Post by alexb on Aug 17, 2018 4:39:52 GMT
I built this one over on Armorama for a Scratchbuilders Campaign. I haven't really finished alot of builds this year so I figured I'd share. The plan was to turn this....
...into this....or something thereabouts.
The design concept was for a Soviet assault gun based on the T-55 chassis. There's actually a SU-122-54, so it's not a new idea by a longshot. My idea was to have this design differ from the SU-122-54 and return to a more assault role as opposed to a tank hunter. This role would be as an assault tank to assault NATO defenses in an theoretical Warsaw Pact invasion in to Western Europe. So a big gun to pop bunkers and a thick hide to shrug off defensive fire. And since I had the T55 w/the Dozer blade I figured the blade would work to clear a path through wire, sandbags, and other defense-works. I had a DML ISU-122/152 kit that I had built as a 152. My idea was to scavenge the gun from it and replace it with the 122 that I still had in the spares.
I went ahead ans assembled the lower hull, suspension, wheels, and the dozer blade. The only thing I'd note is that the dozer can be fiddly, which would later be complicated by some very vague placement instructions for the mounts. Oh yeah, the suspension arms are really delicate so you have to be careful or else you'll damage one like I did.
After some trial and error, I decided on a simple design for the casemate. One problem is that the angle for both the 122 and 152 guns were at a different angle than the T55's glacis. The casemate for the ISU-122/152 is different from the angle of the JSU glacis so it's workable. The problem there is the height of the thing, so I ended up cutting out a notch in the glacis so the gun could be mounted lower...lowering the vehicle's profle.
For the casemate I used .75mm sheet styrene. To give it the sense of thickness I...as well as structural strength...I added 3mm strips. Sand down the edges and it gives it a thick appearance.
Added some details to the roof. I wanted to add a BMP-1 or BMP-2 turret but it was too large. I ended up using a turret from a BTR-70....I have plans for that one's chassis. ave it a splash strip. Added hatches and a gunner's periscope.
I decided to use the 122mm gun. The longer gun worked better with the profile and dozer.
I changed the gunner's periscope to a smaller one from the spares. And there's the turret. I cleaned up the edges with some thin strips. The driver;s visor flaps came from the spares. I actually don't like them but didn't want to risk damaging the casemate trying to remove them. They are difficult to see but the roof is held on by bolts.
It's almost there. I added some hatch locking mechanisms to the hatches. I changed the periscope on the mini-turret. The dozer blade was added. Smoke launchers were added. I used the Chinese style fender-mounted lights. I know they are a bit heretical for the Soviet purists, but I think they work well, the changed glacis really limits using the standard lights, and I think they look cool.
Well this wouldn't be an "Alex-Build" without some changes. I didn't really care for the 122mm gun. It's an old WW2 design. I dug through the spares and found a 115mm gun from one of my Trumpy T-62s. Those came with both a metal and styrene barrel. I used the metal one so I had the styrene ones in the spares. With that added, this one shifted from a bunker buster to a tank killer. I added a laser-rangefinder. It's a leftover from the Trumpy T-55 kits...and I think it might be Chinese for their Iraqi T-59 variant. The rangefinder is mounted tandem with the main spotlight
I left off the fender-mounted fuel tanks. With the casemate there really wasn't room for them. That meant it definitely needed the rear fuel tanks. The kit ones aren't that great. I also dressed up the rear fuel tanks with strip styrene to make the mounting bands more prominent.
I painted it a field green. I dry-brushed it, gave it a wash, and so-on. Decal markings were minimal...just a vehicle number. I used the kit's tracks. To cover the lack of track sag, I had planned on covering them with side skirts. The test skirts didn't look good. I glued the tracks down. I dabbed filler putty on the dozer blade to give it dirt-like texture. I painted it light earth, but I'm colorblind and it really looks the same as the field green. The crewmen are actually from Tamiya's WW2 Soviet Crew set.
Tah-dah!!!!
Anyway, I've got a few other builds wrapping up. I've got a M47, Privateer T62, a Privateer M48a3, a Zil-131 (which really builds up nice), and a Toyota Hilux. And there's a Martian explorer scene I'm doing for a Sci-Fi Campaign on Model Geek. The Tank Restoration deal has sputtered. I hope to pick it back up soon.
