So I though I would go about taking on the Tamiya SU-85 again. Was one of the first kits I built, though I could do a better job this time around. Only got so far before I didn't want to go with it. Guess these newer kits spoiled me. So I remember hearing about possibly kit bashing a SU-85 with Dragon's SU-85M, looked around and heard good things but didn't see anyone that did it.

So I bought myself another Dragon SU-85M (original plan was kit bashing a SU-122, but I'll do that after I finish this one) and just tried it out. This is my first time trying this out and I know I'll have to do some work with putty, epoxy, evergreen, etc. So this should be a nice learning experience. Don't know how accurate I'll get it, but I hope it turns out looking decent.


Tamiya SU-85

I wanted to start out with the castmate and gun asssembly, everything after that should be straight forward. Added these lifting hooks I saw in a walk around and a spare metal D-5T I had.


Used Mr.Surfacer for the first time, went with the rattle can, 1000 since that's all they had. Looks nice.


Did a lot of trimming and filling for the gun placement. Still not good at shaping, so I trimmed off and used some of the tamiya parts (from a damaged old build) also made things go faster.


Still more work to do on the castmate, add some more welds, etc. Added a few of the other parts, there were gaps between the frame for the castmate and the front plate so I decided to use some putty for the edges of the plate and other parts. The opening for the su-100 copula was covered over with several layers of evergreen and filled in and sanded.


So to redo the hinges and tension rods for the hatches, I looked around and this one looks "correct" rather than what is on the tamiya kit (rods don't attach to anything)


So that's what I'm going with. That what I have so far.

Ambitious project!

The artwork you posted actually points to several accuracy problems with your venture.

You'd have been better off making an all new casemate from scratch or grafting the entire Tamiya one (I've seen such a conversion in a Japanese modelling magazine, using Tamiya's old SU-122 superstructure on a Dragon chassis). The corners at the rear sides are wrong for a SU-85, and I believe the sides should be less vertical than on a SU-100 (more slopped). The rear hatch opening on the roof is in the wrong place and in the wrong dimensions as well.

And the driver's hatch should be closer to the gun mount (all proportions are possibly off though...).




Good luck with your model!

Cheers,

Christophe