Soviet D30 Howitzer + Ural 370D

[digger303]

Damn sorry Neil for getting your hopes up......damn fine print I totally missed it and I was looking for it.
Looks like the Miniart assorted kit might be an option. Maybe someone has some left overs.

[Tomcat64]

BTW one of your pics from the 17th isn't showing now so you might want to check the link (unless it's just me )

Just checked and both pics are showing on the 17th. Probably teaching Granny to extract nutriment from ovoid objects but - maybe try hitting refresh??

Yep tried that and also checked from both laptop & phone and this is what I'm seeing - but it's no biggy if it's just me


Nice progress on the build too interesting about the dash - I wonder how many others have picked up on that

For the wood panelling in the load bed something I've done before is painted it in a suitable brown colour & then used a black clay wash but instead of wiping it off I've used a stippling brush to streak it to form the grain effect - might be worth a shot if you don't want to play with oils?

[RangerNeil]

Back to the grindstone tonight!! First job was try and realign the radiator so the front would fit. I covered the joins to the chassis rails with TET and applied pressure backwards, when I felt it move I added a clamp and let it set again.


Then whilst that was re-setting I made a start on the driver figure. That kit gives you two figures, 1 in the earlier Obr-69 uniform and one in the later M88 Afghanka. I wanted to use the early one so I assembled the legs and torso, placed that on the drivers seat, placed the steering wheel then positioned the arms to suit. Once dried it got a base coat. I need to do more more work on this as it looks"flat".




More on this later - as seems the case with this project nothing ever goes according to plan.
Next step was the instrument panel decal - a good soaking with decal solution got it settled in quite nicely. I'll let it dry over night then give it a coat of silk varnish to-morrow.


Moving back to the chassis - by now the radiator had reset so off came the clamp and the front end was test fitted. Now it fits OK.




And so we come to the first issue. The spare wheel carrier. The two halves were festooned with injection plugs and in cutting those off I managed to cut off the back supports. So now I need to fabricate those two rear supports. Deep joy....


And then there was the second issue - the 1/35 scale driver being too tall for the 1/35 scale cab - note the roof at the left side - its up because its resting on the drivers head..... I am going to have to try the M88 figure tomorrow. If thats too high then those two will be restricted to open top vehicles like a UAZ 469 (one in the stash) or Gaz 69.


Moving onto the guns - the decals are placed on both guns so they both need a coat of silk varnish. The firing gun also needs the elevation ram fitting. I've no idea what happened but one side of the barrel and the top of the recuperators seem to have suffered what looks like a silicone reaction & I've no idea why. It was just another coat of Vallejo over the top of the first. Whole gun was done but only these areas reacted.... So I need to let it dry either over night or a day or two then rub the affected areas back and try again. Annoying but nowhere near as annoying as the driver issue!!

[digger303]

Where did you source the figures from. I went back over the post I couldn't see...maybe I missed it ?

[RangerNeil]

I got them from eModels - I think the post is in the "What did the postman bring" topic.
Kit is by ICM and the figures are very nice indeed. Just too tall for the Ural. Assuming Trumpeter got the Ural right - and it looks it compared to the BTR-60 - then these two drivers must have been the tallest in the Soviet army at around 7' 6".....

[KalebB]

Shame the figure is too tall to fit the cab! That reaction is also odd, seeing how it only happened in a few spots.

[digger303]

I got them from eModels - I think the post is in the "What did the postman bring" topic.
Kit is by ICM and the figures are very nice indeed. Just too tall for the Ural. Assuming Trumpeter got the Ural right - and it looks it compared to the BTR-60 - then these two drivers must have been the tallest in the Soviet army at around 7' 6".....

Members of the all stars basket ball team...
Figures from the Icm kit. I would have thought they would have got the scales right...

[Tomcat64]

That's a pain in the butt about the driver sitting too proud - something I've tripped over with Airfix before.

Is it me or are his feet up of the floor as well? Just wondering if you could drop the seat by a few mm if the surgery isn't too complicated?

Nice work sorting out the radiator though - and it's looking like a real beast

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Huge work on this different kits, for the driver may be you can drill the roof for his head?!

