Chris,
did you see this one over at dishmodels by any chance? http://dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=7484 Yours is really looking great!

Sean

Hey Sean, thanks for the link. The link was saved on my other computer which crashed on me the other day and couldn't remember what the site was. Defiantly like the miniarm wheels on, I may just go ahead and order a set of them.
Chris

Chris - The SP Designs wheels are based on the DML wheels, not the Zvezda wheels. Zvezda makes their wheels from something different than the rubber that DML used, so they are a bit bigger. The resin of the casts also shrinks a bit, so between those two things, the size difference can be seen. Also, Zvezda may have made new wheels for the kit, I am not sure, I will have to check.

Regardless, Miniarm's wheels look good in photos. I do not have a set of them to review yet.

For the exhaust and rear plate...that is a problem of the casting sprues and also just a case of needing to square things up. It is one of the problems of building in resin, although Sergej knows that he needs to rethink where he puts casting sprues.

You are doing fabulous work, keep at it.

Thanks for the kind words Jacques. I kind of figured ut had something to do with the older dml kit for what he had based the replacement part on. The zvezda wheel are some sort of very hard rubber like stuff and not quit like the dml wheels. The wheels you sent me are still pretty nicely done and may end up using them as a stop gap until I can order a set of miniarm wheels. I was looking the wheels closer and the wheel for the real BTR-3 have a different tread pattern than the normal BTR-80 and right now the only thing I can find that is even close to is the miniarm wheels. I know there's not alot that can be done about perfect fitting of casting resin, just alot of sanding and dry fitting can solve the problem. But I still think the SP kits are worth every penny and hope Sergej keeps production more kits.
Chris

Just a side note - no worries in calling a pig a pig, I will not get prickly and my feelings hurt. I help provide SP Designs kits so that people can build things they never would be able to get their hands on otherwise, but the kits come with some warts and these need to be pointed out and fixes shown. I think you are rightly showing a lot of the issues any other builder would have and have shown some very nice work-arounds without being too critical. Nice job.

Another good thing about this is that I, and Sergej, get good feedback on the kits and their flaws. Sergej is not a "builder", just a producer. I do not have enough time to build all the kits and subject them all to detailed analysis. So these kind of blogs really help show where the problems are...it is great if the pieces look awesome in the box, but how do they go together?

Hopefully, in the end, it helps raise the bar on the quality of kits made available. I know I want some nice "fatty" tires to put on my BTR's.

Don't worry Jacques, I'm not the type of modeler that is going to nit pick a model to piece to the point were no wants to buy it. After all this is a hobby and ment to be fun to do. Every kit has it's own issues that need to be addressed, this kit just has a few, nothing major and is all easy fix. I did however find another area that hopefully Sergej can fix on his next batch. The side acess point for the crew that is in between the wheel has a nasty gap with the upper hull. Again should be an easy fix and maybe a resin replacement part could be added in the SP kit that would solve this problem. Any thing I can do to help you and Sergej improve on the kits just let me know. After this done along with my T-62 I will be tackling the T-80UD. I'll defiantly be providing my feed back on the kit and areas to improve on, but for now I'm just going to trug along on this build.
Chris

I think the side door upper/lower hull gap is going to be addressed. Sergej has been working on how best to deal with that weak point in his BTR kits...it is progressing.

Cool glad to hear it, not that it's a show stopper.

Well here just a small update for today. I manage to install all the panels on the side of the upper hull made from thin plastic sheet cut to shape with a paper template. I still need to make all the retaining clips for the other side of the hull since I just have the panels in place. After that, I will move down to the lower hull and add a few panels in certain locations. One area that I ran into that needed to be addressed was the small gap in between the side access point and the upper hull. Zvezda part does not match up perfectly with the upper hull and creates a small triangular gap. This was easily fixed with strip plastic sand to shape of the hull. Maybe on the next go around Sergej can included a solid resin casting part to replace the zvezda part, it would be an easy fix for him and just a small and simple part to add to the kit. I say solid casting for the hatch for the simple fact that an interior would be almost impossible to build for this vehicle since pictures are almost non-existent anywhere on the web. I also completed the suspension and running gear for the BTR; I am not too impressed with this part of zvezda as the details are very simple. However, once the wheels are installed not much can be seen. The wheels are my only nit pick of the whole build; the kit-supplied wheels suffer from imperfection in the tread molding and are not the correct width. I did order a set of replacement wheels from SP, but these too were not correct in height and width, but much better detailed than the supplied wheels. Instead, I am going to have to order a set of miniarm wheels, which have the correct tread pattern, height, and width I am looking for. At this point, I started to install the kit parts onto the SP hull and so far, everything fits just fine. One small issue I did run into was zvezda had the part numbers wrong for the rifle ports, all I did was test fit each part in the locations before I glued them in place. I also replaced the kit tools with better ones from my spare parts bin; I believe these came from the DML tiger 1. Other than that, the model is progressing very nicely so far.
Chris

You're really putting in some fast work on this kit. Keep it up. Any idea as to the paint scheme?

