Zvezda 1/35 SA-22 Pantsir ( Greyhound ) - by popular vote!

[Dave Ward]

The Pantsir ( Carapace ) is a self contained air defence system, it has 12 medium range AA missiles, and two 30mm cannon for close in defence. There are a number of variants - which seem to be in the type of radar fitted. The Zvezda version is the S-1, which was first into service in 2012.

There aren't that many pictures of the beast in Arctic camo, but they do exist:


Despite it being mounted on the 8 - wheeled KAMAZ chassis, it's off road performance isn't very good - there are tracked variants in development.
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

Just a taster of the model. 677 parts - no, I haven't counted them!
There are 9 sprues packed into the 500mm X 300mm X 90mm box along with 9 chunky vinyl tyres

A double sided colour guide & a 14 A4 page instruction booklet of 88 assembly steps - of which the first 53 are for the chassis. You can complete the model in travel form, with the radar folded down, or in action position, with steadying jacks down & radar up, which is probably the option I'll do.
Actually getting the parts onto the bench - I realise how big it really is - I'll have to finish that Fokker D.VII before I can think of making a start...........
Dave

 

[therapy]

Looking forward to seeing this come together Dave.

Nick

 

[Deleted member 7181]

I'm so glad this one won the vote!

 

[Tarps]

Looks a nice kit Dave, i will be following this build.

 

[Dave Ward]

I'm not taking piccies of all the sprues - too many!

The Chassis is flat packed the sprues are crisp & flash free - I haven't spotted any nasty ejector pin marks yet!
The vinyl tyres are chunky & solid - not hollow - they don't have a moulding seam around the middle which is pretty impressive

I'll put up some detail shots next........................................

 

[Dave Ward]

Just a few details that caught my eye

Missile launcher tubes

Wheel Hubs

Ventilation slats

Engine Fan

Auxiliary drive belt

30mm gun barrel

Hatch detail

Chunky back axle

Some fancy moulding on the chassis rails

Mudflap


Heater tubes & vents for the cab ( I think )

Dashboard...................
There is a clear sprue - just flattish windows, a small decal sheet & a self adhesive foil sheet for the wing mirrors.
All in all, I think this looks very good, some of the ingates are a bit large, but nothing really bad
Proof will be in how it all goes together
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

Off and running................ construction starts with the engine - you need to study the instructions very carefully, as it's easy to get parts the wrong way round ( Yes, I did! ) - I already had one loss, a part flung itself at the carpet monster. I don't think it'll be visible on the finished model ( unless you use a dental mirror, or a borescope )


The cab on the real thing tilts forward to allow engine access, but I haven't seen any sign in the instructions if it's possible. I'll probably give the engine an overall green, or grey finish & detail paint things like filters etc.
I've been looking at what the finish will be - I quite like the Arctic camouflage, but I'm now leaning towards the Syrian version in a desert sandy brown - I think there's more scope for weathering. That's in the future, as whatever the version, they all have a black chassis.
Dave

 

[Deleted member 7181]

Looking good, and almost identical to the engine on the Mustang I did.

With that there were clear instructions on how to pose the cab forwards, so if you can't see them, they probably aren't there. There were several parts that were different depending on the pose, mostly all the bracketry for the underside of the cab. Maybe they are lurking on a common sprue somewhere?

 

[Dave Ward]

The Pantsir uses a very similar chassis to the Mustang - but 8 X 8. Kamaz offer a range of modular packages, for commercial use, as well as military - I guess the engine might be slightly different - in that it may be multi-fuel. I don't think it's particularly important, as If the model is finished in a action ready status, with jacks down, and radar up, then the cab wouldn't be tilted!
Dave

 

[outrunner]

Looks great Dave, when Zvesda do an engine they do a nice engine. Shame there is no tilt mechanism for the cab but perhaps you could cobble something together?

Andy.

 

[Dave Ward]

Amazing what you can find on the internet

Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

The next step in the Zvezda instructions would have you assemble the cab, but I'm going to leave this until later, I want to complete the loadbed/chassis/running gear first.

This is the load bed, with the 4 jacks, for stabilising the vehicle - the rams are left off, for ease of painting. The instructions need careful study, to make sure you get the bits the right way round.

These are the chassis rails - they are single pieces - nothing assembled/added.

Each is 270 mm long - a very complicated moulding - no injector pin marks, or short moulding present, very nice indeed.
Dave

 

[grumpa]

WOW!....uh......WOW!!


Jim.

 

[JR]

Nice to see tyres without that center seam, nice detail on those couplings as well .

 

[outrunner]

Can not wait to see this come together.


Andy.

 

[Dave Ward]

Chassis rails assembled - it seems rather narrow compared to other truck chassis' I've seen.

No fit problems, just a bit of a juggle getting all the cross members into their correct positions.
As this is the backbone of the truck, I've used Contacta, and now that it's supported, I've run TET into all the joints - I'll leave this to really dry off before moving on. I'll check to see the loadbed fits nicely on the chassis, better to find problems now, rather than further down the road!
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

After a few hours drying time, I tried the load bed & the engine on the chassis

No fudging, fettling or filing - they just fit together! Only dry fitted, as the chassis has a lit more to be added, before it is sprayed overall black.
I've been trawling the internet, looking for Syrian Pantsir' and found these two


The first is either a very subtle camouflage scheme, or the paint has flaked off! The second looks like it has had an attack of the measles - either way I think the Syrian vehicles have more scope than the stark 'Arctic' camo.
I'll keep looking for better examples
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

I seem to have spent an hour or so adding bits - but there are a lot more to go

The assembly isn't helped by the parts being spread across several sprues, not normally a problem, but these sprues are so large, they won't fit in my normal stowage places!

I've been looking for more pictures of Syrian Pantsir'

That appears pretty crude by any yardstick - and I don't think that would look any better in 1/35! Search continues...............
Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

Another 90 minutes produced this:-

The single piece rear axles (r) need careful clean up, as there no less than 10 sprue connections on each.
Zvezda try to ensure that you can't assemble pieces incorrectly, with tiny lugs & cut outs, so you have to make sure, when cleaning up, that you're not trimming a locator off! Some knowledge of truck engines helps - if I wasn't familiar with heavy duty air cleaners, I'm sure I would have removed bits I shouldn't have...............
I have to confess to making an error - I was intending to leave the engine loose, so I could paint it separately - however, I trial fitted the engine to the chassis - it fitted positively with a click - so positively I couldn't get it out again, without damage, so I had to accept that & fix it permanently Oh well...............
Dave