Excellent work and seriously i hope you can find the good figurine for your truck!

[RangerNeil]

Back on the bench tonight.... Started off by measuring the height of the drivers over the roof rail of the cab. Came out as 5.5mm!! I'd have carve part of the seat base out to accomodate that height difference. So I might build it up without a driver, maybe with doors open as the cab interior is quite good (despite being the wrong model).

Moving on though - the spare wheel carrier needed those rear supports so I put the carrier in place and measured the height then sorted through redundant sprue till I found a couple of suitable pieces length-wise. With those cut off I used a rotary tool to carve a flat face then flipped it over and did the other side, finishing them down to size in on a sanding stick. Then reduced the width to an appropriate size the same way.


The cab is now joined front to rear using the doors as spacers to align every thing. No photos tonight as it doesnt look much different to before. The inner wings have a base coat of 4BO brushed on. I 'll probably break out the airbrush tomorrow and give the exterior of the cab plus the inner wings a top coat so that it can go on to the chassis. Interestingly the cab has two locators - one is the pin on top of the gear box but the other one is a hole/socket in both the chassis AND the cab floor. Looks like there should be a pin joining them but.....
Once thats done I can crack on with the load bed.

On the guns front I can report there is a second faux-Pas in Trumpters instructions. The gunsights are on upside down!!! And I really don't think reversing them is going to be possible as the connectors are so small that any attempt at parting them is going to end in disaster. I only found out because I pulled up some web photos to aid in painting the sights.... so as it stands now the towed gun is finished:








The firing gun has had the dodgy paint rubbed down and recoated. In a couple of places it went down to the metal so another touch-up tomorrow should see that one finished ready to start the diorama build. Unless I have a mental fit and decide to correct those sights!!
https://i.postimg.cc/jdbcxYpq/20221224-200113.jpg

One other incident today - went to give the cab interior a coat of silk clear coat, got about two seconds worth then it stopped. Can is about 2/3 full of liquid but all the propellant has gone..... So annoying!! It was Humbrol too.....

[KalebB]

I think trumpeter needs to go back to the drawing board on their instructions, there's been a few issues with them it seems for you this build which is rather unfortunate. Good job cracking on and getting her done though through it all sir. Great stuff

[digger303]

Back on the bench tonight....

One other incident today - went to give the cab interior a coat of silk clear coat, got about two seconds worth then it stopped. Can is about 2/3 full of liquid but all the propellant has gone..... So annoying!! It was Humbrol too.....

You can get your air compressor with a suitable nozzle and simply force air back into the can until it works properly. Gets you out of a jam and you will most likely have to do this 2 or 3 times as you use up the paint.
Merry Xmas

[RangerNeil]

Back on the bench tonight....

One other incident today - went to give the cab interior a coat of silk clear coat, got about two seconds worth then it stopped. Can is about 2/3 full of liquid but all the propellant has gone..... So annoying!! It was Humbrol too.....

You can get your air compressor with a suitable nozzle and simply force air back into the can until it works properly. Gets you out of a jam and you will most likely have to do this 2 or 3 times as you use up the paint.
Merry Xmas

Cheers Digger - will give that a try.

[RangerNeil]

Back to the bench this evening as the daughter and son-in-law went home this morning. Now the house is back to normal with 2 people and 1 large dog instead of 4 people and 2 large dogs.

So.... the cab sections of the Ural have been given a coat of 4BO green - together with the muzzle carrier and jerry cans from the BTR-60. Next step is to assemble the front end - lights, light guards etc so the two sections can be assembled onto the chassis.




Then I have to admit to a moment of madness - I actually corrected the sight positions on both guns to where they should be...... Thank god for superglue.....
Painting of these is now in progress.






Lastly I had a look at the 3 artillery figures that arrived today. Very impressed with the detail on them - but, as seems to be the case with pretty much every Russian made add-on the manufacturers seem to think whoever is assembling them don't need guides for assembly or painting!!! Other than the box art there is nothing....
Anyways - this is figure 1:


I - think - this one is the loader - he who shoves the shells and propellant into the breech.

