Zis 41. Halftrack with ZiS-2 57 mm antitank gun. 1/35

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

This is my entry in this GB.
The Zis 41 Halftrack with ZiS-2 57 mm antitank gun.

Looking for convertions - cause I don't want no regular kit no - I stumbeld upon this oddity:





It's the ZiS-41 Russian Halftrack. A rare vehicle, modified from a ZiS halftrack, with a ZiS-2 57 mm antitank gun mounted on the rear deck.
There is no kit of this vehicle. So I'm going to comprise it from a Zis 42 Halftrack kit and a ZiS-2 57 mm antitank gun kit.
And a nice bit of scratch building.

This is the halftrack that I ordered.



And the gun.



I started building the gun.





And scratch building the gun mantlet.









Although the Halftrack kit wasn't in yet, I couldn't resist starting to build the frontal armor of the truck.



Because the truck kit that I needed for the build wasn't available, I had to buy the Zis 42 instead. Which is slightly different.
from the Zis 22, I had to make my own mudguards. And did this with the 3D printer.

First the basic form in Illustrator.



Modeling this outline to 3D in Cinema 4D









Preparing the model in the 3D app.



It took a lot of sanding to get rid of the print lines.
But 3D printing rocks, cause it’s extremely hard to make these complex parts in any other way.

The printouts after sanding



Since I had to wait for the Truck kit to get in, I started on a tree for the dio.
I went into the woods looking for tree roots for making the trunk and branches.

I made the tree, stating with a large root for the trunk.
I glued some smaller roots to the trunk for branches.
I sprayed everything with spray mount and glued some very fine root branches in the canopy
as a base for the foliage.
Sprayed again and use oregano for leaves.
And I had my selves a tree!











That's all for now, folks.
Waiting for the kit to get in.
Maybe some work on the dio next...

[TheTroyster]

That tree is freaking awesome! - Think I'll sneak over to my ass wipe neighbor's yard and dig up one of his trees to get at that root system.

using a 3D printer? Why make fenders? How about making a life size Betty Page pinup girl (that's what I would make).

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

The kit got in!
This is literally a package "from Russia with love"!





Look at that nice Russian tape!



This is the kit.



It's crap. Bent parts, flesh, bad fits, bad unreadable instructions, no numbers on the sprues.
Half the time you just have to figure out where to exactly attach parts...

But, hé, I'm gonna hack it up and replace most parts with parts that I make myself anyway!

The awful instruction sheets.







The sprues.







Started with the chassis.



Had to cut off the fenders of this part to replace them with my 3D printed ones.



Top tire sanded, bottom tire not. It's Hard plastic btw, not rubber..



Built the cabin anyway. (Not gonna use it.)



Chassis, wheels and fenders assambled.



The gun deck.





That's where it's at, right now.
I'll be back..

[RonBurgundy]

Tree looks awesome ! Looking forward for seeing this conversion, looking good so far...

[MassterOzymandias]

Wow, the truck looks fun. Keep it up!

[Svenne009]

Great plan and a damn good job on the fenders. What printer are u using?

And indeed some dodgy looking instructions.

[Smiffy]

Great work so far, the tree looks amazing.

[hansolo]

Great plan and a damn good job on the fenders. What printer are u using?

And indeed some dodgy looking instructions.

Thanks. And the printer I'm using is a Ultimaker II.

[panzerman]

Great, unusual subject. Never seen this cool halftrack before. Awesome job 3D printing the fenders....space age coolness. Great scratch built gun shield. Keep having fun.
Bill.

[hansolo]

Thanks all you guys!
Much appreciated.

[Svenne009]

Great plan and a damn good job on the fenders. What printer are u using?

And indeed some dodgy looking instructions.

Thanks. And the printer I'm using is a Ultimaker II.

Aha the dutch one, I should have known

Don't have one, but been looking into maybe getting one. And the Ultimaker seems to be among the best ones to get, nice1.

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

I continued building the halftrack.

