UK : Dragon Black Label 1:35 British Armoured Car Saladin Mk.2

[Aliktren]

Hail fellow homelanders, so here is my contribution to the Group Build, bought specially for this GB as I don't really do armour (other than having a couple of Tigers squirrelled away after I got Tiger envy from watching Coen!).

I would love to say I know much about my subject matter, and I will be finding out, but for now I know only that it's a damn fine looking kit, so enough waffle from me, and on with the un-boxing pics...



so the first thing to say is.... why oh why don't the figures come with the kit, tres annoying, I do want to add figures, and the plan is a small diorama, but so far not much joy finding good figures that I want to put money down on.... otherwise nice box art, loved equally by myself and 7 year old son

some possible and to my untrained eye very similar colour options...



repeat after me, John dont forgot to leave the hatches open, dont forget to leave the hatches open, dont forget to leave the hatches open....



whole mess of bits....



lovely crisp pieces with very very little sanding required ... very nice.



arrgggh... PE... well only one piece, so I am sure I can cope....




and instructions... pretty sparse, never used a Dragon kit before and they took some re-reading, very few shots from different angles,




not sure about the blue.....



two sprues (there are more than two but there are only two letters), the big sprue is A, the other 4-5 smaller sprues are all B





not sure about the plethora of little nodules left on a lot of the parts...



still sprue B....




more B's





oooh nice....




so very excited, looks like a nice kit, requiring a bit of thought and attention rather the blindly following idiot proof instructions, the parts all look lovely.

Excited!!!!

[chief5437]

I'm very interested to see what this kits like, really want one! Good luck buddy!

[Aliktren]

I'm very interested to see what this kits like, really want one! Good luck buddy!

Thanks Chief - so far it's very nice!

[chief5437]

Yeah, does look nice. 'It's a shame about the crew not being supplied. I don't mind that with tanks, but with armoured cars I think it should be standard.

Looking forward to seeing her build up.

[Aliktren]

So, day one, pretty nervous to start but I just dived right on in there..... whilst your reading this, if you spot anythign I should not generally have done, I would really appreciate you telling me .....

So instructions step one... here are the parts....



and then assembled...



and then step 2.. parts....



there is a pipe, actually I think two pipes, on the instructions but not shown here, waiting to dry fit before I cut and fit those as they appear to overhang.

and fitted....



the little hatches fit both ways but only look right if you put them all the same way round.

Then step three, forgot the parts shot so this is partial assembly....



and dry fit and fiddling before I commit and mess it up....



so far so good I think, my sanding still needs work and I think I am going to treat myself to some Xuron sprue cutters, my Xuron rail cutters are nice but not gettign that clean edge Paul showed in his vid.... and I hate sanding...

[alextheblue]

Some great progress, it's coming on nicely. Just finished building this one myself and it's a nice little kit, especially if you're new to Dragon. I was a bit shocked when I first opened the box and wasn't greeted with the usual 98 sprues holding 8 gazillion tiny pieces. It all goes together very nicely, but there's a couple of bits to look out for when you get to them. The torsion bars that attach the wheel hubs to the suspension (parts B3 I believe) are a little fiddly. I found it easier to attach them to the rear of the wheel first and then locate in the relevant holes in the suspension parts. Also, on my kit, the right-hand fender, as you look at the kit from the front, wasn't a great fit. Some of the locating lugs need some fettling in order to get it to fit nicely, so it's easier to do this first before attaching all the widgets.

Best of luck, you're doing a fine job!

[Aliktren]

Some great progress, it's coming on nicely. Just finished building this one myself and it's a nice little kit, especially if you're new to Dragon. I was a bit shocked when I first opened the box and wasn't greeted with the usual 98 sprues holding 8 gazillion tiny pieces. It all goes together very nicely, but there's a couple of bits to look out for when you get to them. The torsion bars that attach the wheel hubs to the suspension (parts B3 I believe) are a little fiddly. I found it easier to attach them to the rear of the wheel first and then locate in the relevant holes in the suspension parts. Also, on my kit, the right-hand fender, as you look at the kit from the front, wasn't a great fit. Some of the locating lugs need some fettling in order to get it to fit nicely, so it's easier to do this first before attaching all the widgets.

Best of luck, you're doing a fine job!

Thanks Alex! - the fenders dont go on to the end and I can already see it being a challenge! - thanks for the tips.

Just a little bit of work today getting to main body glued together.

so firstly prepped these two little bits, and popped them together (no glue)



then melded them to the hull... man I love tamiya thin



my two teeny tiny pipes that I dont want to commit to adding just yet, from what I see they overhang and then possibly get joined to the fenders later




starting to look like something now....




cheers

[Nige201980]

Looks a great kit of an intresting subject good luck mate

[Aliktren]

Looks a great kit of an intresting subject good luck mate

Thanks Nige, this kit may just turn me on to armour as although I am not fussed about the end results for myself (planes are pretty!), the builds are fun for sure and this kit has been interesting to build

So orientation with the dragon instructions has been key... here we go....



I found it useful to carefully do one side and lay out all the parts rather than cutting it all off the sprue in one go...



and fitting commences!



and then ready for the really fiddly bit - I used good old tamiya thin for the bits that needed gluing and kind of wish I hadnt as I suspect it wicked into a few places where it shouldnt have that said do not glue, nothing stopped moving but its a bit more goey than perhaps it should be



this is what it looked like finished, close up




and finally the PE...




that was a few hours of quite intense concentration, but was very fun to do.