This is figure 2:


This one - again I think - is the guy who rams the constituent parts of the load into the breech so that the breech can be closed.

And finally figure 3. This one is the officer in charge of the gun - either a junior lieutenant or a warrant officer. Note the flags - one had broken in transit and has been repaired with CA. For some reason the Soviets loved flag signals. We'd use the gunners raised fist as a ready signal or, remotely, field telephone or radio. From memory Yellow was either "Load" or "loaded and ready" depending which end of the chain of command chain you were looking at and Red - either way was "Fire". Battery command would raise the redflag as the signal to fire and the officer in charge of the actual battery or gun would raise the red in acknowledgement whilst simultaneously giving the verbal order to fire if just a single gun . Otherwise the red flag reaching vertical was the signal for the NCO of the gun crew to tension the firing lanyard whilst everyone else got the hell out of the way before he yanked it to fire the gun.


The detail on the figures is excellent - the bread bags are a part of the moulding on the two non-officer figures but the Автомат'с, 6X4 bayonets, Ssh-68 helmets and water bottles are seperately but crisply moulded. The officer likewise has a holstered Makarov, plancarta (map case) plus two flags as seperate mouldings. Oddly only one arm holds a flag - the other arm has an empty hand but a hand holding another flag is supplied. I guess the empty hand gets cut off and replaced by the other.

[KalebB]

I knew you'd end up flipping the sights to the correct position

And those figures look nice, can't wait to see them assembled and painted up

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Back to it tonight for a short while. Spent more time looking through the two new boxes followed by think "where the hell am I going to put these when built?" Then followed by the "Oh my gawd!" moment when working out the paint costs - the Su-27 is over £100...

So - not a lot done in reality - but the firing D30 is complete bar the silk or matt top coat now so both are ready to go. I also made a start on one of the figures. Bear with me on these because its not something I've done for over 40 years - and I wasn't too happy doing them then....... Trying to match the colours of kit and uniform as best I can from memory as all my living history kit is packed away still.

[KalebB]

I feel you on the figures Neil

Never been my forte but if I wanna build some Dio in 2023 I'll have to get over it

[BigWall]

Nice work! Good luck with the figures.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

your figurines look good!

[digger303]

You never had utube 40 yrs ago either so that's got to be a big plus. I'm sure you will do a credible job....I have faith
The gun looks very good. I had a look through on of my artillery kits and there a awful lot of small fine fiddley parts to clean up and position.
Whole sprues of them

[RangerNeil]

You never had utube 40 yrs ago either so that's got to be a big plus. I'm sure you will do a credible job....I have faith
The gun looks very good. I had a look through on of my artillery kits and there a awful lot of small fine fiddley parts to clean up and position.
Whole sprues of them

Cheers Digger - wish I shared your faith.

The D30 certainly had a lot of tiny bits - most of which get used in the first 6 steps. Credit to Trumpeter is due here as none needed any finishing work. Only really the kit barrel and the breech assembly that needed work doing to them on both versions. Its not a bad kit at the end of the day. Only difference I found between the early and late versions is the tow hitch is fixed in position under the barrel on the late one but is hinged on top of the barrel in the early.

[RangerNeil]

Tonight I though "time for a change" so rather than pull the Ural out I had a go at the 3 figures. This looks like its going to be "interesting".....


First up is the guy who on the box art appears to be controlling the two hand wheels for elevation and skew. This is the first one I tried my hand at painting. I got as close to the brown of the Obr69 regulations as possible - my thoughts are when this has dried overnight I can make up some of the same brown and mix a little black with it and work that into the creases. Then I need to find a way to pick out the detail in the face.
The other fun job is getting a paint mix right to mimic the orangey-brown of the woodwork and the bakelite mag on the AK and bayonet handle.


Number 2 can best be described as a rammer - although in the box art he's waving the rammer around like a HEMAist would a longsword.


Number 3 is the officer. It was the devils own job parting the flag and arm from the keeper. Even harder cutting the hand off the normal arm one and then the hand with the second flag free and joining the two together. Managed it in the end though.


I saw a couple of videos on YouTube for beginners figure painting so I might give those a whirl if I'm not satisfied how figure 1 turns out.