First I assambled the suspension for the track wheels.
There were a lot of fit issues! The road wheels did not fit into the suspension. I had to cut large portions of it away
to even be able to attach the wheels. The top roller was to narrow for it's suspension. I had to use extra plastic to
fill the gaps.



Then it was on with the side armor.



Dry fitted the wheels and suspension.



Here you can see how much was needed to fill the gap at the rollers.



Taped the side armors in place to fit the roof.





Completed closing the armored housing.





Had to improvise an extra part underneath the gun connection to raise it a bit more.



More detail added to the housing.
And I drilled holes for the headlight supports.



The headlight supports were made from stretched sprue.



Then I put the support through both holes. I carefully heated the outer parts of the support above a candle,
and bent them upward.



Drilled holes in the headlights and attached them to the supports.



I constructed the the gun rest (for traveling position) from a Hetzer periscope, some pipe material and a box lock screw.



The little bannisters in the back were made from wire.



They were partly soldered together.
And superglued to the platform.



The building of the Halftrack completed.

















One of the guys that will be in the upcoming dio was eating, missing his spoon!
(The Matrix: "There is no spoon!")
So I had to build him one.
I took some stretched sprue again and pinched and sanded till I had a spoon.







Here are the guys. Having lunch before moving into battle.



That's all for now folks.
Next up: Painting!

[heel]

Aww come on now this is insane.

Great building as always, Hans.

[hansolo]

Aww come on now this is insane.

Great building as always, Hans.

Thanks Heel!
Yeah, I just like to make something that you can't pull of the shelf.
So that means building it myself!

[panzerman]

Great scratchbuilding. The armored cab is wicked good. The metal bending is worthy of a Blacksmith skills. Top marks....BRAVO!!!!!
Keep having fun.
Bill.

[hansolo]

Thanks Bill! I will!

[TommyKillander]

Fantastic!!

Dude, this is modelling at it's best. I'm very eager to get myself a 3D-printer now...

Keep up the awesomeness!

Tommy

[MassterOzymandias]

So great. The handles are amazing!

[hansolo]

Thanks guys!

[timtamtung]

your modelling skills are crazy! well dones

[OliveDrab]

This just might be your best scratchbuild project yet, FANTASTIC! Bring on the paint!

[hansolo]

Thanks guys!

[NonProlificModeler]

WOW!!! I am so busy building my own stuff that I didn't have time yet to look at yours. I'm speechless. This so amazing! Brilliant work, mate. Keep it up! Jens

[mannloon]

That PLA looks a little steppy, have you tried carefully painting it with acetone? or is that just visual. My partner and I are getting a Formlabs liquid resin printer soon, which should do away with traditional PLA stepping.

[hansolo]

That PLA looks a little steppy, have you tried carefully painting it with acetone? or is that just visual. My partner and I are getting a Formlabs liquid resin printer soon, which should do away with traditional PLA stepping.

Hi mate,

The steppyness depends on the angle of printing. I sanded a lot, but I could try the acetone. Thanks.
Keep me in the loop about that resin printer.

[mannloon]

That PLA looks a little steppy, have you tried carefully painting it with acetone? or is that just visual. My partner and I are getting a Formlabs liquid resin printer soon, which should do away with traditional PLA stepping.

Hi mate,

The steppyness depends on the angle of printing. I sanded a lot, but I could try the acetone. Thanks.
Keep me in the loop about that resin printer.

Maybe test that on something you don't need first. Acetone eats pla, but if you're careful wih it you can smooth the stepping.

[hansolo]

That PLA looks a little steppy, have you tried carefully painting it with acetone? or is that just visual. My partner and I are getting a Formlabs liquid resin printer soon, which should do away with traditional PLA stepping.

Hi mate,

The steppyness depends on the angle of printing. I sanded a lot, but I could try the acetone. Thanks.
Keep me in the loop about that resin printer.

Maybe test that on something you don't need first. Acetone eats pla, but if you're careful wih it you can smooth the stepping.

Thanks! Will try that.

[Steady]

Crazy cool!!

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

Started painting.

First a black primer layer.



Did the good ol' hairspray layer and painted the deck brown for the wood to later reappear through the chipping.



Base color green.



