Zvezda 1/72 SA-22 Greyhound

[Andy T]

I remember Dave Ward starting the 1/35 version of this before my sabbatical. This is it's baby brother. It sports a lower parts count and subsequently not as much detail, but should be a bit less unwieldy. Still, 264 parts in a 1/72 truck ought to keep my busy for a while!

Nice box art on the front but what I really like about Zvezdas presentation are the pictures of an assembled model on the back. In previous Zvezda builds I've referred to these often:





There are 5 main sprues (one duplicated), a small clear sprue, rubber tyres and a few decals







Instructions are the usual B&W booklet type that can be hard to follow for a first timer, but easy once you get going. Another great inclusion is the full colour painting guide. I'd be more than happy to pay a few extra groats if all manufacturers did this.

Three schemes are included:



But this is the one that really caught my eye:



I haven't done an arctic camo before so I think it's a no brainier. The colour call outs recommend quite a blue grey, but the few pictures I've seen are much more neutral, so will concoct something.

I've made a bit of a start. The destructions start off more like an aircraft - building the interior first, unlike many truck kits which are chassis first, but pictures will follow once it's looking recognisable.

There's one thing I am trying to see if it helps. Rather than having my plastic scattered around like normal I'm making use of this dead corner at the end of my bench:

 

[Si Benson]

Interesting vehicle, wouldn’t mind building one myself. The braille Zvezda kits tend to be pretty good so will watch your build to see how it goes.
Artic camo scheme does look good to me too

 

[adt70hk]

Artic camo scheme does look good to me too

Doesn't it just!!

 

[Jim R]

There's a lot to this 1/72 truck. I like your choice of scheme. Should be interesting.

 

[Jakko]

264 parts, and it doesn’t even have tracks … wow

 

[Andy T]

Welcome along everyone, I'm looking forward to this myself.

The Arctic camo is very hard edged so will need masking. I'll have to consider that as I build, not adding too many lumpy bits to the exterior.

264 parts, and it doesn’t even have tracks … wow

But missing a few obvious parts like the windscreen wipers. Conspicuously absent from the built model, no mention in the instructions, and I can't see any on the sprue.

I did find an etch detail set for this by SG modelling that includes wipers, amongst other upgrades, which I would have liked but can only find retailers in Russia.

 

[Tworrs]

Very interesting, I'll keep an eye on your build if I may.

 

[Andy T]

The more the merrier Garry

 

[Jakko]

But missing a few obvious parts like the windscreen wipers.

You could make them from something like thin strip or stretched sprue — or even just paint them onto the windscreen?

 

[Andy T]

My lad had his mates around today so I was banished to the shed for most of it, which means a fair bit of progress.

I finished off the interior painting and started assembly. It's totally out of the box apart from the dashboard decals. They were all individuals but had loads of carrier film so I blobbed some paint around instead:



The cab is a six sided box with tiny joint areas so took a bit of jiggling. It all fitted together nicely though, with a bit of tape to keep the very visible joints tight while the glue dried:






Next the engine & transfer case were assembled and sprayed with Mr Metal Color aluminium before a bit of detail painting & washes:



The chassis is made up of just three main parts, a moulded plate and two rails complete with the front springs, which makes getting it all square less of a trauma:



The engine & radiator were test fitted just to check we were all good. The instructions would have you fit these and the transfer case at this point but I didn't fancy that much masking, so have worked out a way to fit them a bit later:



Same with the exhaust, I'll fit that after painting the chassis. I think it has impressive detail for this scale, even including the sleeve joint clamps!



I'm really happy with this kit so far but here's one little detail they got wrong. The steering linkage that connects the two front axles should locate on a stub fixed to the chassis (where it would rotate on the real thing). Here's the illustration (my highlight):



And the plastic:



Since it's a very flimsy part with only two other fixing points I might have to fashion something rudimentary from tube or rod. It's well hidden so I should get away with it.

 

[adt70hk]

Made some progress! That's an understatement!!

Coming on nicely Andy!

 

[Andy T]

Cheers Andrew

I got some more done today. The axles are made up in front & rear pairs. Made up of 8 or 9 parts per pair, they still need the glue lines cleaning up in this picture:



Here is the chassis as far as I'm taking it for now. As I mentioned, the engine should be in by now but I'd rather prime & paint it like this for ease:



The air cleaner intake was moulded with a solid end so I drilled it first then opened it out with various tools:





I'm not exactly sure what this part is but it was damn fiddly to put together! I'm assuming the exhaust & cooling system for an additional engine running the weapon side of things:



And here are all the various chassis parts. This kit should work nicely as 4 sub assemblies; chassis, cab, rear body & turret. Even though the instructions would have it as one lump I think breaking it down will make spraying the camo pattern easier:

 

[adt70hk]

Now that's coming on nicely Andy!

 

[Si Benson]

That’s a lot of detail for such a small kit! Making a tidy job of it too

 

[Jim R]

Really neat and speedy progress. As Si says there is good detail for 1/72.

 

[scottie3158]

Andy,
Im in chair at the front with the rabble.

 

[Jakko]

Looking good, it seems to be going well.

 

[Andy T]

Thanks all.

Yes, loads of detail for the size, and so far everything has fitted together beautifully.

A couple of parts wouldn't sit right but once I'd cleaned them up properly (instead of being lazy) they just slipped into place.

It's hard to tell from the pictures but it can be posed as if in transport, but I'm going for the legs down, wheels up mode as though it's ready for action.

 

[Andy T]

Sorry, yet another update

The major bodywork parts are done now but nothing is glued to the chassis just yet until I decide how I'm going to paint it:





Making a single barrel for a tank can be problematic enough when it's made out of two halves, so here's 16!



There were some very tiny parts to make up the main radar assembly:



It seemed to go together well though. 14 parts in all and it's free to rotate or elevate, but I think I'll decide on a position and glue it in place for a bit more durability:

 

[Andy T]

The build phase is complete, although I have a bazillion sub assemblies at the moment. I chose my usual black primer, which might seem an odd choice for a mainly white camo, but I had a plan.



After priming I decided to completely change my mind

Originally I was going to reverse mask, so apply the black, mask those sections out and do the grey, then mask again and spray the white. Fairly straightforward but I figured I'd challenge myself a bit more and try to brush paint the camo instead.

Easy for many I know, but I've never been any good at getting a decent brush finish on larger areas so it's about time I got some practice in.

So on went a basecoat of white. I tried out some Tamiya lacquer on this (LP2) which sprayed and covered very well, but I didn't realise it was gloss. This will only hamper the brush painting even more for me so it might get a quick blast of satin or matt varnish to give the AK acrylics a chance of staying where I (try to) put them.