I guess its time to get this one rolling. Zvezda's SU-100 with Dragon tracks.

Starter pictures. There were taken a while back. I've been taking pictures as I have been building. So all of this wasn't done in a single run.




This is why I am using the Dragon tracks instead of the kit's tracks. The kit ones are two two-piece tracks. I'd say they were comparable to Tamiya's old T-34 track bands in terms of detail.


The kit's hull is a multi-piece deal. I usually have a strong dislike for these style hulls but this one went together pretty good. Clamped it and weighted it to keep it square.




Wheels. Each outside roadwheel had a weird piece of flash around the center whole that needed cleaning. The wheel also had a mold seam that needed cleaning.


Front plate and gun.


The slant grills were a little odd to fit. The rear plate is just strange the way they engineered mounting it. The provide shim inserts to cement to the rear hull sides to fill in a slot to mount the rear to. They created a problem to fix.


Gun plate attached.


I'm enjoying the build. The problems and quirks are workable.

Comrades,
An awesome start to the campaign, a nice mix of examples of the triumph of the Soviet industrial Proletariat!

Now that I have finished up the remnants from my last build, a 1/48 jagdpanther from the 1/48 Campaign v.3, another fun campaign run by our leader, Greg (shameless plug) with a nice base, IMHO, as logged in "Make a garden ...then trash it!" (Shameless plug pt.2) I can now start on my contribution to the Great Patriotic War!
I am leaning towards the Tamiya 1/48 SU-122 in the neat winter-white and tree-branch camo, the one with the big red circle on top! I have always liked that scheme, so now is time. I just ordered some photoetch from Track48 for it, so once that arrives it will be time to expel the Fascist vipers from the Motherland!

Stephen (Minas-Ithil)

So my Dragon T-34 is coming along nicely. I applied 2 brush painted coats of gloss white. I didn't want it to be too neat, and to have a hint of the base colour showing through.

The decal on the turret was a bit of a pain getting over the pistol port, but a couple of coats of micro sol and it settled down quite nicely



Next up, weathering!

@Neil, the T34 is looking a beauty!!!!

Here's my entry, just arrived from Amazon. Now only waiting on the tracks and PE detail sets to arrive and it'll be good to go.

I am not very impressed with the kit I received today and posted pics of. This KV-1 has way too many fit issues for a kit in it's price range. Nearly through with initial assembly and it appears there are many hours ahead of me dealing with putty and sanding and so on.......









Maybe I'm just being too critical but all of the reviews I saw on this kit heaped praise upon it..... Guess I have been spoiled by Dragon kits lately.

Alex - looks like that su100 is going to be a fulfilling build. Keep up the good progress


Stephen - I spotted your jagdpanther under your profile threads. Great job on the groundwork!!! and wall

Neil That decal looks great. those large ones can be impossible to get over raised details

Smokey - I dont know what you spent, but theyre good kits overall. They just need a lot of fit and sanding work at times. The 1/48 has plastic link tracks so surprised to see those rubberband ones there.


I hope to get more done tonight on the SU76i as my 5 week old twins keep me up anyways.

@Greg, after shipping I have around $35 in the kit. The vinyl tracks are just one of 2 sets that came with it, the other being a link & length set but I am using a working set of tracks on it when they arrive.

A small update.

Rubbed the cast texture down a little and finished the turret and most of the upper hull.







Casting marks added to back of turret, will add a little more texture to them so they blend a little.





Just need to finish fitting the swing arms etc and I can get painting..... Oh and clean up all those track links

Paul

Hey Paul. The js is looking nice. One thing I see is you did cast texture for hull so probably should do it for the turret sides too.

One more track then on to smaller detail parts

Hi all,

after a 14-days vacation, i'm ready to join this campaign. It's my first campaign anyways here on Armorama, so i hope to get a lot fun.
I've joined three more campaigns who all will start within the upcoming months, so progress will sometimes slow, please bear with me.

My contribution is an SU-152 late from Trumpeter.