Chipped.



Detail painting and dark wash.



AK rust effects top before below after.



Wheels and suspension rusted in to different shades of rust.



Everything rusted.





That's all for now folks.
Next up: Oil paint rendering and pigments.

[wappynutter]

As always Han some top class model building... No..... Model creating going on in this thread...
Excellent job with the Hairspray technique. It is your forté i'm sure, along with remodelling and old skool kitbashing.
I look forward to seeing your display for this, I know it'll be a first class piece.
Well done again on such superb crafting bud..
All the best..

[hansolo]

Thanks, Andy!
For all those kind words.

[RoscoRSA]

I am in awe at your skill, that is some VERY impressive modeling.

Cant wait to see this build finished

[hansolo]

Thanks Rosco!

[Homerlovesbeer]

Supposed to be sleeping but this thread is keeping me awake!

I am in awe of how you create such goodness. Man, I wish I had the knowledge and skills to create such amazing work as this.

Sensational!

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

I started work on the base.
I wanted to make a ‘high’ dio. To be vertically orientated.
So the base will be thick and the large tree will make it even more vertical.

I started with a plate of ply wood and glued several layers of foam on top.



The surface I wanted a bit sloped. I cut the basic shape with a Stanley knife.



Dry fitted the vehicle for size and track width and drew the tracks where they should go.



With my soldering gun I melted the basic tracks into the foam and the surrounding unevenness in the landscape.



Again with ply wood in made the rim that would also function as mold for the earth mix that I would pore in later.



To create an earth mix that would also allow me to make deep tracks, I tried something new. I mixed Das clay with earth, water and white glue.









It was quite a tuff and dirty job mixing that up! The Das clay didn’t really wanna mix with the rest but I got something of a goop in the end that I did decide to work with. And it turned out fine.
I smeared the paste onto the base and with a wheel I rolled in the tracks.
Waiting for al of this to dry….



Time to paint the figures.
I painted them in the base colors and than painted the high lights in the faces with Vallego brown wash. For the rest I deluded a mixture of dark bron and black Vallego pigments in water. Brushed it on like a clay based wash and wipes the excess off with moist cotton que tips. And finally a added some high lights by dry brushing with acrylics.





That’s it for now folks.
Next up: more work on the dio and vehicle.

[Avgas]

Stunning stuff. Would never have thought of using real trees!

[Smiffy]

Outstanding work so far!

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

More work done on the dio.

After the dio dried...



I gave it a primer color (brushed on acrylics) and chose a place for the tree to go.



The Final color (brushed on acrylics).



I used the Matt varnish and the gloss varnish that had just come in from shopping at SnM Stuff.
The matt on the sides and the gloss on the tracks and in some little depressions, seeing that they would be wetter then their surroundings.





I made some puddles with Magic Water Resin with a bit of acrylics brown mixed through.





The leftover resin I poured over a piece of plastic to maybe use later as ice over the puddles.



So far the dio for now.
I finished weathering the halftrack.
Did some more oil paint rendering, some pigments, some oil stains and some graphite 'metal' edging.





























That's it for now folks.
Next up: More work on the dio.

[patrickroos]

Dio
Halftrack
Amazing stuff mate!
That mud looks like...mud! Really!
And just love the weathering on the halftrack, wow!

[hansolo]

Dio
Halftrack
Amazing stuff mate!
That mud looks like...mud! Really!
And just love the weathering on the halftrack, wow!

Thanks Patrick.
Much appreciated.

[NonProlificModeler]

Great progress! Both ZIS 41 and dio are looking really good! Kutgw! Jens

[Sturm]

Jeez buddy that's one heck of a model! Well done.

[hansolo]

Hi guys,

Finished the dio. Except for the snow. That will have been added in the final reveals.













That's all folks.
You can watch the finalized dio here: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 51&t=16527

[NonProlificModeler]

That's really cool, mate! Can't wait to see the full Monty! Jens

[hansolo]

That's really cool, mate! Can't wait to see the full Monty! Jens

You can find it here: http://www.intscalemodeller.com/viewtop ... 51&t=16527