Tamiya 1:35 ISU-152 Soviet heavy SP

Post by **Radzy** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:18 pm

Hi,
I'd like to join the Group Build with Soviet self propelled gun ISU-152.

A little bit of history

During Operation Uranus (Stalingrad counter offensive) Red Army discovered that they were dramatically missing mobile anti-fortification units with Soviet ground forces being unable to deal with pillboxes and any heavier fortifications. In that time most of the Soviet guns and howitzers had to be towed which was a big problem in terrains where roads were very sparse with deep snow covers lying on fields. Therefore in late 1942 Committee of State Defence raised an issue to develop heavy self propelled gun that would utilise ML-20 howitzer (152,4mm calibre – please note that this is very close to 6” (155mm) light cruisers’ main armament of these times... that was a really massive cannon). That is how the prototype known as Object 236 (or KV-14) was created based on the chassis of KV-1S tank. This was later put into production as self propelled gun SU-152 (abbreviation from Russian самоходно-артиллерийская установка – CAY or simply CY)
The main armament – ML-20S howitzer was designed as a bunker buster weapon and as such no AP ordnance was delivered for crews, however the blast force of 152 mm HE rounds was so immersive it was capable to easily obliterate virtually any German tank – including Tiger, Panther tanks or Elephant tank destroyers –and that from any range. Although shell was barely capable of penetrating thick armours, but the blast was so fierce it simply ripped of turrets of enemy tanks or made their ammo racks or fuel tanks explode due to shockwaves. So with this lucky discovery Soviets got 2 in 1, bunker buster capable of destroying heavy fortifications and a heavy tank destroyer.
The ISU-152 was successor of SU-152 gun. Name comes from Russian самоходная установка на базе танка ИС – which means self propelled gun on IS tank chassis, and that was the main difference from SU-152. The armor plates were also thickened to better counter German heavy guns.
The total number of 3 242 units were built between Dec 1943 and 1947 when the production was stopped.
And below some pictures of ISU-152 I took in Polish Army Museum in Warsaw. According to plate this vehicle was used in 13th Polish SP Artillery Regiment in 1944/1945.

The kit
For this build I decided to use Tamiya 1:35 scale kit 35303 ISU-152. I will use also aftermarket parts:
1) Decals from Toro Model 35D09 ;
2) RB Model 35B63 ML-20S gun cast in aluminium and brass.
I want to show my impressions how the vehicle with side number 341 could look like at the outskirts of Berlin in spring 1945. The vehicle belonged to 3rd battery of 13th Polish Self Propelled Artillery Regiment which was part of First Polish Army (in the East).
I’ll use acrylics for Vallejo and I’ll keep you posted about progress and all the stuff I'll use to make it look dirty and used.

Regards,
Radek

Post by **DC87** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:21 pm

Glad to have you on board Radzy

. Nice history, didn't know it was designed as a bunker buster.

Best of luck.

Post by **Paul** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:40 pm

Yeah i like the 152, look forward to seeing it come together

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:53 pm

Nice kit you got their.

Welcome aboard!!

Post by **Nige201980** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:24 pm

Nice bit of history there mate look forward to your build.

Post by **PhildaFish** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:40 pm

That's a beast of a cannon on there! This should be a very interesting build.

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:51 pm

That thing sounds like a total beast!

Looking forward to seeing this built up mate.

Post by **spruecutter** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:56 pm

Some great photographs there, and an interesting kit. Looking forward to seeing this built.

Welcome and good luck

Pete

Post by **Tiger131** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:23 pm

this is one of the soviet tanks on my wish list to build.......looking forward to seeing it getting under way

Post by **Bagpiper** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:04 pm

Welcome to the group build. Looking forward to seeing your progress Radzy.

Good luck
Jim

Post by **UKscalemodeller** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:05 pm

Thats one big gun. Welcome to the gb.

Post by **Radzy** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:45 pm

Update #1

Before update - thanks guys for cheering me on this project. The "Beast Slayer" is coming to life. This is how Soviets called SU & ISU 152 - beast slayers (in Russian: Зверобой ), because it killed all those German beasts.

And the update. So far it's fast and easy build. I have put all the hull parts and gun mount together. No much trouble except two things:
1) fitting lower and upper hull is not perfect - for the first time I had to use rubber bands in building tanks. It's probably because the upper hull consists of two parts that are fitted together with very thin sponsons and then all these elements put together must fit quite precisely to lower hull. Nevertheless with a little patience it fitted quite well, although a little bit of filler will be needed on front joint;
2) gun mounting - I followed the instructions and it led to creation of huge gap between gun mount and front armor plate (it was amlost 2cm hole break there! ). So I decided to remove elements that would allow gun to move (it's not necessary) and thanks to that everything fits perfect - so if you want to build this kit be careful at step 14th in the instruction sheet.

