I am having trouble with the front suspension, please see my post from yesterday. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dave

I'm sorry Dave, perhaps you posted on a different Thread. I don't see anything from you here
Donald

Just a note for you, This build is located in the Artillery section of the armor/afv in the Forms.
Donald

Now back to the build.

I have the Resin Wheels Painted, man was it a pain getting all those spots in the treads.



The frame is all painted and dried.
Here is the Engine Oil supply painted and installed.

Install the Shaft # F18 then the Transmission.


Install Shaft # B2 then install the Engine and Radiator.

There is a oil line that goes from the bottom front of the engine I used some thin solder for it.



Next I installed the Engine Air Intakes.


You'r not going to see this area.

That's all for now.
Donald

This should about finish up the Chassis.

The front plate installed.


The instructions do not show any exhaust pipes, where these pipes go ?

The kit gives you some forms for bending the light guards, they don't work really good.

You will have to shorten the top of the Jack a little to get the hold down to fit right.


That's all for now.
Donald

I started to mention this earlier; the pipes you have painted silver are actually the exhaust. Those that you have painted rust are the intake manifolds. I don't know exactly how the Smerch vehicle is arranged but there should be a large rectangular box just above or just behind the point you have marked as "exhaust to nowhere". This box forms the air cleaner and it usually has one or two large "X" strengthening ribs stamped into the top of it.

On the Scud carrier you can see the top of this air cleaner box when you raise the missile. It is located right behind the cabs in the center of the deck plates, again marked with one or two strengthening X's in its' lid. Am trying to find a photo of it now. I wanted to photograph the part itself on an old DML Scud that I have laying around in my stash but I cut the lid out of it long ago to salvage for another conversion I was building! Sorry!

Here is a photo taken by Chris Fish of his Meng Scud TEL assembly showing that air cleaner box.



You can view Chris's build at:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/237084

The two cylindrical structures under the left and right fenders are actually mufflers and not air cleaners as you might expect.

Check Youtube for videos of the MAZ 537 (same chassis) and you will note that the exhaust clearly comes out from under both front fenders about 10 or 12 feet (give or take) back from the front of the vehicle.

Further thoughts:

The control cabin on the Smerch covers the air cleaner area so perhaps Meng failed to model this item. Also after some further research it appears that these later model chassis had no mufflers on the exhaust at all. The Russians are just straight piping the exhausts in exchange for a little bit better engine performance.

I guess the local noise level is not a consideration.

After looking through the Instructions again I found that there is a filter box, as shown below.


Well I guess the old saying is true If it don't fit "READ THE INSTRUCTIONS"
Man do I feel stoopid.

Hey Guys any ideas on the color for the Exhaust pipes, they are allready installed so I can't re spray them ?

Donald

I know it is too late for this but older versions of the real deal have the exhausts wrapped in some sort of insulation which is then wrapped in what looks like small gauge chicken wire. This all has a whitish silver look to it.

Myself, I would just brush paint the exhausts with rust color and add in some rust pigments to produce a grungy look to things. It is perfectly ok that the intake manifolds are rust colored but the rest of the intake piping should probably be silver with blue brown heat scaring added to the lower ends near the engine like a jet exhaust.

Just my thoughts for the two cents they are worth.

Cheers

Well I guess leaving them silver, at least on a new vehicle would be A-OK. Yuri Pashloko gives us this photo of the exhaust outlet in his walk around:

http://svsm.org/gallery/9k58_smerch/P1560582

Don at least you can take solace in knowing just how accurate and thorough Meng was in creating this model!

It impresses me to no end, I can tell you that. Also you are doing a fantastic job putting this one together!

I finally figured it out, I had parts A17 and 18 upside down. The instructions for that are aren't so clear. To me any way.

The shame is, that right after this, in the next two steps, all this gets covered up never to be seen again, unless you make a whole bunch of plates removable. This unfortunately, is true for much of the detail in this kit.

As everyone is saying, great job on this. I'm planning to follow right along, building my own.

Yuh I think I'll just rust up the exhaust pipes a little.

In the next Pic. I know I mispelled Rotating wrong, hey I'm OLD.
I keep hitting the wrong keys.

There are 2 molded in marks on the bottom, the Instructions don't show anything going there.




That's all for today.
Donald

I'm curious what color you used on the chassis. Black obviously, but what shade? metallic, flat?

Did you paint all the transmission stuff the same color?

I used Testors Model Master Flat Black thinned with some lacquer thinner. That gave the finish a semi mat tone.
Both the Transmission and Engine were painted the same but separate from the Chassis.
Donald

Hi Donald

Awesome build Sir!! And the clear pictures with your build-log - simply outstanding. Thank you for sharing.

Regards,
Kobus

Here are the Power Boxes, they go on the sides of the Launch Tube Carriage.





I'm finished for today.
Donald

I rusted up the exhaust pipes, I think it looks realy good now.





Some more parts Painted and Installed.




Finished for now.
Donald