Hello gang..
i'm back...
i have to admit that my interest in modelling is almost zero until one magical night where i cant get a good night sleep. so i head to the hobby room and think which kit will ever get me the kick start back........

finally, a few minutes after the last puff of cigarret i pick the BTR-70 kit... with eduard PE. PE set will add more difficulty and challange so i hope this will get me 'awake' and hope all the rusty skill will be forced out tonight.................


Overview of the kit:
You know la zvevda quality...lot's of flash. Plastic is rather soft but fragile ...

dry fitting showed minor fitting problem...

eduard PE is excellent set to detail or to bring this kit into higher standard...

so i begin the construction....

the bottom of the hull... all the suspension boogies had been assembled... so many seem line in the parts... noticed the PE grille ..



I cut the kit windscreen details and wiper and add the eduard pe parts. The driver hatch interior was added with pe part.


next the upper hull. The engine grille cover must be replaced with eduard part so arm with my dremel and miniature file i removed the plastic grille cover.


eduard PE parts added


the exhaust mesh cover ?? noticed the strecth sprue used ask CA glue applicator. as well as the accelerator. I made severals strecth sprue parts....


both of the above items installed together


this IFV is equipped with propeller...but the kit propeller molded-on type and is crude and basic. thanks god eduard replaced this part..so in order to used the pe part. i have to open the hole for the propeller .... i clean it with mini files


the 5 parts PE... hehehe...this procedure took almost 30 minutes.... but i managed to get it done...my fingures crammed once due to this...hehe


i take a break and light a cigarette...fuhhhhhhhhhhhhh...almost sahur time....
i installed the propeller into the kit rear hull...


well, that's for now..and i realised my rusty skill is not that rusty....
i'm gonna head for my sahur.... and this progress is done in just 3.5 hours...fuhhhh

that's for now...........

be back for more................

Waaa... main PE nampak. Keep it up!

walaubeh.. :D

rusty... nih bukan rusty nih.. this is shiny-stainless-steel skill.. :D
in under 3.5hrs can tackle the PE already.. superb...
and the strecthed sprue for a CA applicator... must tiru nih.. got copyright? :D

kuman

Wow, nice!
All loves to play with PE parts :D

:D yes Zvezda BTR-70 with eduard PE..love BTR-70..mmmm never build Zvezda before.

thanks guys for the kind words...........
last night i was too sleepy and managed to do some interior parts..to sleepy to take teh camera ...

kuman, the idea is not mine la..got it somewhere..go ahead..no body is going to copyright the ca applicator thing...huhuhu

Good progress Tauke for a sleepy or sleepless guy. Not an easy job handling PE in the early hours of the morning. Almost like disarming a delicate explosive with one hand. :D Good luck on more progress.

cantik, expecting more metal in this kit.

memang cantik, kawan!!! I love the details.

Another progress... it's been awhile since i started this thread....
the main reason behind is i'm having difficulty deciding to scratchbuild or not the interior. Then i decided to do the interior based on some references photos on the internet. However the kit interior structure was all wrong and if i want to correct it, will involve in major surgery of the entire hull. The main problem is the wheels hub where the suspension lies on, the correct shape is almost like semi-conical shape but zvevda did them with a regtangular shape and hollow too. If i want to correct this part, i have to remove all of them. This is where i stuck in the project.
Since i plan to open all the hatches at the front of the vehicle, many of the interior will be shown (well this was my initial thoughts..!! - later i discovered that few details will be seen even if the hatches are all opened...)
So i started working with the project. I cut all the suspension protuding rod that were glued inside the interior. The 4 front wheels were connected left and right by a series of bar and i cut them too. I scratchbuild the new floor using .8mm stryene. and then i cover all the square window (holes??).
Using visualisation i made the front seat, and the seat for the turret and the crew seats..
Not very accurate and i'm so ashame to take the close-up shoots.
I found the steering wheels from spare parts, and did the meter panels with stryrene.
Not so proud finished but i think this will do.

Here's some of the photos.

the interior






The rear hull part was glued to the upper hull. There is a big gap between this parts and i presume the same will happen if i mate this part with the bottom hull. I also made the shape inside the exhaust end round as seen in the reference photos.
The join between the exhaust and side hull is bad... and it;s wrongly mould. It should be a metal bracket along the side of the exhaust. I will add this later.


I add 1mm stryene at the back of the exhaust to support the hull. this is because i need to round the 'interior' shape of the exhaust.


i also fill all the holes for some small parts that will be replace with PE parts. No PE were added since my last progress. I will add them once i completed with the major assemblies.

That's for now and thanks for looking. As usual comments and suggestion are welcome.

Zaidi,

Any scratchbuilt parts are cool. Accuracy to me is the bonus point. Since most of the interior won't be really visible through the opened hatches, I guess there's no need for the trouble.

Keep it up!

Wah, main scratchbuild dah nampak sekarang ni... keep up the good work.