This is how the model looks like now:

Regards,
Radek

Post by **DC87** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:05 pm

Cheers for the advice on step 14. Looks great so far.

Is that your work replicating damage on the front left fender or is that out the box, either way it looks very nice.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:10 pm

Looking great dude,

How heavy is that barrel must weigh a fair bit?

Post by **Radzy** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:23 pm

DC87 wrote:Cheers for the advice on step 14. Looks great so far.

Is that your work replicating damage on the front left fender or is that out the box, either way it looks very nice.

I just twisted it a little bit to break the "monotony"

I will probably make some dmg also to rear fenders and maybe some deep scratches on the side of hull to imitate some bounced shells.

Thanks DC !

@T3hGuppy
It's quite heavy. I had problems with fixing gun mount with it to the hull. It took me few attempts and some CA to help.

Post by **panzerman** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 11:23 pm

Great looking beast...that ISU-152. That turned aluminum barrel looks wicked good.
As far as your construction problems go....I've never built a model that didn't have some issue or problem.
I guess that's why they call it "Model Building" and not model assembly.....HaHaHa.
Keep building and having Fun.
Bill.

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jul 06, 2013 11:57 pm

Great work love the heavy look of this tank.

Post by **hansolo** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:24 am

Hi and welcome.

This is indeed a huge thing.
Have fun building. I'll be watching.

Cheers

Post by **Lee** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 3:02 pm

Nice build so far Radek

Post by **Bagpiper** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:58 pm

These builds are looking fantastic. As mentioned above the heavy feel of this is amazing. Excellent work indeed mate.

Cheers
Jim

Post by **Coen** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 2:02 am

I was hoping that someone was going to model a Beast Killer.
Good on ya!

It will be cool to watch.

Post by **Radzy** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:23 pm

Update #2.

Hi,
Thanks guys for encouraging me to struggle with the beast.

I was on the business trip so I caught small delay ( I initially planned to finish it by Thu next week - on Friday I'll finally start my first part of holidays

- but it'll probably be finished only after I return). Nevertheless I did some good progress.
Initially I just planned to cover it only with Russian Green primer from Vallejo (7x609) and then already go for decals. But as I took some excercises I decided to go with something I believe it's called post shading or something like that. So the general idea born in my mind was to go with 4 layers:

1) Vallejo Russian Green primer 7x609 - cover whole hull;
2) VMA Russian Green 71017 - cover middle of all hull parts;
3) VMA Russian Green 71017 mixed with VMA Middlestone 71031 (dunno exact proportions, but it was like 3-4:1; with that layer I covered just subtely any highlighted areas in middle of those from layer 2);
4) to mixture from layer 3) I added fiew drops of 71001 White and painted only top most covers (not all of them though and it was very, very subtle).

It's not this colour modulation stuff, because I find it too difficult yet and in fact it's not looking good to me, but for me the technique I tried looks brilliant on the single colour camouflages and as many of you probably know - break the monothony on the model.

Before I show you the model - I need some advice. Unfortunately I had a minor incident during painting when somehow airbrush cleaner drop managed to fall on top of tank and dilluted some paint... It left a badly looking mark in the very visible place. Any help with this thing? Here's the picture (in front of observation coupola, between hatches):

And below some pictures of painted model. As this is my first attempt to use this use new technique I will really appreciate any comments from your side how I can improve it (I know though pics quality is not really reflecting how the model looks in real life):

Thanks,
Radek

Post by **Nige201980** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:28 pm

Looks great mate. I don't know to much about armour but could you work it in the weathering maybe.

Post by **Tiger131** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:52 pm

love the colour modulation spot on

Post by **Paul** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 6:57 pm

Nice work, for the mark, just airbrush over it with the same colour paint.

Post by **Radzy** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:15 pm

Paul wrote:Nice work, for the mark, just airbrush over it with the same colour paint.

Paul,

I did that as this looked like the most obvious possibility. Unfortunately it's "still there". I will give it another try after all paints are well settled. If not, well I'm still going to do some two colour chippings, so I'll try to cover it a little bit

@All
I have one question.
Although I have bathed the model for 24hours, primed it correctly (this time the layers of primer were really thin and well covered all stuff) and painted afterwards. Still it seems that paint on this metal barrel I used is extremely fragile and cracks very easily... Should I do something before to get better adhesion?

Thanks,
Radek

https://www.youtube.com/user/bnealuk · Post by **T3hGuppy** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:05 am

Green looks really nice dude.

Don't have enough experience to help with the barrel problem.

Though for the old metal war-gaming figures I use to coat of varnish over the primer then re-primed.

Post by **Coen** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:05 am

For any metal barrel I always sanded it a little bit to give it a tiny bit of roughness, then start painting.
I've never used real primer so I can't help you with that.

