Global Scale Modeller

Sweden 1966

The origin of the Stridsvagn Strv 103 S-Tank of the company Bofors located in the requirement of the Swedish Army for a replacement for the British Centurion and other foreign tanks.

When the request for a new tank came out, a heavy tank named KVR was already in development.
But this project was abandoned and focused on the conception of Strv 103. The S-tank had some innovative design details. The most striking was the lack of a turret. This design was chosen to get the smallest possible silhouette for a tank in battle. Contributed also a dozer blade mounted at the Strv 103 to dig in itself. Disadvantage of the turret-less construction was that the entire tank had to be rotated to the target.

There was not a single foreign buyer although the innovative concept was calling out great interest.
The S-tanks were used in the final version 103C in the Swedish Army till 2001.

Specifications:
Crew: 3
Armament: 1x 105mm, 2x 7,62mm MG (coaxial), 1x 7,62mm MG AA, 8 smoke dischargers
Weight combat: 39.700 kg
Engines: Rolls-Royce K60 multi-fuel developing 240bhp, Boeing 553 gas turbine developing 490bhp
Max road speed: 50 km/hr
Max water speed: 6 km/hr
Max road range: 390 km
Trench: 2,3 m
Side Slope: 40%
Gradient: 60%
Armour: classified
Armour type: Steel
NBC system: None
Night vision type: None

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That's one interesting tank mate simple and easy to use

For me, there are some reasons why I'm building this tank.

1: I've never built a Swedish Tank
2: I think the tank looks magnificent
3: The price of the kit
4: Inspired by the BG Cold War, I wanted to build a tank from that era, which nation was not in the Warsaw Pact, nor in NATO. Nevertheless, Sweden was a neutral nation in the interest of both parties because of the important strategic location. Iceland and Scandinavia was very important for the USSR and the NATO. If it had come to an escalation and one of these objectives occupied by NATO, access to the Atlantic Ocean for the USSR would have been impossible.

The Trumpeter kit costs about 15 € / 12.70 £ at Amazon and therefore isn’t particularly expensive. It contains 203 parts which are of good quality. Even the rubber band tracks are well detailed.
The manual may not always be clear. Important notes are a bit too small and can be easily overlooked (happened to me).

Conclusion:
It is a kit that is suitable for beginners and for professionals a nice change because it is quick and easy to assemble.

Oh nice, its a modern Stug !!!

cant go wrong this !


cant wait to watch this one



Shane

Built-in flotation.

Built-in dozer.

It's like a tank version of the Swiss army knife.

Let's start
There is not much to say to the lower hull... The small nipples must be removed from both sides. I suspect that these are required for the 103C version where you can attach the canister. Let's get to the running wheels. I worked on the rollers with coarse sandpaper and a cutter so they have signs of use. But be careful! Do not overdo it with the cutter. On an original tank, the rollers are replaced when the outbreaks in the rubber bandages are too big (Larger than a fist). Longer cuts and outbreaks are often found between the pair of rollers. Either by jammed stones or a slack track. When someone drives through curves with loose tracks, the teeth in the middle of the track climb up to the rubber bandages.

Nice work !

Keep it coming !

These are great Dunhill.
Great detail on wheel damage too.
Well done.

Very interesting project! You can't see this vehicle very often, so I'm curious about the result.
The wheel damage looks absolutely realistic ! Great job so far my friend.

Moin...
Should you build a 103 where the plow blade to be opened, pays attention, that the part 33 is not installed on the hull. I was not paying attention . The spare tracks are inserted into small rails on the original tank. To give my tank a personal touch. I've additionally secured them with homemade tension belts. I have made them out of paper. Cope cut, stick and seal with super glue, so they do not soften when painting.

very nice,

its a certainly something different


great work mate



Shane

Unfortunately the front shackles have large traces of the ejector. Modify is an annoying detail work.
The hatch of the commander consists of about 25 parts. Lot of detailed work, but worth seeing. The boarding hatch for the loader's only consists of 6 parts. They can be build open or closed. I have closed the hatch because the interior is empty.
The upper hull is a little twisted but should not notice after stick together.