[KalebB]

Nice looking figures, and I love the color of bakelite, I used to have a couple bakelite mags for my AKs but I traded them for some more rare Chinese flatback mags

[RangerNeil]

Bit more done last night..... Again primarily the figures.


First one - when the base is removed it lines up with the sight and hand wheels.




Second one - the rammer




Lastly the officer.




And with the crew roughly in their positions.


Still got the "accessories" to finish and add plus maybe do some shading. And find the right mix to come up with the orangey colour for the AK woodwork/magazines.

Next "problem" is how to seperate the figures from the bases - no saw and I don't think a sharp knife will cut it (no pun intended).

And does anyone have recommendations for a fine sand to cover the diorama base with??

Lastly the Ural is back on the bench for the cab fitting.

[digger303]

Bit more done last night..... Again primarily the figures.


First one - when the base is removed it lines up with the sight and hand wheels.




Second one - the rammer




Lastly the officer.




And with the crew roughly in their positions.


Still got the "accessories" to finish and add plus maybe do some shading. And find the right mix to come up with the orangey colour for the AK woodwork/magazines.

Next "problem" is how to seperate the figures from the bases - no saw and I don't think a sharp knife will cut it (no pun intended).

And does anyone have recommendations for a fine sand to cover the diorama base with??

Lastly the Ural is back on the bench for the cab fitting.

Sand in scale....if your anywhere near rural farm land or earth moving machinery in dry conditions ( probably not gonna work for the Uk) It can be collected off the frame work of these machines and be mostly pretty clean and uniform. You have to cook it in the oven for a 1/2 hr to sterilize it.

I think your going to need to buy a saw.

[KalebB]

The figures and Ural look to be coming together nicely Neil, for sand I usually buy a bag of childs play sand and then sift it using a super fine mesh to get the smallest possible particles so it looks fairly in scale

[RangerNeil]

Cab, inner wings and rad grill are now on permanently - I hope. I say this because the cab only has two tiny mount points so until the front wings go on it feels like one tap and it will come off again. Hopefully when the front wings are added they will provide additional support.






Moved onto the air cleaner forgetting I had already assembled it - which led to a massive panic attack when I looked at the sprues and found the parts already gone!! Then I remembered I had already assembled it - cue another panic attack when I couldn't find it in all the places I put parts in progress. Finally found it still in the clamp which I had put back in the clamp bowl for some weird reason......
So this has had a base coat of 4BO green as have the inner faces of the front wings ready for tomorrow.

[KalebB]

Only having two small mounting locations is a bit scary, hopefully it get additional support from the wings like you mentioned

[ForeverPlasticKits]

"Build must go on" happily you found the "forgotten" parts to continue, and it's a good work!

[Tomcat64]

Nice work on the figures - you might be able to clip them of the casting blocks with regular sprue cutters & then sand them down, but obviously try it out on some scrap first (if you have some) to make sure it cuts ok.

Good to see the cab on the truck too - hopefully the mounting points do their job and you won't need to rework the fitting.

It's all coming together really well

[RangerNeil]

Nice work on the figures - you might be able to clip them of the casting blocks with regular sprue cutters & then sand them down, but obviously try it out on some scrap first (if you have some) to make sure it cuts ok.

Good to see the cab on the truck too - hopefully the mounting points do their job and you won't need to rework the fitting.

It's all coming together really well

Thanks for the kind words!

Made a start on the load bed - did I mention that I absolutely HATE working with PE parts? Massive hands and teeny weeny bits of brass do not a good combination make!!
So - after 5 hours of fiddling and faffing and superglueing myself to anything and every thing this is as far as I' ve got...
In their wisdom Trumpeter made the troop seat able to fold up and down. These are the 4 sections - 1 short, 1 long each side:






I still need to do the folding legs on the long sections - but by then I'd had enough!!

[Stokesy44]

Cracking work. So much going on but still progressing well on all fronts

[digger303]

Nice work on the figures - you might be able to clip them of the casting blocks with regular sprue cutters & then sand them down, but obviously try it out on some scrap first (if you have some) to make sure it cuts ok.