I just used thinned flat black Model Master Acrylic to coat everything.
The sanding advice is the only useful bit I have for you.

Otherwise you got the post shading bang on Looks great.
I don't really know what colour modulation is, I've heard of it, but I've never used it that I know of.
What you've got going on there is called post shading.

Post by **Daishi12** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 4:03 pm

With regard to the barrel, with it being aluminium standard paints and varnishes will just sit on the metal and will not key in. When I was younger I worked as a commercial vehicle paint sprayer and we always used the same technique on bare metal which was as follows:-

1. Metal rubbed down and de-greased.
2. A self-etching primer was sprayed onto the metal.
3. The etch primer was gently sanded and dust removed from surface.
4. Undercoat sprayed on.
5. Top coat sprayed.

Each coat of etch primer/undercoat/top coat was baked on in a low bake spray booth.

The problem with self-etch primer is that it is a 2 part paint that contains both a hardener and an acid solution, and is nasty stuff to use (i.e. air fed masks, gloves, overalls etc are required)

I'm not sure how well it would work, but you might want to try putting some scrap aluminium/brass into some clear vinegar for acouple of hours and then trying some primer over the top. Obviously all metal parts would need to be painted separately if this does work.

Post by **Bagpiper** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:16 pm

Your paintwork is looking great. I think you've got the shades of colour very nicely done.

Very nicely done so far

Cheers
Jim

Post by **schweinhund227** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 2:59 pm

WOW

I love the Paint !

Wicked fading effect ! not borring at all...

Weathering is just perfect !

Keep up the good work !
that's going to be Stunning !

Post by **Radzy** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:35 pm

Hi All,

first thanks again for encouraging me with the "ISU-152 project".

@Coen
thanks for tip, I sanded it a little bit , but still got an "issue" with paint. However it seems that after few days of drying it's much better now and it sticks to barrell much much better... (or simply I stick to the rule - better not touch too much

).

@Daishi
thanks for tip, it sounds too... smelly and complex -but the idea with vinegar seems indeed very promising. Maybe I will try it next time.

@Paul
I gave the paint another try with some gentle passes with 0.2 needle and low on pressure and the ugly paint problem was gone.

Now up to the update.

Update #3

I have gone pretty far with the model. It was coated with gloss varnish. I've added decals - I must say those Toro decals are superb - very thin, yet strong. They nicely stick to the plastic and all roughness of surface (although side plates on this ISU are quite... even). Next was another coat of gloss varnish followed by acrylic sepia pin wash from Vallejo. Afterwards I made the general oil wash with vanDyke Brown (it has a very nice dark brown - falling into almost black pigment) dilluted with Testors 090 white spirit - I must say I was quite suprised how quickly this thing dries in comparison to other dilluting mediums.
When I was fine with general wash I gave the model a coat of matt varnish to protect what I've done and then I applied dot filter with some green, yellow ochre, vanDyke brown and buff colours.
So this is how the dots looked like (with all things used):

I used again Testors 090 spirit to wash dots and there are few pics of how the model looks now:

What do you think guys?
Should I leave it like it is now, or maybe try to pass it again with white spirit, especially on top armor plates (around hatches and engine compartment)?

Regards,
Radek

Post by **Paul** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:42 pm

Awesome work.

If it were me i would give it another blend with white sprit on the turret roof, the engine cover in front of the grills and the very bottom of the turret sides. It just needs blending that little more i reckon and itll be perfect.

Post by **Radzy** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:45 pm

Paul wrote:Awesome work.

If it were me i would give it another blend with white sprit on the turret roof, the engine cover in front of the grills and the very bottom of the turret sides. It just needs blending that little more i reckon and itll be perfect.

Yes, I thought so. It just looks too strong and it's too visible for filter... Good thing I didn't yet closed the layer with varnish

Thanks Paul.

Regards,
Radek

Post by **HobbyModeller** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:54 pm

Fabulous work

Post by **Nige201980** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:06 pm

Looking great fella

Website · Post by **Gav0909** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:22 pm

I was going to try using this dot method to add some variation to the green tone of my M10, also to add some rain streaking etc.

Looks really good though, as Paul said perhaps a touch more blending in some areas to help it look less "patchy" and its grand!

Post by **HamilkarBarkas** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:29 pm

Love it! The faded paintwork looks superb, thank you for demonstrating this

Post by **PhildaFish** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:17 pm

Superb work on the paint job, it makes a huge difference to the look of it.

Post by **DC87** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:27 pm

Coming along brilliantly.

I have just saved this thread on my computer for future reference as you techniques, the washes in particular, i am sure will be useful to me in the future.

