Andras Donaszi reviews and builds the 1S91 SURN radar in 1/72nd scale from W-Model.

Read the Review

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Incredible looking vehicle, and really good that someone finally took the plunge with one of this company's kits and showed us what they're like. I'm glad it was you Andras, and not me, considering the price

Nice review. It looks like I reached the same conclusion as you about painting wheels and tyres, although what's wrong with black for a pin wash?

Thank you for your kind words I've been eyeing these things for so long I just had to get one... I have to say they are really good, high tech models (well, this one is; it's probably indicative for the others in their line of products.) But yeah... the price is certainly high.


There's nothing wrong with black as pin wash- it's a personal preference. I think (and it's not "in my expert opinion", it's a small case "i") the contrast is too high. But it's only me; it's absolutely a personal choice. If we wanted to do absolutely, perfectly realistic paint jobs, there would not be a wash at all, no rust patches, no paint chips, as they would be simply invisible in this scale. Certain amount of exaggeration is necessary. I just like dark brown instead of black. (But I did like your StuG build a lot, so there's that. I will be a bit bolder with my next build.)


Saying this now, I'm desperately trying to figure out how to tone down the very high contrast between the dunkelgelb, green and brown on my 1/72 modelcollect E-100 with missile launcher as I misjudged the scale effect, and it looks really, really colorful...

Blending in the three WW II camouflage colours.
I had the same problem once and I simply took the liquid from the little container where I had the thinner I used to clean the airbrush. It contained a "wash" made up of the three colours. It didn't remove very much of the contrast between the fields of colour on the Puma but it sort of made the colours become more closely related, the red-brown got some green and dunkelgelb, the dunkelgelb got some green and red-brown et.c.
Very subtle but it did take away the "clown clothes" effect of the camouflage.
Adding more paint to the wash would add to the effect but be careful so that it doesn't make the model look as if it had been painted all over with red-brown-green-yellow dirt.
Maybe build up the wanted result with multiple layers ...

/ Robin

That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you! I will experiment with it over the weekend.

Glad you spotted why I asked the question about wash colours...
Robin's suggestion sounds a good one, you could also try very very thinned dark yellow sprayed over, so thin that one coat will barely be visible at all, then build up more if and where you need it - letting each dry in between. You should find it tones things down, although if using Tamiya paint it will also make it very matt. That can always be adjusted again afterwards if you want a satin finish.

I was thinking about very thin paint, but it somehow always forms droplets and uneven surface. Perhaps if I mix it with some medium?

Tamiya paint thinned with their own thinners should spray without turning into droplets, I think, it should go on as a fine mist.

and you can also try with thinning a mix of all three colours.
Make a few test surfaces with the three camo colours and then try different variants of the suggestions from Matthew and me. If one method doesn't work you have only ruined a test surface ....
/ Robin

I usually use water or windex, so that might be it... I'll try (as soon as I get my hands on some )

Robin, thank you for the help; I will experiment on a piece of plastic as you suggest.

Thanks for the build review. I have this kit in my stash, and now I know that I need to soak the tracks in warm water to get them on properly. W Models has excellent Russian SAM system components.

You are welcome. The tracks are essentially thin resin which can be formed when slightly heated. A little heating with a hair dryer on a low setting would work, too. (I like the water option as a hair dryer might melt the thing. It happened to me once.)

https://imgur.com/a/81pMK Well, here's the result