one way only they will clip together, but you can’t see which way till you use a lot of pressure to see if they will clip together, if not rotate front piece by 90 degrees and try again. Obviously with the headlight unit it can only go on one way, but still a (*^&(( to clip into place !
[ATTACH]277423[/ATTACH]

Looking head onto the tank, the left side light housing didn’t fit onto the hull plate very well, left quite a gap – everything else lined up so wasn’t me (this time), need some plastic putty and a sand , as did a small portion of the top of this unit. Why mould the drivers vision ports as separate items, could have been moulded on the shell.

[ATTACH]277424[/ATTACH]

The tow cable and shackles are made from 5 pieces, the tow cable and 4 half’s of the shackles. Now I am glad I looked a step ahead here; as you glue the cable to the hull and attach the shackles, through the tow hooks – it looked like they were simple ‘L’ shaped hooks which looked a bit untidy, so was going to turn them round so you didn’t see the way the cable was glued into the shackle , and this is where looking ahead proved fortuitous, you need to add a second set of half’s to complete each shackle – so why have this in two separate steps – would have made sense to build them in one step. A wipe over the seams with Tamiya cement filled the little gaps and made two nice units.

[Ian M]

€15 for post. Ouch.
This is coming along great. Love the tracks.

[col68]

Looking good Steve the instrument panel looks spot on is that painted or decals?

[Steve Brodie]

Looking good Steve the instrument panel looks spot on is that painted or decals?

Ta,

Bit of both, clear plastic part and printed decal (had black background) but wasnt sure it would look right at the back of the clear so painted it dark grey (except dial apertures). looks goo now its fixed in place.

[Guest]

Worth persevering with Steve, coz that's looking really good

[monica]

all looking real good,Steve,
do real like the figures, these,postage cost always get me as well,
real like the drivers compartment,nice weathering,
the hull is coming along very nicely as well,all looking real good,

[Steve Brodie]

Thanks for all the kind comments so far

[Steve Brodie]

‘My’ Shilka Commander arrived yesterday, all the way from China – inside the small box was a clip bag with a further smaller bag inside with a cardboard back plate for the weapon (with hand moulded onto the barrel. Casting is nice, crisp and sharp. Facial detail looks great , should paint up very nicely , hope I can do it some justice.



Also got the upper and lower hulls glued together last night, the front took some persuading with super glue. I was surprised that the area with no innards was causing the most problems with a nice tight seal, but its fixed together now – unsightly gap under the sponsons and both sides at the front, so will take some imaginative weathering to hide

[monica]

he looks good,Steve,like the detail,on him

[Steve Brodie]

been a while, what with the 57-2 and the schwimmwagen, but decided to put a bit more plastic, or in this case brass onto the Shilka. Another fit issue with parts - on the exhaust (?) insert, the sprue attachment points are on the side and inside of the tube that has to fit into a hole. So you need to snip away at the plastic and give it a good sanding -not a major issue, but would have expected better, have a feeling it wont be the last issue with sprue attachment points.
I spent ages looking for the trough and plug, to build the curved rear engine grill, only to discover they are both moulded onto the sprue tree !! - dunno why [ATTACH]283583[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]283584[/ATTACH]

Brass is nice and easy to work with