I'm not a rivet counter by any means. This build will be OOB, but with the addition of Modelkasten workable tracks, because the kit ones are wrong.

Nice work on the various kits.
Smokey - nice start on the KV-1e - the KV version that I have always liked. A bit of a bummer all of the fit issues, Trumpy is usually better than that.

Calif.Greg - The SU-76i is coming along nicely. Whose conversion is that? I have been thinking about doing it in 1/35 with the old MB models conversion. It is a shame that the Tam. 1/48 PzIII is seemingly OOP now, otherwise I would pick up a couple more. C'est la vie.

Stephen (Minas-Ithil)

Welcoming to campaigning Torsten! I'm sure you'll have fun with that big Russian beast to build.

Stephen. The su76i is a Hauler conversion. Yeah hopefully aTamiya does another version of the pziii so there's more kits out there. I picked up a few back when they were cheap and bountiful.

Smokey,
I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with the KV. They are usually a very good line of kits. I'm building one for the Trumpeter Campaign and I plan on bashing a couple of KV kits to make one of Stalin's gigantor KVs.

The kit uses a multi-piece hull which can get misaligned easily. That can give you some problems. It looks like the fit of the bolt-on armor is another problem. I think you can get away with the armor being a little ill-fitting because it's add-on armor.

Hello!I will build T-26 from Hobby Boss.

Upon opening the box it looked as though some of the major parts were warped a bit. I actually am not blaming Trumpeter for this because I have a friend that ordered the same kit and it arrived yesterday and his fit was perfect.

I fixed all the problems with mine yesterday and primed it last night. Happy to report all problem areas no longer exist thanks to putty and sanding. It should still turn out to be a great build once it's finished. I will try to post a pic or two of it later.

This one is going together quicker than I had expected.

I was basically at the point of hitting the tracks. I put a base coat of paint on the wheels.


Now the tracks. I used a set of the old Dragon T-34 waffle patter individual tracks. Cyberhobby sends a set, along with Magic Track, with their T-34-85m. These are easy to assemble and they fit pretty well with the Zvezda kit.


Done and ready for paint.


And painted.


Mounted to the tank. Clamped and put aside overnight.


This is where I used foul language. The previously mentioned rear upper hull panel really showed itself while trying to mount the top and lower hulls together. The way this thing fits doesn't give it a lot of strength. There were also some fit issues with the rear halves. When I tried to clamp them, the weak rear joints would give way. It took me longer to get the two halves joined than to assemble the tracks.


By the way, I forgot to fill in the hull gaps but I'm going to let them ride as-is.

My T-34 is almost done. Filters and washes applied, just need to use pigments to get some mud on the tracks. Really happy with how this has turned out, will probly add a little snowy base and a few figures.

Fresh primer. I'm trying to get a few other builds to this point so I can do a one time airbrushing event.


Neil. - the t34 looks good. It would be nice to see it on a base

Howdy Y'all
@Neil-nice T-34, hope mine comes out as nice as yours.
Here's some progress. I'm procrastinating on the infamous track links for this kit.


I've decided not to use the aluminum AM barrel, the kit one looks like it will work quite nicely.
Take care,
Don "Lakota"

Update.

I started on the top hull features. First off, I turned my attentions to the auxiliary fuel tanks. Zvezda took a different approach to their tanks than Dragon and Tamiya did. I think they worked out pretty well which was good.




I got on a bit of a tear and pushed ahead with the upper hull details without snapping any pictures. Hatches were left off for now.


And off to paint.


Susie...as I am calling her....is sitting in the next room drying. So that's it for now.

wow you guys are fast! alot of exciting builds here... keep going gents!

Here's the progress on my IS3...



The lower chassis and wheels came together quite nicely, but there are some fitting problems between the upper and lower hull... some rather noticeable gaps in the front. Other details are also lacking, such as the linkage between the external fuel tanks and the hull. Will be doing somethng about that... Will have some more photos and updates over the weekend!

Cheers!
Lawrence