Just started building Trumpeter's SA-8:


Here are a few of the sprues









And a fret of photo etch


So far, I've only done the two interior control panels. Plenty of decals to detail all of the panels





Here is a good YouTube video of an SA-8, complete with interior shots (just ignore the goofy audio)
https://youtu.be/JDP-ghh5siQ

Hi Just finished building mine and you will want to prepaint your sub-assemblies as much as you can.

Trump SA-8 observations:

Steps 1 & 2: Interior parts. No real need to go to town in the rear cabin unless you plan on adding interior lighting.

Step 3: suspension. There are four diff sub-assemblies.
Suggest either picking one set and install one by one or; placing each set on a piece of paper clearly IDed. No real issues, you will need to force the suspension parts to the housings. Or you can trim the pin and glue. You will need to ensure that all four holes are open ....

Step 4: lower hull. The parts are not clearly IDed, not sure if the issue is the number on the sprue or bad instructions, either way, use you common sense when adding the "U" brackets. I would suggest leaving the very fragile guards off until the end. The drive arms are positionable. You will need to carefully glue the housing to the hull leaving the swing arm moveable otherwise you find your self with splayed or pigeon toed wheels. When you attach the suspension sub-assemblies you will need to either enlarge the opening slot or narrow the tab.

Step 5A: Drivers compartment. Nothing major, just poor instructions. The pedals should face inwards, well at least to me anyway.

Step 5B: upper hull bits and pieces. Use your judgement, several small fragile pieces that can be left off until the end.

Step 6: Upper hull bits. Again, use your judgement. It is here that you apply the clear parts FROM THE OUTSIDE. So you can mask off the interior from the inside, paint away, pull out the tape and then add the windows at the end. Again, no need to add everything now, you can wait until the end.

Step 7: lower missile tube bracing. Confusing flow, you may want to mark the flow. Middle to top from left to right to center, down then from the right and left .... Other than that, pretty straight forward if not a smidge finicky. Only part part gave me cramps: C73/C88. Poor diagrams and soft molding made the placing of the part confusing.

Step 8: Missile tubes & main radar assembly. Study your example. Some missile canisters were painted differently. I would suggest leaving them off anyway and prepaint the brackets before attaching. The radar went together easily. Trump provided indented bracing which helped seat the etch screen. Even ham-fisted Tom had no problems here.

Step 9: feed horn/wave guide. No real issues noted. You may want to prepaint prior to final assembly. I left off the upper portion of the radar until the end.

Step 10: left and right small radar boxes. Nothing significant, just the usual sometime finicky fit. Pick your vehicle and leave off the radar faces if they are painted differently than your vehicle.

Step 11: main radar. What a PITA, poorly IDed parts and sprue layout was very confusing. Suggest leaving the four major parts separate and prepainting. EDIT: forgot to mention that parts B6/B7 will need to have approx 1/32" or so removed from the internal tube in order to allow parts B8/B9 to sit flush. Alternately you could ream out the holes in parts B8/B9 to allow the tube to rise through the holes to sit flush.

Step 12: radar platform. C17 fits on the back of E2 not at the junction of E2 and B18. Look at the inset to help place it. This is also where you add the radars, again, suggest prepainting first.

Thanks for the tips, Tom. I've been long forward to building this one

Neat! The interior would be unreal with some LEDs. I've had my eye on one of their SA-2 kits for some time...maybe sooner now than later.

I have thought about some lighting around the control panels, since they went to the trouble to add the detail, but only a small hatch to see it thru

Hi

If you keep the hatch closed then there is nothing to see ... even with the hatch open, there isn't that much.

T

HI

Couple of WIP shots

I'm still figuring out how the picture posting works, so I've accidentally wiped out the initial pictures I posted (by deleting them to make room for the new ones.)

I've put everything together and have a few thoughts. I agree with Tom about the worst part - the main Target Tracking Radar dish and the poorly numbered pegs that go between the dish and plate. It took forever to get it to work correctly.

Here is the whole upper turret assembly:



And here are the pegs:


The feed horn for the target acq radar:


Acq Radar Photo etch dish


Missile canister supports:


Driver's compartment


Chassis. I managed to break one of the pins that the wheel hub attaches to, so I had to glue in place instead of allowing it to turn.


Front of the upper hull


Top. I will glue the hatch open. It does have interior detail on the hatch.


Rear upper hull



I plan on painting it as an Iraqi SA-8 (Whenever the weather is agreeable..), so it'll be Desert Yellow (Tamiya color). Might add a Red Brown Camo pattern to it. I have some decals from the old DML ZSU-23-4 that I can use to mark it

The next kit is the Scud B on the 2P19 chassis. That one has sprues from 3 other kits (JS-4, Object 704, Scud B (missile sprue from the other Scud) and some specific for this kit) Step 1 for that has errors already...