Tamiya 1/35 SU-76M Russian Self-propelled Gun

[TommyKillander]

Hello!

This is a quick mojo-boost build that I started this weekend. It will be a out of the box build (no aftermarket) but I might add some extras at the end if I do a vignette.



Sorry, but I forgot to take some shots of the unstarted sprues...

Everything fits like a glove and the instructions are very clear - just like expected from a Tamiya-kit







Some work needed to cleanup the ammo-racks and ordnance





Tommy

[alextheblue]

Great start Tommy. Really looking forward to following this!

Some of these Russian subjects are sadly overlooked in the AFV world.

[jmurphy18]

Cool looking build. I will be watching this one

[TommyKillander]

Great start Tommy. Really looking forward to following this!

Some of these Russian subjects are sadly overlooked in the AFV world.

I agree, atleast by the big brands. But Tamiya did a great job on this one

Cool looking build. I will be watching this one

Awesome! Grab a seat and feel like home !


Okey...

Started to put primer on the fighting compartment and some parts that I will paint separately




Ordnance primed with Ultimate Gloss Black



Tommy

[Hawkmoon]

Looking good and nice start

[jmurphy18]

Awesome so far. Detailed look great

[TommyKillander]

Looking good and nice start

Awesome so far. Detailed look great

Thanks, guys!

Ok.. I'm continuing with the ordnance





...and the interior (if you can call it that in an "open top" fighting compartment)





I made a masking set with my Silhouette Portrait










And I painted the interior with a green colour, where I used yellow to lighten the colour a bit.





Tommy

[alextheblue]

Great progress Tommy. The interior is going to look really nice!

[jmurphy18]

Interior looking real Lin great!

[Tomcat64]

Nice work so far Tommy - looking forward to seeing how this one turns out but the self-made masks are really effective, I'm so tempted by one of those silhouette portrait things...

[digger303]

Nice work so far Tommy - looking forward to seeing how this one turns out but the self-made masks are really effective, I'm so tempted by one of those silhouette portrait things...

Me too it looks very useful. I had quick google and found some not too expensive, but then there were all the different models. Much more research needed I think. Unless of course some one can give a quick assement of what's out there, whats good to have in the way of specs or whats best.

[TommyKillander]

Nice work so far Tommy - looking forward to seeing how this one turns out but the self-made masks are really effective, I'm so tempted by one of those silhouette portrait things...

Me too it looks very useful. I had quick google and found some not too expensive, but then there were all the different models. Much more research needed I think. Unless of course some one can give a quick assement of what's out there, whats good to have in the way of specs or whats best.

Most modellers seem to use Silhouette or Cricut brands. There is a Facebook group for Silhouette Modelling User that is fantastic, so I would recommend getting Silhouette.
The Portrait is great but it has some limitations to size of cutting material, knife depth and thickness of the material. The Cameo is more capable and I might consider to upgrade to that in the future.

A cutting machine is one of those things that seems a bit unnecessary until you get one, but if you get one it's hard to imagine how life could go on without it...
It is so easy to do all those things that where near impossible (so I skipped doing them), for example the masks for the radio I did. It took me 5 minutes to get my vernier caliper, read out the dimensions, fire up Sihouette Studio, and draw the black gauges and the masks for the grey background. When I had a couple of more items on the drawing it was time to make a testprint.

I can assure you that I had never got through the ordeal of cutting all those small parts manually from tamiya tape

Next great thing with a cutting machine is how easy it it to make multiple copies of a mask - which I will demonstrate late in this build when I make the 28 identical roundels for the road-wheels



Okey... back to the build, I have actually spent some time gluing and painting stuff

Got the ammunition painted and ready for assembly


Painting seats and padded areas on the inside of the fighting compartment




Painted the PPSh-41 submachine gun


Painted the green inside on the fighting compartment


Also did some chipping and glossed everything preparing for washes


Cleaning up the roadwheels




Stay tuned!

Tommy

[digger303]

Thanks for the info

[TommyKillander]

Thanks for the info

You're welcome




Ok, brace yourself because this build will now turn into an experiment - I have no idea what I'm doing....




The idea with soaking the washes completly with water is to be able to spread the pigments out more.... It's like painting with water-colours

After drying overnight all the water has vaporised and I can adjust the thickness of the dustcover with a soft brush.

I'm happy with that!