Good to see the cab on the truck too - hopefully the mounting points do their job and you won't need to rework the fitting.

It's all coming together really well

Thanks for the kind words!

Made a start on the load bed - did I mention that I absolutely HATE working with PE parts? Massive hands and teeny weeny bits of brass do not a good combination make!!
So - after 5 hours of fiddling and faffing and superglueing myself to anything and every thing this is as far as I' ve got...

I still need to do the folding legs on the long sections - but by then I'd had enough!!

That's some very fine Pe folding and assembly
Well done I'm impressed.

[Tomcat64]

Yep that's some fiddly PE right there - well done for sticking with it... I'm guessing the swear-jar ran and hid??

[RangerNeil]

Yep that's some fiddly PE right there - well done for sticking with it... I'm guessing the swear-jar ran and hid??

Swear jar went up in flames!!

[digger303]

Yep that's some fiddly PE right there - well done for sticking with it... I'm guessing the swear-jar ran and hid??

Swear jar went up in flames!!

[KalebB]

I feel your pain when it comes to PE, I have what we call sausage fingers so fiddling with it always turns into an exercise in frustration

[Tomcat64]

Yep that's some fiddly PE right there - well done for sticking with it... I'm guessing the swear-jar ran and hid??

Swear jar went up in flames!!

[psmithmags]

The figures came out really well, you've done a great job with them . I like how you've overcome every issue you've had, you must have the patience of a saint.Great work so far, looking forward to the finished diorama

[RangerNeil]

Another 4 hours of PE suffering and the troop seats are done. Gawd I don't want to do that again any time soon. At least thats most of the PE done now. Just got the rear bumpers, load bed mud flaps, head lamp grilles and some odd bits on the cargo bed sides to do. The rest is all plastic!!

[KalebB]

Another 4 hours of PE suffering and the troop seats are done. Gawd I don't want to do that again any time soon. At least thats most of the PE done now. Just got the rear bumpers, load bed mud flaps, head lamp grilles and some odd bits on the cargo bed sides to do. The rest is all plastic!!

Looking good! I'm sure you're happy that the PE nightmare is almost fully behind you

[digger303]

They do look good and once all painted up I'm sure all that painstaking work will be worth it.

[RangerNeil]

Had one of those "I can't sleep" nights last night so returned to the bench. A few more hours of folding PE - and a lot more cursing - and the end is now in sight!!!
The rear body is - more or less done, just needs adhesive and painting.






The underside is also done - mud flaps just need painting and adhesive.


Credit to Trumpeter - they also provided moulding patterns for the headlamp grilles! (I wish they'd provided ones for the rear bumperettes too, not just a sketch as what I produced look nothing like the sketches - may have to try to straighten them out and retry).

[KalebB]

PE is a frustrating, curse inducing, experience. But it sure does look good once it's done

That Ural is really coming together, it's going to look fantastic. That's nice of trumpeter to provide those guides to fold the PE on. I wish they had done that for their PT-76 kit

Good stuff sir

[digger303]

Sterling work.

[RangerNeil]

Bit more done tonight. The load bed sides, front and back are all done. Annoyingly the tie-down cleats are all tiny little - seperate - pieces of plastic and one of them has come off the headboard. Luckily once the load bed is on the chassis it will be invisible, obscured by the spare wheel carrier. I know it was there last night when I finished.




And here we see the difference between what I produced and what the sketch in the instructions looks like!


At least both of my efforts are the same!!

[digger303]

Pe tool on the shopping list ?

[RangerNeil]

Pe tool on the shopping list ?

Got one for angled/right angled pieces but not for rolled corners. I normally tape a drill bit to the table and bend it around that. Obviously this time I goofed in positioning the PE strip under it....
Plan now is to heat the strip up to anneal it, straighten the last two bends out and start again.

[digger303]

Pe tool on the shopping list ?

Got one for angled/right angled pieces but not for rolled corners. I normally tape a drill bit to the table and bend it around that. Obviously this time I goofed in positioning the PE strip under it....
Plan now is to heat the strip up to anneal it, straighten the last two bends out and start again.