SimonT - 1/35 Miniart Dingo - Rons Recon GB

[SimonT]

A box - 228 parts even though it is a tiny vehicle


instruction leaflet - very busy looking


a set of three crew figures that look quite nicely done


a set of loose wheels (presumably makes it easier to mix and match for all the different variants they do)

decals

and an etch fret




sprues of light grey plastic - very soft as per usual with Miniart

Tears easily at sprue connection points so need to be extra careful

Some of the parts are warped quite badly but at least with being soft plastic they should bend



painting guide


I have cleaned up all the big bits

Lots of very small bits still to do

 

[Jim R]

Morning Simon
Typical MiniArt - very high parts count. I do like the look of these scout cars. If I cleaned up loads of parts like you do I would just get muddled.
Jim

 

[Si Benson]

Morning Mr T,
That instruction sheet does look busy doesn’t it!

Interesting to see you tackle a miniart kit. I’m wondering if there will be much hacking and rebuilding of parts

 

[JR]

No doubt there will be Si, and much thinning and adding of a certain Pewter sheet.
Simon is this one of the recent purchases or a delve into the stash ?

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Count me in for this one.

Like Jim I'd get myself in a right tizz if I cleaned up a bunch of parts in advance like that. I'm still very much at the "clean one step at a time" phase.

 

[SimonT]

Jim - very high parts count. If I can manage to see the tiny bits it should make for a very detailed result. Made a couple of the old Tamiya ones in the past and this is way better

Si - was quite shocked at how messy the sheet looks all crammed in like that. I doubt there will be a need to hack this one apart as it is very well moulded. Wish they used a bit harder plastic though

John - see above for the shock news. This will be pretty much OOB - first time in, forever! Even the wheel arches are wafer thin and have delicate return edges unlike Tamiya where they make ‘em thick as a brick. May not need the pewter on this one

It is from one of the previous Creative sales earlier in the year - they change the sale stuff every Thursday. Not good for the credit card but great for loft insulation - I think I should be allowed to purchase at the reduced VAT level since they are contributing to energy efficiency

Andy - welcome aboard


Regarding parts - I usually clean up all the major parts before assembly, hulls, turrets, wheels etc as they are usually easy to identify and having the parts ready to go means there is less delay in assembly. The really tiny bits tend to get cleaned up as required.
I don’t often stick to the order prescribed in the destructions either especially when mutilating an old Tamiya kit for example

 

[wotan]

Simon

You sent me some 1:1 photos to help out when I built this one a few years back. Looking forward to see how the master does it.



John

 

[scottie3158]

Simon,
Count me in mate, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

 

[scottie3158]

Simon

You sent me some 1:1 photos to help out when I built this one a few years back. Looking forward to see how the master does it.

View attachment 355475

John

John,
I remember this build it still looks good.

 

[rtfoe]

Simon, I'll be watching you build a miracle OOB and

Simon

You sent me some 1:1 photos to help out when I built this one a few years back. Looking forward to see how the master does it.

View attachment 355475

John

John, can still remember that beauty of a build.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Steve Jones]

How many benches do you have Simon??? Either that or your are running out of space with all your builds. I hope you add a lot of stowage to this one. Good luck

 

[SimonT]

made a start on assembly - there are some very small bits

 

[papa 695]

Just seen this one Simon, got it in the stash, so I will follow from now on. a very nice start.

 

[Jakko]

That looks a lot more detailed already than the Tamiya kit I built quite some years ago

 

[SimonT]

all going rather slowly with this one but have added a few more very small parts

the very soft plastic Miniart uses is proving useful - the stupidly small and thin parts tend to bend rather than snap

 

[Steve Jones]

Totally forgot about this one Mr T. Nice to see you still adding bits and bobs when you can

 

[papa 695]

Coming along nicely, even if a little slowly

 

[Graeme C.]

Looking good Simon, I'll follow along, got a Miniart Dingo in the stash, the instructions do look very 'busy'.

 

[SimonT]

Steve - yes, still crawling along

Ian - ta

Graeme - I've got a MkII in the stash. The instructions are not the best - would have been better using a couple more pages and spreading things out with slightly larger illustrations. Some of the positioning information for the small bits is a bit vague

I have a shed load of Miniart T54 & T55's with huge parts counts - if this anything to go by I don't think they will be very easy builds

 

[SimonT]

I got fed up of adding ridiculously small parts in the cabin so decided to do some of the bigger stuff

after a considerable fight I managed to get the main bodywork together - fit of parts is vague to say the least, definitely not Tamiya, which doesn't bode well for the large amount of more complicated Miniart tank kits in the stash

even after lots of pushing and shoving and measuring and adjusting, the engine deck is still slightly lopsided but it will have to do

A tip for anyone thinking of building one of these - when you get to the point of adding body panels to the internal floor pan add all the parts in one go. Left and right sides, front panel, rear panel and front upper panel. The instructions show them gradually being added in stages - do that and nothing fits together. You need to add them all in one go so that you can adjust them for best fit

I had to soak mine in glue and partially pull it apart to get them assembled

The body panel joints have a really nice fine weld seam detail however I have lost that in a few places

The front panel needs a small magazine rack adding to the underside, not a problem. It has a PE front plate though which is so finely etched that it is impossible to cut from the fret without causing some distortion. Good thing you can't really see it once installed

At least it is starting to look a bit more Dingo shaped now

Does the GB finish at the start of Nov or the end? Not clear from title just saying Sept to Nov. If start then no chance of finishing