Greetings fellow Braille Scale enthusiasts. I just completed the 1/72 Dragon Su-85M (Armor Pro kit 7211) for the On the Eastern Front campaign. The kit was a Christmas gift from my SWMBO, along with some macro filters for our DSLR. With the latter filters I was able to document the build.

First off, here's a picture of the kit.



And what you get inside.






Here's the chassis with the main road wheels attached along with the front idlers. I left off the rear idlers as I found with my Sherman build that it's easier to position the treads without stretching them. More about suspension issues later.



Next up was putting the towing apparatus on the transmission cover. This took great care as the parts are positively miniscule.



The first problem I ran into was when I went to attach the above part to the chassis. It was somewhat warped and appeared to be a tad wider then it should have been. This took some judicious filing with small jeweller's files and bending. Here's the end result.



Rear hull with exhausts and one engine cover.




This is only my third build since getting back into the hobby last year and my first attempt at using PE parts. Here's the main engine grill and louvers.




I took a break after the PE and started on the gun mantlet.



Back to the PE parts and starting on the fuel tanks. One has to be very careful with the latter items. The instructions don't tell you that they fit only a certain way. If you don't put them on in the proper order the filler cap will will point off to the side as opposed to straight up. In the next pictures you'll also notice the horn, pistol port, saw, ventilators and the fighting compartments rear hatch. That hatch was also a problem as it was too large and required careful filing to fit.




With the above done I worked a bit on the front armour and gun mount.




Fuel tanks in place and the commander's bulge attached. The weld detail at this scale is nothing short of fantastic.




The following pictures are of the SU pre-shaded and with the first base colour applied.





This next image is the upper and lower hulls dry fitted.



As this post has taken quite a while to prepare I'll take a break and post some further pictures as soon as possible. Hope that all viewers enjoy the pictures. It's quite a kit for it's size despite the few problem areas I've mentioned. Total build time to this point was a week and a few days (an hour here an hour there).

Cheers,
Jan

Great start I've got the Su100

Thanks James. I used a couple of the SU-100 builds here and on other sites as reference for certain parts. The instructions on my kit had a few errors in them. Most notable are the positioning of the headlight and the antenna mount.

Cheers,
Jan

Nice work mate, the kit looks good.

Martyn

Thanks for looking, Martyn.

So here's some shots of the completed build. These are different from the ones I posted in the campaign gallery and thread. To those that are going to build one of these beasts I'd like to mention that at least with this kit, the treads are too long. I believe that someone here who built a SU-100 also commented on problems with them. I cut the left ones down but not enough and that's why all the sag. The right ones I cut a bit more, approximately four links, and unfortunately I couldn't get them to sag as much as I would have liked. You live and you learn.











The decals that you get with the kit are fairly limited and from looking at a lot of pictures I think I can safely say that most Russian equipment does not carry a lot of markings. Rather than use the decals I decided to actually paint versions of them on the fighting compartment sides. As many markings that I saw were hastily done by hand I felt the painted markings would add to the overall effect. For the curious, the markings are 3/32 of an inch or a tad over two millimetres.



Thanks for looking,
Jan

Very nice.

I found when I built the Su-100M, that the tracks were a great let down.

What paints did you use?

Cheers

Mike

Very nice work you have here Jan. have you considered sending in a feature either build or on display to Armorama.

Thanks for the comment, Michael. The hull, tracks and some minor details were all done using Tamiya acrylics. The base colour green was mixed up using XF-61 as a base and adding white and a smidgen of buff to match the average Russian green. Further details and highlights were added using various Delta Ceramcote acrylics that my wife uses for her paintings. In this case I wanted to keep the weathering limited to give the SU a less battered look.




Darren,

Thanks for your comment. Yes, I was toying with sending in a build feature once I figure out what and how to do it. I documented this build photographically to an extreme. I also have my documentation of what problems/issues arose. I'll review what is necessary for the build feature and try to get it all sorted out.

Thanks,
Jan

I love '72 scale kits, but dragons are often plauged with fit and quality issues (the exact opposite of their '35 line). Tracks are also a pain, there is just no way to do them

This kit I bought. I found the majority of parts is the same with SU100 beside the gun...

Very nice build. I am particularly impressed with the subtle detail shading and highlighting. Please don't take offense but might I suggest a smidgin more weathering along the fenders and the upper sides. The main tracks and front track are really nicely done (weathering wise) but IMHO a few sections look a bit too clean. Again, just my thoughts.

Regards,
AJ

AJ, thanks for the positive comments and the suggestions. I am currently working on a build review and in reviewing the pictures I somewhat agree with your assessment . I am not going to promise anything but I hope to embellish the weathering a bit for inclusion in the feature. I will try to post any modifications to this forum prior to my submission.

Thanks again,
Jan

Okay, so I lied! I had hoped that I would have the final weathering done for my build review but it didn't work out the way I planned. So for those that thought it needed a bit more, here are what I hope are the final images. Please note that the non wooden part of the base was my first quick attempt at adding some interest to the photos. Also, the German panzer figure in a few of the pictures is my first attempt at painting figures in this scale. Let's just say that the crew had too much vodka the night before and forgot where they parked the SU. The German just happened upon the scene by chance.

The first picture has the penny for scale.























As always, thanks for looking and/or commenting.


Cheers,
Jan

What can I say but, WOW! That's quite a change from the previous pictures. And that figure in the last few pictures. I'd go cross-eyed trying to paint something that small. Thanks for sharing the build.

AJ

AJ, glad you like it and thanks for the comments. It was quite an educational build.

Cheers,
Jan

Very nice work Jan. I odn't know what is more imprssive.... the nice "to sclae" weatheirng... or the stripes on the figures lapels

Marc,

Thank you for the kind comments. This was only my third build after a long absence from the hobby and there's been lots to relearn. I'd also like to mention that I owe a lot to the many people on this site that have given me the inspiration to push myself beyond what I was capable of in the past.

Thanks again,
Jan