Sil,....usah berhenti di sini.....keep it coming bro ;) well done,well done :D

thanks guys for the words of encouragement!! i need it now...
for sure i wont stop but as my previous build, i tend to have this stop work habit...

woolala... cantik....

continue with the progress work..

i had mate the hull together. there are still gap to be fill but it's minimal and i already expected this to happen. So i fill with various filler and sand.
I add strip of plastic to the side of the exhaust muffler as seen in the reference photo. I think this maybe the bracket for the muffler.

I also rounded the end of the muffler. The surrounding details is evidence of the sanding work and filler.

Turret
Eduard instruction required that the moulded-on periscope to be removed and the side of the turret to be open with a rectangulat shape.
here's the look after both the steps were done.


The new periscope is a PE consist of 3 parts.
I add the new window(periscope?) at the turret side.
Here's how they look.


I plan to remove and replace the basic shape of the hatches' hinges. This is how they look before i remove it.


i will update somemore.......

comments are welcome...

cheers
:D

Nice progress, hope to see more phot form you too. :D

Waah, Zaidi. 1 week paternity leave got so many things done, ah. :lol:

xamel,

what can i do after 'other thing' tak boleh buat
:lol:

Ooo... release tension la ni. :lol: :lol: :lol:

u got it right bro... :P

Hi there fellas, and happy new year
wow it has been months since my last progress..

it started from a fun beginning but now I have AMS. thanks to excellent workaround photos from this website. Based on the references photos, many of things have to be modified, removed or enhance.

Enough talk, these are some of the progress photos of my build for the last 2 weeks.

i added 0.25mm thick stryrene to represent the bracket for the muffler.



I even thinned down the muffler inside wall for scale correction and rounded the inside of the muffler.

I cut the end of the muffler about 0.5mm and inserted metal tube




The front armour plate/hatches is not right especially the hinges. So i replace them with stock plastic.
The original hinges were removed.

Comparison with the moulded-on hinges and the almost finished replacement.


Stock of 1mmx 1.5mm strip were shape and cut into size and hole were drill. These are part of the hinges.

The completed new armour plate which still look oversize.




I added thin plastic strips to details the perimeter of the windscreen.



The commander and driver's hatches were moulded with the hinges mechanism which is not correct and need to be modified, so i removed the molded hinges and replace with spare PE hinges. This exercise took 4 hours to roll and form the two-part hinges.

Thats 2 for one hatches and made 4 in total. I inserted E guitar string and place them to the kit.



References showed that there is a fex hex nuts were tied to the top of the rear armour plate/engine cover, so i add stock nuts to each of the side.


All of the major modification to the kit is almost done but i still omitted some of teh details which is too crazy for me to start and the fun is just begin. and now time for the regular eduard PE addition...
the side equipment support bracket were replace with PE parts


that's for now...will update soon..

cheers,

Zaidi

pergh, tahap gaban....more pic please for my reference...n i tak sabar nak tengok u buat wheathering, hari tu mase kite jumpe kat model contest i ade tanye u how to make some corrosion, dah try campur cuke tapi tak berape menjadila

cantik bro...like what you did to the front armour plate/hatches

p.s where did you get the hex nuts?

back with some slow progress

i continue adding PE parts to some of the details..

the left headlight protector. This part is not included in the kit. Eduard marked this as optional parts. i add this based on references..


the right side


There are total of 10 set of periscope part to be added to the kit. The front side periscope required it to be thinned about 2mm as per eduard instruction. some of the periscope are made of two PE parts..
here i go..



Added the winch bracket and attachment.. simple 2 PE part at the left and right of it. Minimal modification to the hook in order to add the PE bracket



Zvevda kit didn't supply the onboard searchlight, however, eduard do provide this. Eduard only provide PE parts for the support arm and the front part.. the instruction required me to used 8mm diameter tube/cylinder and cut into 3mm width to represent the big searchlight. I dont have any tube in that size so i look into the my sparebox, found a 1/48 rocket pod which approx 9mm in diameter. So i convert my dremel into a lathe machine and reduce the diameter into 8mm.
Here's the photo after PE part was glued to the 'light'.


The searchlight was then temporarily fix onto the periscope with blue tack to get the 'feel'..



more slow progress after this..

thanks for looking


ps: modelstarter, the hex nuts is courtesy of my friends in armorama... that;s the smallest nuts he gave me...

Wah Sil, major upgrading man.

Looking good. Good thing it's armour so the extra super glue can simulate welding. I hope you won't be putting much stowage equipment as that will hide all the stuff that you modified.

Wanna see more. Go full steam ahead man.

