Hello, all!
I would like to share one of my latest builds - Dragon 1/35 SU-100. Lots of corrections were made to make the model historically accurate for Spring of '45. I am planing to add a couple of figures and some stuff on the back of a model.
Here are the pictures of the model before priming and painting.










Thanks in advance for critique and advice!

Hi Alex

Your model looks simply perfect.

You said that you've made lots of corrections to represent an exemplar during the Spring of 1945
I have this kit in my stash and me too, I was thinking to represent a Su-100 during the battle of Berlin. I'd like to know the improvments which you've made, would you mind letting me know your tweack list ?

Many thanks in advance and congrats for your job

Alex,

I have to agree with Mauro, it looks very neat even without the paint. and i would be very interested to see your tweak list aswell.

and if i may ask what is the material you used to make the rolled up tarp?

Another thing....

Did you use epoxy putty to reproduce these very concing weld seams?

Nice looking beast,excellent PE work.Its gonna be good.

I'll be interested to see some paint on it. The build looks very clean. Did you just use the etch that came with the kit and some copper wire, for corrections?

Hi, guys, and thanks for your comments
To answer on your questions I will start from the end


I used the PE from the kit, wire, some Evergreen plastic (sheets and rods) and frames from some old PE to make new parts. Actually, I used only half of the included PE.


I use Mr. Dissolved Putty for weld imitation. Still learning, but I am getting a hang of it now. I found it easier to use than anything else.


Kleenex tissues. I used foil before, but this time wanted to experiment with tissues. I hope primer and paint will not dissolve it.

I will not go too much in detail. But if you are interested about something in particular I can go more in details.
Changes:
*the rear plate - extra detailing and shaping; shorten the exhaust pipes (way too long); fill up gaps where necessary.
*the engine compartment roof - nothing; pretty much OOB. Used PE from the kit, but PE grills look too flat.
*a rear of fighting compartment - use G7, not P13. The two round things that look like pin marks (part G8) are not pin marks.

* Dragon offers straight connection of side armor plates and a rear plate. You can do like that. But if you want to make even earlier vehicle it should look like that:

*the triangle shaped connection (part P11/12) between fighting and engine compartments was usually little bit bigger than the Dragon’s part. Post-war vehicles will not have this part.
*Left side of fighting compartment - no changes, just some extra detailing - weld beads, wiring and such
*Right side - weld beads, extra detailing
*The roof of a fighting compartment - remade torsion bars on panorama hatches (post-war vehicle will also have a torsion bar on a big crew hatch). Moved a hook and "the thing that prevents the hatch from opening all the way" (don't know how it called in English) on the same hinge.

Post war vehicles had it split-up between two hinges, just as Dragon has.
Added a weld seam between two ventilator covers. Added a handle behind those covers. Don’t have to do that. I was wrong about it. It looks like this handle was a part of a post-war upgrade.
*Commander's cupola - if you want to build a post war vehicle you need to use a different cupola- parts B3, 4 and 5. The post war cupola was as wide as an "island" it installed on. The war time cupola was narrower and was kind of shaped like a cone at the top.

The post-war cupola is wider and shaped straight up with round upper edge. The inside part of the hatches and of the cupola also needs an extra detailing.
*The front - the connection of the front upper plate and a triangle bar has changed during the production. At this period (late 44-early 45) there was a little "step" due to change in armor thickness. Post-war vehicles will not have that triangle beam at all.
Brackets for spare tracks need to be longer. Added letter "P" on a driver's hatch (does not have it on post-war machines). Cut outs for tracks in the front armor plate have to have an inside corner rouneded.

The rest is again - just an extra detailing.

Thanks a lot Alex.
Now I can recognize between my reference pics a war exemplar.

What about the wheels?

I've noticed that sometime Su-100 have the late T-34/85 starfish wheels



...sometome the spider wheels



and sometime the original t-34 ones



And as you' ve already known, different kind of wheels can be brought by the same exemplar



To represent a late war su-100 (Reich invasion, Spring 1945) what would be the more correct kind of wheel? I have some spare t-55 wheels which I can easily modify to depict a late T-34 starfish wheels, can I use them on my Su-100?


I'd like to try dissolved putty, but, i don't know why, is hard to find in Italy. I wonder what's the difference between Mr-surfacer 500 and Dissolved putty


Many thanks again for your explanation and thanks in advance for your kind reply

Cheers

Hey, Mauro!
Actually your first photo has a stamped T-44M/T-54 wheel, not T-34.

Since SU-100 were in service all the way into 70-s it is very possible they (as T-34) were upgraded with those wheels.

The second photo - the spider wheel is an actual late war T-34-85 wheel.
The third wheel (the solid one) is the wheel that was put on SU-100 at the factory (UZTM). If you look at war time pictures of SU-100 (and SU-85) you will notice that they all have those solid wheels.

If you really want to mix, put a couple of T-34 "spider" wheels, but not T-44's



I never tried to use Mr. Surfacer to imitate weld beads, and I am not sure it will work. While it is drying you can "sculpt" Dissolved putty into weld seams. I am not sure if you can do that with Surfacer.
To my understanding Mr. Surfacer is more like a primer, when Mr. Dissolved Putty is actually a putty.

In a lots of t-34/85 walkarounds I've seen these wheels, so all them are post war upgrades aren't they?