Keep up the superb work

Post by **Radzy** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:34 pm

Hello gents,

Again I'll start the update with big thanks for all supporters of my build

I'm really happy with your feedback and cheers. I'm encouraged to continue even more hearing that my work brings some good advice to you. I've watched many of youtube channels of ISM members (and some other too

) to learn techniques, skills and all around modelling stuff and in general - get back to "business", so it's fantastic to hear that I can start paying back my debt to you guys with showing my way of doing some things. Still I have to practice a lot, but... eehhh... enough with this pudency and buttering you up

let's go to another update.

Update #4

I haven't gone far with the build (I'm just one day till holidays trip, so at work I have really barely time to piss and still need to get all the stuff prepared for trip), but I have a few words of advice and some small update with first part of tank plates chipped.

But as I said - advice first. After yesterdays suggestions from Paul I tried to add more subtlety for dot effects on top parts of tank...
I had problems with softening the filters on top of tank, it didn't work out with usage of any turpentines / solvents I have in my stash. As I didn't want ot ruin anything further, I just left it be for a while - I'll try to correct it further with pigments and some streaks.
There was also one more problem on front fender - it seems that from unknown reason some parts of the filter were ripped off. Doesn't look nice but I should fix it later with some other techniques.

I guess that one of or mix of some factors could be a problem here:
1) I put the filter on the matt varnish - maybe satin should be better...
2) maybe filter just dried hard enough to become problematic to solve it further with mineral spirits (unlikely);
3) the effect was result of reaction between talens white spirit and oil paints I used (e.g. 502 abteilung's turpentine was drying slower but didn't leave such light dust-like markings on my previous builds)
4) white spirit I used reacted with matt varnish (vallejo from spray) and got these effects.

Well milk is spoiled now (as we use to say in Poland), so I'll try to fix it later.

Here are two screenshots of the problematic areas:

But there are also some good things - I've started my work on two colour chipping effects (well in fact I use several paints to add variety).
The idea is to put some lighter shade of base colour on the edges, plates and whenever we decide chips could happen and then make another markings within these areas with some rust like paints.

So I did first attempt with following paints:
1) First layer:
- mix of VMA 71017 Russian Green & VMA 71033 Ochre
- mix of VMC 70967 Olive Green & VMA 71033 Ochre
2) Second layer
- VPA 302 Dark Rust
- VMC 70822 German Camo Black Brown

I must admin effects look really promising - with all combinations of above layers and colour mixes this looks really, really nice.
Just a quick overview of rear plate I've done so far:

I just need to practice steady hand as this is very recommended for this effect and maybe try some other fine brushes. Seems like the combinations of this these paints don't stick well to brushes so it took me sometimes several tries to leave visible colour marks.

That's all for now, I'll keep you posted.
Again - please give me feedback what you think about the build.

Regards,
Radek

Post by **PhildaFish** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:28 am

My feedback is that this looks absolutely brilliant mate!

Post by **Nige201980** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:39 am

^^ snap

Post by **Paul** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:31 am

Looks great to me, and the front fender just looks battle scared so don't worry about it.

Did you say you Matt varnished before filtering, I don't apply a varnish until all my weathering is done and dusted, if your using acrylic paints non of the enamel/white spirit based weathering techniques should effect it.

Post by **Radzy** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:29 am

Paul wrote:Looks great to me, and the front fender just looks battle scared so don't worry about it.

It looks rather like if the vehicle crashed into flour magazine

. Well that can be a good subject to diorama - bakery taken by suprise... or surrender yer bread :-D

Paul wrote:Did you say you Matt varnished before filtering, I don't apply a varnish until all my weathering is done and dusted, if your using acrylic paints non of the enamel/white spirit based weathering techniques should effect it.

In my case I used two layers of oil/enamel based stuff - general wash and then dot filter. As both are dilluted with mineral spirit I used matt varnish coat to protect one from other. This was a best practice from my previous builds and reading articles about weathering processes ( well it looks fairly logical to separate these with varnish).

Nevertheless as you say it doesn't look that bad.
I hope I'll have some time to make some progress in the afternoon. Otherwise I'll have a whole week break due to ... holidays, finally !

Radek

Post by **hansolo** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:00 am

I sea the little problems that you have but for the rest:
Absolutely Bloody amazing weathering there!!!

Post by **Bagpiper** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:45 pm

This is just amazing. Very well described too - another great update

Cheers
Jim

Post by **Radzy** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:22 pm

Thanks Han,

Jim,
I'm trying to keep it as detailed as possible. I know how hard it was to learn all this stuff from any online resources or magazine previews where it was mentioned only what techniques were used and some overall overview of used materials or paints. It wasn't easy to follow for unfamiliar user. Hence with keeping it detailed I want to help all those who'll be in the same very beginning of their modelling life .... and also for myself - just in case I forget

Radek
PS fact is that I don't like practice that much, so in most cases it's a 'combat recce' for me if you know what I mean

Post by **spruecutter** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:42 am

A very effective weathering treatment

Nice one

Post by **Lee** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:09 am

Looks great Radek