Yes, I am going with the traditional tri-color scheme, but the panels are going to be a solid green color. I came across an adhoc BTR-80 with the same paint job and the idea was reinforced more with a model I saw over on missing link of a piranha built the same way.
Chris

Hey Sean here's the idea I had for the paint scheme.

Here's another BTR-80 I came across as you can see the different armor panels used.


I couldn't find the picture I had of the btr that had the tri-color paint job since it's somewhere on my many hard drives I have. But just to give an idea of what I'm planning to do.
Chris

That BTR-80 with the slat armour looks bad ass!

Got to make myself one of those!

I agree about the Miniarm Wheels they look great and the surface detail is spot on. I was able to take some walkaround images of a BTR 60PB when I was in Minsk, the wheels and tires are different from later model BTR's but seeing them in the flesh up close really made me appreciate the effort Miniarm put into their wheel set. Much better than the wheels in my BTR-70 kit!

Funny thing is Jon, I've manage to find three different tread patterns for this BTR I'm building. It's hard to tell, but the wheels I'm using now just for test aren't even BTR wheels. Their from one of my kidds toy stryker, weird thing is they fit perfectly onto the zvezda hubs. They have just the right tread pattern I want to use, but their just a tad bit too tall in diameter. But then again I may use them as the added weight from the extra armor would make the vehicle squat more than usual. Hum, what to do, what to do?

Well it has been a while since I have done any updates on the build, but things have been progressing very nicely so far. I had to wait for a new battery to come in for my camera before I could take any pictures since the original one will not hold a charge anymore. So far, I have the driver’s side of the hull completed with all the added armor in place for the upper and lower hull. New crab handles and tie downs made from brass wire. The kit head light were used, but the brush guard was made from a modified kit part thin down and reshaped some. Thin wire was used for the electrical wire for the lights, along with a better-detailed electrical outlet for the leads. The rear lower hull was rebuilt with plastic sheet, as the angles of the plates did not match up the upper hull. New vent and vanes were added to the lower portion of the hull for the water jet since the details in the kit were lacking in this area. So far everything is falling together just perfectly now I have worked around some of the major problem areas. I just have a few more things to do and should be able to start painting in the next couple of days I hope. I am very happy with the way things are turning out so far and cannot wait to put a coat of paint on the beast.
Chris

Hey, nice uparmoured Canadian Grizzly! Where/who is building that?

THX,
Jim

Hey JIm, that Grizzly was built over on Missing link some time back. I can't remember who built it as it was on their forum page and I just saved all the pictures to my hard drive. If you are interested I can send you all the pictures I saved. The finished model is really great, who ever built it did an outstanding job on it.
Chris

Very nice build so far, Christopher. A really really different looking BTR.

Looking forward to see more

Superb job!

Cheers,

Christophe

Thanks everyone for the kind words. The only real problem I encountered with this project was the rear hull. The rear plate being made of resin and trying to match it up with the lower hull had some very nasty gaps in it and needed to be shimmed with plastic just to fill in the gaps. But other than that, this has been a fun build for me and looking foward to getting back to working on my T-62.
Chris

I love the aspect of the rivet
how did you achieve them ??
Cheers
Seb

Hey Seb, I used my homemade punch set. Nothing more than scrap plastic with predrilled holes and then I turn the blunt end over to punch out the revits. Simple and cheap and no need to try to find those expensive punch sets.
Chris

Well the build is complete now, just put the finishing touches on the BTR this morning. With a coat of primer on, I can begin to apply paint to the model, I was also able to check for flaws in the casting and correct what was needed before final painting. The model had a slight accident the other day when a roll of tape fell off the shelf and landed onto it. The good thing is only one light broke off and that was an easy fix. On the other hand, the brush guard did not fair so well, the face of the guard was crashed. So now, I can either make it look damaged or try to cover it with some sort of rag or something. However, other than that, I got lucky when the tape fell. The co-drivers side of the hull went together fairing easy as it was just the same as the other side. The bow plane had to be built with new control arms, as the kit parts were not correct in shape and length. For this, I used plastic rod heated over a candle and bent to the correct shape I needed. Surprisingly I am very pleased with how everything turned out and cannot wait to tackle my next SP Design kit. Now it onto the fun job of painting as I have been working out my plan for how I am going to paint this model.
Chris