I can imagine that during its incredibly long duty, t-34 solid wheels were gradually replaced with t-44 wheels

In another post here in the site about an afghan T-34/85, someone told me that they were late t-34 wheels, so he was wrong

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/180586

Thanks a million for the explanation.
However I don't have spider wheels, I think I'll use the "solid ones"

Cheers

Yes, he was wrong. There were several different types of the "spider" wheel, but the ones with solid rubber tires (no holes) were introduced in 1944 and were used until the end of production. The T-54 wheel was adapted much later - in 1950-60s.

Can't go wrong with a solid wheel!
Good luck with your project!

Well, I'll use solid wheels

Unless I decide to do a post war exemplar

The SU-100, SU-85 and SU-122 were all built at UZTM in Sverdlovsk. All assault guns were delivered with stamped wheels. Spoked wheels from tanks can be seen on restored examples, but are not typical of SU-100s in service.

The wheels of the T-44 and the T-34 are different. The T-34 is 830mm with five bolts. The T-44 is 810mm with six bolts. They are not interchangeable.

In the 1960s several hundred T-34-85 and SU-100 were refurbished. Part of that was the production of roadwheels similar to those on the T-55s. These were fitted to some of the refurbished T-34s and SU-100s during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They are not T-44 or T-55 wheels, but were made specifically for these vehicles.

Details are in Kolomiet's Encylopedia and elsewhere.

Regards
Scott Fraser

Don't confuse tires with roadwheels.

The original stamped roadwheels were used by KhPZ and passed on to STZ, Krasnoe Sormovo, and the remaining stock was taken to Nizhnii Tagil. These wheels had a central ring bolted around the hub.

In 1942 Krasnoe Sormovo began manufacturing stamped wheels of thinker metal that did not require the central ring. These were standard on their tanks throughout production there. They were also made at UTZM Mnad Zavod No.174 in Omsk, and were standard on their vehicles.

Cast roadwheels were initially developed at STZ. There was no rubber in the fall of 1941, so they took surplus tires for the STZ-5 and put them inside a cast wheel. The ride was terrible and it was necessary to develop stronger tracks, then a smaller drive wheel.

Similar wheels were made in the Urals in 1942, probably at ChKZ in Chelyabinsk, where they first show up in factory photos. These had strengthening rings cast around the relief holes in the wheel. The ride was still terrible, so it was common to mount a set of cast rubber-tired roadwheels in the first and last station. Their production was halted in 1943 and tanks with cast wheels with internal damping were replaced as quickly as practical.

Cast roadwheels with tires were developed at UTZ in early 1942. They were initially used with steel wheels, but became standard on all positions by the time T-34-76 production halted. There is some variation in the number of relief holes, but they can be characterized as "half-spoke" with six fillets the extend to the hub and six that do not. At the end of 1944, the increased weight of the T-34 led to new wheels with all fillets extending from rim to hub.

Finally, there are the roadwheels produced in the 1960s for use on refurbished T-34-85s and SU-100s. These were similar to the wheels on the contemporary T-62, but are shaped differently, are larger, and have a different bolt pattern.

That is a summary of the different roadwheels used on T-34s.

Tires were solid rubber, perforated to dissipate heat. Initially they came from Yaroslavl', and all tires were made and mounted there, which created a problem in 1941 after the Germans invaded. The Volga froze and SZT was forced to scramble to find a solution, leading to the first cast wheels. I don't know whether other rubber producers came onstream later in the war.

Tires without perforations were possible only with softer rubber made using additives supplied by Lend-Lease. They were not all that common until 1945. UZTM definitely used them. They were tasked with a number of development projects, including testing rubber compounds as part of improving the drive train, and solid tires also appear on some wartime T-34s from UTZ (with fully-spoked wheels). They were much more common on postwar production. (T-34-85 and SU-100 were built into 1946 and 1947.)

Again, I think it is Kolomiets who discusses rubber, probably in the Encyclopedia.

С уважением
Scott Fraser

Finally started painting:

Great job Alex. i can't wait to see it finished

A foregone question...What did you used to replicate the 4bo green?

Thanks, Mauro!

I can't really give you an exact recipe for the color I mixed. I usually mix as I go, and I rarely use a single color on my models. As a base I mixed Tamiya olive drab (XF-62) and olive green (XF-58) in about equal proportions, and then was adding yellow until I was happy with the color. I tried to add desert yellow, but it didn't do much.
I may end up too dark once I add washes and all kind of weathering, but we will see. I also have - B-4 Howitzer ready for painting. I will try to keep track of what I am mixing when I will be working on it.

Many thanks Alex, I'll try to do the same.

cheers

More progress:

Well done Alex, I like it a lot indeed!

Very nice build Alex. The paint job is shaping up well also. The time and effort with the welds are definately worth it ... they look great.

Ah! Not true. As was stated in the link Mauro provided, that first wheel was specifically made for the T-34 chassis and is different in detail (including width and diameter according what I've read) from those made for the T-54/55. But they are a postwar upgrade.

Mark

(Oops, missed Scott's post re: the wheels but he hits the nail on the head.
My apologies!)

That is almost an exact match of MM OD.

Alex, its looking really great! You hand paint the white stripe?

Gary

Very good,nice looking beast