Gern's Zvezda 1/35 T-35

[Gern]

Found it!

Here's my entry:



Both me and PJ will probably start our builds on Monday as PJ is busy today. If he gets done early, we'll see. I've got a bit of repair work to do. The two white spots on the hull are where a couple of idler wheel axles have broken off. I'll probably drill them out and put in a bit of wire.

 

[GerryW]

Oh wow!

 

[eddiesolo]

I love the interwar tank doctrine, loads of turrets, guns/machine guns. Looks a nice model Dave.

 

[spanner570]

Good choice, Dave.
Ron

 

[Mark1]

I've been thinking of getting this for a while so I'll be interested to see how this goes.

 

[Gern]

Fair old number of parts - but only a sprinkling of b****y individual track links - so hopefully it should go together OK.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Nice one Gern. Glad to have you along.

 

[Gern]

Well, I couldn't wait. Started on this last night - well actually about 3:00 am on Friday morning which counts as last night as I've slept since then. You guys know it's now Saturday but my body tells me it's still early Friday night. Oh the joys of retirement! Go to bed when you're tired, get up when you're awake - marvellous!

First thing I did was cut the parts for stage one from the sprue and start to clean up the attachment nubs.
Second thing I did was to dash into the bathroom to get a plaster for where I'd sliced my thumb with my scalpel - nothing serious or even painful but I must have caught a vein or summat 'cos I was dripping blood all over my cutting mat. Amazing how you can lose the knack of doing things when you don't do them for a couple of years!

Made good progress - for me anyway - with some sub assemblies done and the hull top almost finished apart from the odd few hundred bits of tools etc. which will need painting before assembly.



No great issues. You can see I needed a little filler for the superstructure but everything else fits just fine. I did wonder why Zvezda made the cannon barrels in three parts until I realised they could hollow out the ends without slide moulds doing it that way. Very fiddly to get them dead straight but I think I got it.

More soon.

 

[David Lovell]

Great choice great start ,you've had the blood ,sweat and tears still to come ,one of the older Zvezda kits they have improved their molding technologies since their recent stuff being as good as anybody else's its always good to see a so called lesser manufacturer being given a run out strange how all the so called shake and bakers aren't prepared or brave enough to entertain something like this. I'm sure the little bit of extra needed to put in will more than make it worth while ,I'm not a rivet counter but I certainly love painting and weathering them cant wait for this dinosaur to lumber over the finish line please keep us all up to date. Dave

 

[eddiesolo]

Looks like it is going well so far Dave.

Retirement, illness all blurr the days and hours LOL.

 

[scottie3158]

Dave,
Great choice I will follow along mate.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Fabulous choice and off to a good start, apart from blood for the blood gods. Hopefully that sacrifice will stave off the carpet monster though

 

[Graeme C.]

Another Russian monster, big & ugly, the build is looking good Dave.

 

[Gern]

Talking of individual track links ...

There's a few individual links which are designed to fit around the drive sprocket and idler wheel. These are the instructions:



You'll notice both pictures show different numbers of links fitted round the idler wheels - and none around the drive sprockets (according to the next section of the instructions, assembly 17-b should go around the drive sprocket). They are different diameters so it matters which way round they are. Does anyone know how many links there should be on each or should I wait until all the wheels are fitted so I can measure them up that way?

 

[Mark1]

The one I'm doing was like that but it was vice versa on the other end of the tracks,I just built the whole track up off the tank so they looked right and fitted as one piece after.

 

[Airborne01]

Well, I couldn't wait. Started on this last night - well actually about 3:00 am on Friday morning which counts as last night as I've slept since then. You guys know it's now Saturday but my body tells me it's still early Friday night. Oh the joys of retirement! Go to bed when you're tired, get up when you're awake - marvellous!

First thing I did was cut the parts for stage one from the sprue and start to clean up the attachment nubs.
Second thing I did was to dash into the bathroom to get a plaster for where I'd sliced my thumb with my scalpel - nothing serious or even painful but I must have caught a vein or summat 'cos I was dripping blood all over my cutting mat. Amazing how you can lose the knack of doing things when you don't do them for a couple of years!

Made good progress - for me anyway - with some sub assemblies done and the hull top almost finished apart from the odd few hundred bits of tools etc. which will need painting before assembly.

View attachment 444659

No great issues. You can see I needed a little filler for the superstructure but everything else fits just fine. I did wonder why Zvezda made the cannon barrels in three parts until I realised they could hollow out the ends without slide moulds doing it that way. Very fiddly to get them dead straight but I think I got it.

More soon.

Take a series of photos of coagulating blood drips and then use them as definitive colour references ... Oh, and then post them for the communal good!
Steve

 

[eddiesolo]

That new tool Airfix 1/72 Tiger I made had tracks like that, solid centre segments but wrap around segments for sprockets and idlers. They had the cheating, two piece version, went with that due to hands, it was harder to paint though. Hope all goes well Dave.

 

[Dave Ward]

I made this, early 2018, just dug out some construction pics - as far as I remember, there wasn't any problems fitting them!

If you really want to - you can count the links!
Dave

 

[JR]

I was just going to say that Dave Ward had built this !
Dave those tracks just defeat me every time, even though the guys on here have explained more than once, bet you do them with out a problem.

 

[Gern]

Methinks I'll just put 7 links on each of the idlers and drive sprockets and leave the last link until I assemble the tracks. That's when these pair have stopped ganging up on me!