Now it's time to mess up the rest of the fighting compartment; but I will use oils for that


Tommy

[Tat2bhoy]

That’s a great idea with the wash and water, will need to try it out.
Nice build, I built this kit for the Tamiya out of box build, an enjoyable build

[TommyKillander]

That’s a great idea with the wash and water, will need to try it out.
Nice build, I built this kit for the Tamiya out of box build, an enjoyable build

Thanks, it's a really great kit


Tommy

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely work Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Lovely work Tommy

Thanks Kev!


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys,

I'm plugging on with the build... I really enjoy this kit

Some weathering done with 502 Abteilung oil paints








And it's time to load up the ammo






...and attach the sidewalls and backpanel of the fighting compartment





Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Hey Guys,

I got some bench-time yesterday so I continued with the running gear and exhaust








Using a hypodermic needle to make a mark for the drill bit





Tommy

[Kevthemodeller]

Lovely weathering and detail work, Tommy

[jmurphy18]

this is looking really good! Awesome details and effort

[TommyKillander]

Lovely weathering and detail work, Tommy

Thanks Kev

this is looking really good! Awesome details and effort

Thanks John


Okay, I have continued with the build...

Side skirts - I need to check that I can paint and weather the running gear separately and add them in the final assembly. It was a bit tight but I think it will go


So, I could not postpone it any further - dealing with all those individual track-links


Tamiya provides a jig to get the right sag of the tracks around the return rollers


Let's go - a single side nipper is a great tool for minimising the cleanup work. In this case it was 0 (zero) sanding involved


I will ignore those ejection pin marks - they are not so disturbing (for me)




I made a small "assembly-line" for putting the individual tracklinks together.


Dryfitting the track segments




Now they need to cure until tomorrow....


Tommy

[digger303]

Looks nice and I love the jig Tamiya provide such a good idea.
I noticed the tracks not sitting in the return rollers . Has the jig created a problem or is the idler needing to go back a bit ?
keep up the high standard and looking forward to the finished product.


Edit... looking once again the tracks must have just slipped up when you put it on it's side to photograph as the other side is OK.

[ElCapitan]

It's looking great, really enjoying watching your progress!

I'm impressed by the lack of clean-up required on the tracks. I opened a pack of track links once and threw them out within 10 minutes because they were such a mess.

[TommyKillander]

Looks nice and I love the jig Tamiya provide such a good idea.
I noticed the tracks not sitting in the return rollers . Has the jig created a problem or is the idler needing to go back a bit ?
keep up the high standard and looking forward to the finished product.


Edit... looking once again the tracks must have just slipped up when you put it on it's side to photograph as the other side is OK.

Thanks!
The fit is not perfect, so the track-segments will not into place by themselves. I suspect that I have to glue them onto the return rollers when I assemble everything. But the fit is good enough for me to feel confident that I can put it together without too much debacle

It's looking great, really enjoying watching your progress!

I'm impressed by the lack of clean-up required on the tracks. I opened a pack of track links once and threw them out within 10 minutes because they were such a mess.

Thanks, the sprue-gates where placed very cleverly, so a flush cut by the plastic nipper to make sure that the links fitted together, was all that was needed.

Tracklinks can be such a mess sometimes; I once saw an example where every link consisted of 4(!) parts - a total mojo-killer


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Okay!

The track-segments ended up more or less tailormade for each side - so I will have to figure out a way too keep them apart


There where a couple of ejection pin marks on the inside of the fenders - I'm not sure if they will be seen, but I decided to fix them anyway




Single piece gun - it looks great; just a small seamline that needs to be sanded away






I needed a lot of different clamps to fixate the cradle+recuperator of the gun



Tommy

[MrBowcat]

Tracklinks can be such a mess sometimes; I once saw an example where every link consisted of 4(!) parts - a total mojo-killer

I built the Meng Flakpanzer. 5 pieces per link, 70+ links a side.

[TommyKillander]

Tracklinks can be such a mess sometimes; I once saw an example where every link consisted of 4(!) parts - a total mojo-killer

I built the Meng Flakpanzer. 5 pieces per link, 70+ links a side.

Ouch! Not my type of fun... Hope you got it together



Okay...

Continued with the assembly of the gun...






The gun cover left a small seam at the top that I had to fix with some CA glue




Added the sideskirts


Dryfitting the gun


Added some kitchenfoil as a lamp reflector




My trusty Silhouette Portrait had to work again... I added some roundels for the roadwheels and the headlight


Glued the towing wire




Some small stuff, mainly gardening (pioneer) tools, cleaned up. I will paint them separately.


Ready for paint!


Primed everything except the vehicle itself, I need to mask the fighting compartment before I can continue



Tommy

[digger303]

Coming together well

[TommyKillander]

Coming together well

Thanks digger303!