Cheers,
Richard.

thanks richard...
i think i will not put so many things up ... like u said,

unfortunately like i normally kena, yesterday i found out that the wheels were stuck together like a sandwich .. i cant get them loose unless i used excessive force and resulting the outer rim to be pull out .. dont know what really cause this, the damage is beyond repair.. just like u're pulling hot soft plastic out of it...

now the resin wheels is on the way putting this kit onto the 2nd expensive Armour kit i ever spend on... :(

it's been a while since i update this build... but since i'm running out of paints for me Hetzer, and the spirit is very high at this moment, i decided to start back this long forgotten build...

well, since Feb 08 till now, the kit has breed... :)
It started to breed this resin wheels from SP Design.. like i told previously, the kit vinyls rubber eat the plastics....so i got no choice except to get the only resin wheels available



Unfortunately, the quality of the moulding were not as smooth as any resin stuff i ever dealt with... there are so many pin holes (air bubbles????) on the surface.... i dont know if MR Surfacer 500 will cure hide the pin holes..
Any suggestion guys??
here are the close-up of the surface


must be tough to hide.. so pakar2 sume, give me some good advice...

the lubang was not deep enough so what else, i have to korek it deeper
Comparison of the hole. Left is after the drilling


Next to breed are two brass barrels from Modelpoint. The kit gun was so bad... and eduard even give the PE for the tapered muzzle brake, which required me to roll them... in which i failed to replicate... it's so small maaaa.... dont blame me

with that in mind, the kit give birth to 14.2mm KVPT MG and 3 x 7.62mm PKT coaxial MG...


Comparison between kit MG and brass MG. The kit muzzle brake had been cut to install the eduard PE ...


Ok, on the the build.. i wetsanded the wheels after removing the stub... A word of caution, resin dust is harmful, so wear the right protection, in this case 3M N95 particulate mask.


Test fitting the wheels






that's for now...

and for those who missed or wonder what the heck is hot soapy bath, here you go


of course, i was to big to dive into (mat selam boleh kot...)

ok la... penat.. ngantuk

thanks for looking

Mod Zaidi, Hmm.... another masterpiece in creation. Bout that Resin bubble hole, no idea at all, maybe could try "sapu" dissolve putty? Just wondering if that DP can fill those hell hole...

mej®

Tuan Major,

thanks for your comments.... what sort of DP that u suggested?? i got only Mr Surfacer 500 to try with.... probably i will try airbrushing DP onto the wheels...

right now the wheels are sunbathing plak

Mod Zaidi, no need to called me "Tuan" la, Mejar( B ) is fine with me...

I would recommended the Gunze Dissolve Putty for this kind of work, Mr Surfacer 500? I think it will shrink and you won't like doing "repeated" work...

Here's an article regarding Gunze Dissolve Putty for your consideration...

mej®

Tuan, you too la..no need to address me as Mod... hahahaha

so have u tried this putty.... looks promising.... gatai je tangan nak order nih
LHS ade ke??

Don't mad at me la kawan, I just opened your thread and happen to see that hell hole on that resin wheel...

Personally, I've tried that on my Sufa pilots which I shifted the right arm from center control stick to side, I just filled the GDP along the arm joint and it works as it says, just minimal shrink, hardly notice tho...

HHQ have several bottles of GDP last 2 weeks. I've bought 2 B)

mej®

PS: Just ring Pemlow :D

mana ada mad at you??? haiya........

ehh how much HHQ sell ehh???

if u think this DP kat solve the bubbles thinghy then try i must!!!

thanks sir for the valuable input

so this DP, it works like Mr Surfacer ke?? i mean, it can be thinned down?? How thick it is?? apply by brush???

Hahahaha... "Jangan marah, nanti kena jual!!!"

Well, the price for GDP is more or less like Mr Surfacer. The viscosity of GDP is like thin molten chocolate. I applied GDP thru toothpick and can also apply by O size round pointed brush but never experiment with AB yet, I think if GDP is thinned for AB, the putty content is much lesser and much shrinking will occurs and maybe clog the needle path coz GDP is slurry and sticky... Just my 2 sen thou

mej®

Tango Quebec Sir!

Sil,
GDP is good for small seams generally and applied by hand with toothpick or fine brush. The advantage is you need not sand it down later because it will dissolve in Gunze Thinner. All you need is wipe the excess with soaked cloth.

banyak nye lobang-lobang kecik tu ye......maybe macam tuan Major( B ) kita tu punya advise berkesan kot.......just give it a try ;)

allo brader you & me are just about the same size & height akakakakaka.....jangan marah aaaa nanti kena juai :lol:

btw.....hot soapy bath tu ape kelebihannya?

nice one tuan, keep us informed.

thanks guys for the kind words..

ok, after the bath, i gave the tyres a heavy coat of mr Surfacer 500. I thinned it with ratio 1:5 and shoot at 50 psi...........

after drying, here are how they look



close-up - this one is the worst of them all.
not only the tires, the wheels hub also got hole



close-up some more on the next worst tyre. Many of them are like this..so many small bubbles present.. i hope GDP will fix them


that's for all... tired