Hi,

I am planning to build a Swedish Strv 122 battle tank. I have found out the two methods of getting there. The first avalible mothod Is to buy the Tamiya Leopard 2 A5 and the Hong Kong Creations Workshop conversion kit of it but they are now out of production, but I really want one so If anyone can point me in the right direction for getting one, then please e-mail me at [email protected]. The Conversion is better detailed than the alternative which I will explain in a minute. The conversion replaces the upper turret and some hull detail and upon the turret.

The alternative is getting the piss-poor HobbyBoss Strv 122 full kit, the kit is mass produced and the Mass production has taken its' toll on the detail of the model. Among the major errors include:

The OVERDONE anti slip panels upon the hull mainly

The instructions (Tell you to install the incorrect parts including the APU that is fitted to the Danish Leo 2, not the Swedish)

The tracks are badly made (They are vinyl tracks)

The new cover over the PERI-17 is missing some parts

There is an Extra cover for the commander's hatch that is in the wrong position, the holes for fitting can be patched up with some putty easily.

and loads more smaller details that build up the tank.

The Kitbashing method can be used with the Tamiya Leopard 2 A5 as well. I have used this mthod and It has worked out well so far.

The Swedish Woodland splinter and Winter Splinter camoflages can be replicated using Tamiya paints:

Light Green - 85% XF-5, 10% XF-55, 5% XF-4

Medium Green - XF-26

Black - XF-69

for the winter scheme, just include a flat white with the other 3 colors.
----
Crewing?

The crewing of the Strv 122 is rather hard to get right, If you ant to get an Idea of Swedish Tank crew and their Uniform, go and look at Anders Isaksson's model and Thord Wedman's website.

The Swedish Crew wear helmets similar to the U.S. tankers's helmets, only differing in the microphone (The Swedish Mic has a wind cover to reduce the noise of travelling in windy weather).
Swedish Tank crews are generally young and to replicate this, I reccomend Hornet productions HH/10 (They are female heads without hair, but ith the helmet on, they look like 18 year old kids). And the bodies, Using Anders Isaksson's method, He used Hornet UH/02 Tank crew and cut the front off their torso and replaced it with Epoxy putty and covered up their bare arms with it too.

Easy way - get some pretty plain U.S. tank crew figures and paint them in Swedish BDU camo

Hard but more realistic way - Get Hornet UH/02 and cut off their front torso, use Epoxy putty and add the Swedish uniform detail. Remove their heads and replace them with HH/10 from Hornet, then find a U.S. tank crew helmet (Suitable ones in Dragon 3020, U.S. tank crew) and place them on the heads. Then paint them in The Swedish BDU pattern.

The MG-3 is sometimes removed for on road manuvers, to do tis, simply remove the certain parts tof the gun mount.

Okay, there it is the guide to making a Strv 122 even with crew!

Thanks,

You should not add white to the other three colours for winter camo, you should overpaint the light green fields with white.

/Thord

Fantastic. I've been needing a remedy for the horrible color that I got for the light green when following the kit instructions.

Paul

Hi,

I thought that most of the vertical parts of the tank was painted in white, while the top and some other parts were still in the light green.

Josh

When we have snow during the winter we don't have leaves on the trees
and the light green vegetation is covered by snow. Brown tree trunks and dark
green pines and firs are still visible just like the dark (black) shadows.
Ergo: Cover the light green with white and keep the rest.

Average Swedish terrain in the winter is not "all white". A vehicle lurking in the
forest can not be all white since that would make it a visible white patch in
the otherwise white-brown-dk.green-black surroundings. Crossing a field
is different but the movement will give everything away anyway. Simply target
the moving front of the tracks that appear in the snow ....
/ Robin

You are correct. This corresponds with the pictures I've found.

Paul

On the strv 122 you overpaint the light green fields on the sides, rear and front with white wash.
The top is often not painted, I have seen examles of it thou.
The reason not to white wash the top is that you paint over the anti slip surfaces.
In the old days, when I served, we painted all surfaces of the vehicles with white wash, top, sides, front and rear.
On the older, four tone scheme you overpaint the light green and brown fields and on the new three tone you only overpaint the light green fields.

/Thord

Hi Thord,

Do you have any idea where I can buy the HKCW conversion?

Thanks

No, sorry.
It's been discontinued and I don't know if there's still any examples out there.

/Thord

THIS is why I enjoy this forum - to hear the correct way to winter-camoflauge a Swedish tank from Swedes - awesome!

I think that the HobbyBoss kit is a decent start considering price and availability. I'm going to tackle the Danish 2A5 DK kit and it shares that same nose armor parts. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll start with sanding down the thick anti-skid.

The HKCW conversion looks nice but the build wasn't without some issues.

Paul

That's a good link Gary & shows a lot of the HB kit's problems !

Here's another option (not as comprehensive, but an improvement on the "dodgy" HB model anyway.

Tamiya kit and Hobby Boss 'kit bash' :

http://planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3092


Any thoughts ?

I think I'll do something similiar in my 'Viking' Campaign build.

Cheers

Paul

The APU ? Yep bad mistake there amongst others (he believed the HB instructions ).

It's a useful blog to start with anyway.

Use the Tamiya Hull and other major components IMHO (where they can be), and modify the HB parts where unique Strv 122 bits are needed........

I agree, the HKCW Conversion is NOT to be found anywhere !

Cheers

Paul

o well hes back, armorama staff i hopefully will block his i.p adress hopefully

(Sigh) Uhh, okay. I will just have to settle with the Doggy-boss kit and the expencive £26.99 Tamiya Leopard 2 kit for now. Do you think a petition would work by trying to get the resin conversion to be produced by someone else? Oh, by the way, did HKCW go bust or something???

Cheers,

Josh

"Slagkraften hos ett stridsvagnkompani
är oerhörd och med rätt träning näst intill
oövervinnerlig."

Wartofta Kompani, P4 Skövde, 2006

I know it is awsome! It is brilliant, no sarcasm! I have a lot more where it came from too!

Anyone is welcome to view and join our discussion and thank you for your complements.

Check your PM's...

Who is back exactly?

Thord,

Does it snow in summer in boden?

I really don't know. I am building a Woodland splinter I19 tank form Boden. Should I weather in snow or mud?

Is this a silly question?

Thanks

No, it does not snow in Boden during summer.
They do have a long winter thou, snow is around until april at least.
If you are doing your model in an summer environment you should not white wash it.
If there's snow on the ground you can winter camo the tank.

/Thord