Okay... it's time to get this one off the bench....

Masking up the fighting compartment so I can proceed with the painting




After primer (same Black Ultimate Primer as I used on the other parts) I painted all the 4BO parts with XF-58 Olive Green diluted in MrColour Levelling Thinner as a base coat. My plan is to use hairspray chipping and add a second layer of XF-65 Field Grey as a "distressed paint" layer to add some variety to the 4BO surface.




Tommy

[digger303]

Oh I do like the way that combat compartment is evolving .

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh I do like the way that combat compartment is evolving .

I'd agree, looking very nice

[TommyKillander]

Thanks guys!

[Donkeywalloper]

Very nice job Tommy.
Looking amazing
DW

[TommyKillander]

Very nice job Tommy.
Looking amazing
DW

Thanks Donkeywalloper


Ok!
I have continued with the "distressed 4BO" using chipping.... I have watched YouTuber Nightshifts videos on the subject but I have never done this before so I have no idea what I'm doing

I have applied Vallejo chipping fluid and sprayed on a mix of XF-65 Field Grey and XF-21 Sky.


Using tapwater to activate the chipping fluid reveals an interesting texture/pattern....



....Am I on the right track here...?

Nevermind, let's continue... The topside of the hull looked awful, so I decide so redo that by scrubbing off the applied paint and chipping fluid - rinse and repeat



Now it's better

Next step is to add a middle 4BO (mix of the light colour used before and XF-58 Olive Green


And the final step is to add shades of the basecoat colour, in my case XF-58 again.


And this is the final result








The contrast is heavily exaggerated; but it's supposed to be that, since the light tone will be toned down later on during the weathering.

Next step will be weathering with washes i think....


Tommy

[digger303]

It's a interesting effect.

[Donkeywalloper]

Its a great effect Tommy, really realistic.
DW

[Quax]

I think it looks good and you're right, the weathering will bring it all together

Paul

[alextheblue]

Beautiful work Tommy, just love that finish. Looks perfect for Russian armour!!

[KalebB]

I'm in love with how that effect came out looking!

I'll have to remember to try that technique on the next piece of Russian armor I do as it looks superb.

[Tomcat64]

Oooh I missed you returning to this one Tommy - well done for persevering with the chipping chemicals, the end result looks very effective!

[TheNordus]

The effect you achieved using this distressing technique certainly looks like a lot of monument tanks I've seen, but for a vehicle in service it's a little stark. Unless it's supposed to be in service during winter, I suppose. I think you might have applied too much of the lighter paint and/or the paint was too light to work as 4BO. I would apply a heavy yellowish-green filter on top of the effect.

On the other hand, the effect on the top of the hull and the roadwheels does give it a good rolled steel texture. I do rather like Nightshift's videos on youtube, unfortunately I've never managed to make this distressing effect work for myself...yet.

[digger303]

I'm in love with how that effect came out looking!

I'll have to remember to try that technique on the next piece of Russian armor I do as it looks superb.

I like it best on the wheels. The best effect I'v seen for that.

[TommyKillander]

Thanks Guys!

After some consideration I have come to the conclusion that I like the random patterns and texture that the distressing technique has, but the effect was a bit too stark for the final appearance. I have added a green filter to decrease the contrast a bit.

My first thought was to airbrush green diluted in IPA. However, on second thought I decided to make an enamel filter that I can apply with a regular brush.



And I have started to pinwash the details






Next step will be to detail paint all the pioneer tools, exhaust and other stuff before I continue with pinwash of the rest of the tank.


Tommy

[KalebB]

How do you like the MIG washes?

Thinking about ordering some of them

[TommyKillander]

How do you like the MIG washes?

Thinking about ordering some of them

Yes, they are good. I have also used AK Interactive washes, which I believe is the same thing as AMMO from MIG.


Tommy

[TommyKillander]

Oki-doki....

I have continued with the exhausts today:

First I sponge paint the rust-tones, starting with the darkest colour




Assembly


Touchup with a wash to give a darker rust tone.

I might add some rust pigments later on, I think...


Tommy

[alextheblue]

This is going from strength to strength Tommy. Some excellent work!!

[TommyKillander]

This is going from strength to strength Tommy. Some excellent work!!

Thank you very much, alextheblue

Okay.... I have continued with the tools and "jamboree"-stuff on the tank.

A lot of masking and painting....






The finished result






I also continued with the tracks and the spare track on the top of the hull






The tools looks a bit wierd in that new-from-the-factory-look. I will weather them after I have done the chipping I think.


Tommy