Su-85 1:25 by Answer build

[Clashster]

An update of the very little progress I've made! :sad: Finally finshed one side of the road wheels. Made a few mistakes due to the drawings not being very clear - as I was cutting parts for the wheels, I realized that I was going to have a lot of parts left over. After studing the drawing for what seemed like hours, I realized my mistake... Took apart what I could, living with what could not (fortunately, you can't see these because it is on the inside) and rebuilt... Next step: Learn Polish... :grin:

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Oh yeah, I accidentally drop the model also - wheels rolling all over the floor, rather humerous once I stopped cursing! :rofl:

Top view of some progress on the little stuff
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Off tomorrow, so hope I can make some serious progress (not to much more to go!).

Chris

 

[Fishcarver]

Chris: Looks good so far!
Carry on!
Jim

 

[cgutzmer]

Looks pretty good! Especially having gone through its first battle already Can you elaborate on what the mistake was in case someone else tries to build it?
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Chris

 

[Clashster]

Let's see if I can get this to make some sense - the road wheel diagrams made it seem that one part was used for front part of the wheel and another for the rear part. But what it really meant is that the parts were layered for both sides... After building a wheel or two, I realized I was going to have many parts left over (about ten each - hmmm just the number of road wheels! that's when the light went off). After viewing the drawing a million times, I realized how it was supposed to be built. That made me review a couple of other drawings that I misintrepreted... Answer's limited drawings are not very clear. I think it will be a while before I try another Answer kit...

 

[Clashster]

Well, Jim got me off my a** and take some pictures.... I really am not too far from finishing, so I'll post these and hopefully in the next couple of days be able to post the final build pictures.

First off, the mess I call a work station ops: - probably a good reason why I can't seem to make much progress!

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Ok, to the real stuff. Some little stuff:

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And mounted:
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Side view
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Chris - If you look at the two road wheels on the right, the one on the far right there is only one layer of the inner rim. If you look at the one next to it, you can see it has two layers. That is one of the problems (in my previous post) that I tried to explain!

Front view
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The barrel is made, but I don't want to mount it until I finish the rest of it (seeing my track record, I would probably knock it off, crush it, set it on fire and do a samba on it :grin: ).

That's all for now!
Chris

 

[Fishcarver]

Clashter:
I see a pretty good lookin' SU-85 Assault Gun happening for you here: Keep up the build.

As I understand the white stripes, they were the mkgs for the WarPact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Am I right?

Jim

 

[Clashster]

The white stripes on the hull were aircraft identification markings - they were only used at the end of WW2. Similar idea to the stars on the top of US and British tanks in Europe.

Not sure, Jim, but this is what Charlie posted earlier....

Chris

 

[charliec]

The Su-85 is coming along nicely.

I've recently purchased the Answer T-34/76 and I can see from the diagrams exactly how you got into problems with the roadwheels. The supplied diagrams are really quite hopeless - they remind me of the "instructions" that used to be on old Maly Modelarz kits.

One technique I've found useful when the diagrams are unclear is to find images of the original vehicle and try to reverse engineer how the model designer is trying to represent the original. It sounds like a lot of work but it can save a lot of "building into blind alleys". I've been doing this a lot with the Icegroup T-70 I've been building - although I think the designer of that model didn't use images of the original very much.

As an aside the the Answer T-34 running gear is a bit different because it models the steel roadwheels used in 1942/3 when the Russians were short of rubber. I think Answer must have a bad day with the colour palette when they did the T-34 - it came out as a nearly black green with dark crimson camo stripes - truely bizarre. The T-34 model is printed on C4 size pages which makes scan and recolour a bit painful with an A4 scanner.

Regards,

Charlie

 

[Jim Krauzlis]

Just found this thread, Chris, and you're doing a great job despite the earlier problems you mentioned.

Very neat and clean build, and I love all the photos you're posting.

Keep at it!

Cheers!
Jim

 

[Clashster]

This is a pre printed kit - I believe the paper for most parts is 65 lb. The formers were on regular paper and were laminated to 1 mm thick card (four pieces of the 100 lb stock I have). Many of the very small rolls did not work very well until I peeled the top layer off and then it rolled nicely (note the hinges - not easy to roll these tightly with 65 lb stock!). I purchased it at the Paper Model Store (online store - http://www.papermodelstore.com/ Krys has it on sale for $6.49. The kit is not a hard build, the instructions are very bad, which could (and in my case, did) lead to errors...

Chris

 

[cgutzmer]

Answer's limited drawings are not very clear. I think it will be a while before I try another Answer kit...

thanks for the info - between your thoughts and Carls reviews I think I will be staying away from answer..... plenty of other companies out there!
Chris

 

[Clashster]

Well, finally have finished the Su-85! The tracks are very simple and I had put some thought into attempting something better, but I think I have had enough of this at this point... I may go back later and do something. Anyway, on to the pictures:

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Overall I enjoyed this build, but I did have some problems. The instructions are in Polish and the accompaning diagrams leave much to be desired. For anyone building this model, I recommend looking the road wheels diagrams very closely... Also, the front turrent area is problematic (I believe this is a design flaw). Still, not a difficult model, but with so many others out there with much better instructions, I will probably not revist Answer!

Chris

 

[josve]

I think that one looks very good Chris!
Congrats with the build!!

I have to agree with you on the tracks issue
But I guess it's not the easiest part to scratchbuild.

 

[cdcoyle]

Looks very sharp, Chris. Personally, I think the whole tread issue will keep me away from card armor models, so you're a better man than I on that point.

Regards,

 

[Clashster]

Thanks, guys! It's looking pretty good on top of the tv aiming at my monitor!

Chris

 

[Fishcarver]

Chris: Nice build! And great problem-solving into the bargain! I am looking forward to your next one!
Jim

 

[Jim Krauzlis]

Hi, Chris:
For some reason I can't see the pictures (again!:cry: ).

How did you attach the pics to your post? Maybe my settings are not proper for displaying them.

From what I read, sounds like an awesome job!

Cheers!
Jim

P.S. Never mind...I see them now.:???:

Everyone's right...totally awesome job!!

Way to go!!
Jim