The sections I was building look like this IRL



so at least I have a weathering guide when the times comes

happy modelling all!

[Aliktren]

So having said I would stick solely to modelling this year I have developed a very bad addiction to Marvel Heores (PC game) which has slowed me up a bit!

However, still chgging away here and the and enjoying this build very much, so here is the latest progress

So this is the next step and here i have deviated away from the instructions, I will leave the wheels off until the last moment if possible



so got on with wheel assembly



Intricate, beautifully fits, It seems I really like Dragon kits



so got on with the fenders (?) - I am not sure here what I should glue and paint, and what I should consider leaving and painting seperatly, so I think I am goign to go with gluing everything but the headlights..






will be finding time this weekend so try and get the fenders on and the gun turret built, then I think we will be ready for tidy upo and some base coat, so almost on to the fun/terrifying part

happy modelling!!

[Aliktren]

Manic slowdown in modelling but put in some quality hours last night to get the bulk of the turret completed. For something the size of a small egg there are a heck of a lot of parts









and dry fit ....



not far from paint now.

[chief5437]

Nice work buddy

[Aliktren]

Nice work buddy

thanks bud

So I have pretty much had a break from modelling, totally lacked inspiration or willingness for a while, so took a trip to tank museum with small person and found some UK armoured cars which re-inspired me to get on with and get this build done....

so some reference shots....

[Aliktren]

So I got off my ass and got the sprues emptied out, only a few other bits to do once undercoat and detailing is done.





Tonight is assembly

[alextheblue]

Great progress so far, looking forward to the next update. Really good reference pics, thanks for posting those!

[Aliktren]

Great progress so far, looking forward to the next update. Really good reference pics, thanks for posting those!

Thanks Alex

So assembly complete today and now drying from base coat










I have to say I havent been enamoured of this kit, some of it has been pretty annoying, in comparison to say tamiya there are lots of sprue joins in really bad places IMO which has made sanding, often very tiny parts a real pain in the whotsit. However, now it's gone together it's as cute as a button for sure and the hours spent gluing seemingly endless tiny parts has paid off as the level of detail is very pleasing to my eyes.

Since I took these whilst we had daylight in my study I have used badger Stynylrez grey primer to prime the kit. I had problems with this primer last time I used it so this time I spent at least 20 minutes shaking it and warmed it up for an hour in my hands whilst I sat and watched some tv with the family, shaking it periodically and it sprayed just fine today (0.4mm needle, 25PSI). So when the light is better in the morning will take some shots of it primed, and then I am really hoping to start spraying main colours tomorrow if I have a chance to complete before end of August.

thanks for watching - any tips or constructive critiques are welcome.

[Liamcraven666]

Great looking build so far!

[Aliktren]

Great looking build so far!

Thanks Liam


Well the cold light of day has revealed that badger primer is in fact the mutts nuts, this is the best priming I have ever done (obviously not saying much ) (issues only showed up under camera flash when some of the very small crevices didnt quite get a good coat) ...... so looks like the preparation time was worth it

All set for painting, yay

[Aliktren]

So my first time painting a 1/35 - took me about 90 minutes in the spray booth just one colour, lol. However, pleased with my work, some of my smoothest airbrushing yet, I did have a slight problem with my evolution leaking air from the trigger which I never solved till I stripped down and cleaned again and it magically went away, but it didnt seem to impact the paint job.

Tamiya paint with Ultimate thinners 50/50.

I was not convinced about the colour when I finished but after a varnish coat it looks good.





Left to dry overnight

I have settled on the '66 build whish is the queens hussars, it's non camo which I know is a copout in a way, but I am hardly experienced with camo and every opportunity to stuff it up with no time to finish before the GB ends. I'd rather having something I am proud of than something I rushed to complete and fluffed up.

Diorama, yeah.... didnt get any supplies in, local hobby craft want a fortune for woodland scenics stuff so the base will end up being a simple plinth. I have no where good to store Dioramas yet anyway, though my room might get remodelled soon, yay

[Aliktren]

Paint all dry so got some detailing done on the lights, machine gun and observation windows.



then got on with the gloss coat in preparation for the decals, using Alclad Aqua Gloss, dry in under an hour which was great.



and then decals all done, ready for another coat and then some light weathering




really happy with it, which lines up pretty well with the Ultimate mantra, my first large armour piece, not convinced I will rush out to buy more but I learnt a ton especially towards the end figuring out the build/paint.construction order

[Aliktren]

So last day of August, cutting it a little fine but I have finished, yay

So did a little weathering using tamiya paints diluted with Ultimate thinner and a little promodeller wash which I have never got on with and is going in the bin when my Ultimate washes arrive , plus some drubrushing with tamiya dark metallic.

I have never weathered anything before so this was a nice learning curve, I expected to completely stuff it up but by being quite subtle and not going overboard the effect IRL is very nice for starters, compared ot the experts on here it looks a little amateurish but thatd to be expected, haha, and I practiced a few different things to see what worked/I liked and what didnt, flicking muddy coloured paint at a nice fresh shiny model was nerve wracking, lol




I've then made a little base up using a photo frame, I stuck corkboard to the glass of the frame and then painted it which gives a pretty good simulcrum of tarmac due to the stippling of the cork.




I have also ordered a little brass plaque to fit on the frame but it wont be here in time for the GB ending - cost 3 quid on amazon so will be very interested to see what it's like .


And that's it. In the end I enjoyed this kit, I learnt a ton, which is always good, and actually already ordered another AFV for the Desert Rats GB, haha, so expect more amaturish creations in the near future, thanks for looking