Looks great so far mate i like the damaged rubber bands a lot in particular!

The construction is almost finished. The track-guards can be mounted after the tracks assembly. This is not a problem on the right side but on the left. The holder of the Camouflage rods is too close to the chassis. After removing the Palatinate, the track-guard fit again. The cut is no longer visible after connection.
The whole kit was then primed black to enable shadows to the subsequent painting.

Great work so far.

Always enjoyed this AFV when at the Tank museum.

So different from everything else.

Jesus! I'm fast today ...

After this high speed priming and drying, I have and painted the whole kit with tank green.
After another drying period I have everything covered with satin varnish. Why a varnish? I fear that I might damage the thin layer of acrylic paint with masking tape. That’s why.
I think the camouflage pattern of the Swedish army is very interesting. Many modern combat vehicles are now painted in a digital camouflage pattern, like the Leopard PSO of the German Army.
Sweden has used a camouflage with straight lines decades ago. Certainly not a digital pattern but still pretty cool.

Oh Wow Dunhill... that is going to be a smoker.
Really nice work buddy!!!
Can't wait to see the result.

real nice build and such a strange vehicle..look forward to seeing it with paint

This build is very nice, you did a good job putting it together. It certainly isn't a boring tank with all those panels and grills

Great Scott! Dunhill, that comes really nice.
I know that Volvos or Saabs are (or rather were) good cars, but this thingy really shows that not only Grippens count for their military achievements - well ... at least the model you are building

So! Last update for today.

I have not a single model in scale 1/35 which has a snow camouflage. Sweden and snow fits together.
The Snow camouflage is most likely not permanent. at the Bundeswehr we usually used chalk, lime or water-soluble color (White color went down bad).
Also, the white color was not covering applied to let contours visible. Additionally it looks improvised.
PS: Thanks for the positive feedback!

AWESOME!!!!!!!
WOW!
Sorry for the shouting Dunhill but Hohoho... that turned out really nice. The white wash has just the right amount of transparency and wear to look like ... well white wash.
Well freaking done buddy

That camo scheme is really nice.

Love it.

Awesome Camo job

Great paint job mate !
I've never seen such a digital camo scheme before and I find it looks very interesting.
Well done buddy !

Awesome job on the build and the paint.

oh yes superb camo

This is the photo that inspired me to my camo-pattern ...
The periscope were painted with blue oil paint.
The MG was painted from a mixture of anthracite and silver.
The traces of soot on the exhaust were prepared with a crayon.

That looks spectacular Dunhill!!!
Crayon???
If you could, would you share that little secret? I'm curious as to how you used the crayon.

Coen wrote:That looks spectacular Dunhill!!!
Crayon???
If you could, would you share that little secret? I'm curious as to how you used the crayon.

I wanted to make the traces of soot on a Sunday. Unfortunately, I had neither pastel chalk or pigments and the stores have closed in Germany on Sunday. So I was pissed . Mrs. Dunhill came up with the idea with the crayon. So I stole Dunhill junior a black crayon. With a bit of sandpaper I got black powder. Unfortunately, this powder is liable not very good . That's why I stole Dunhill junior his transparent craft glue too and applied a thin layer to the places where the powder should adhere. And so my traces of soot formed.

Clever Boy!!!!
Haha. I never would have thought to use crayons for that.
Another example of material being used for something it was never designed for.
I love scale modellers!!!
Nicely done Dunhill and thanks for sharing that.

Too bad the kit is finished.

Summary: I had no longer a kit, that was so easily build but still so much fun. No turret no complicated attachments but still a very cool design.

Who is not quite sure what to build (which I can not imagine ) or after a kit which has frustrated someone and now need something easy, the Strv 103 is the right choice. I have needed about 2 weekends to build and I'm not the fastest ...

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for your interest and support!

Well done Mr Dunhill Sir... She's a beauty..
Nice camo and white wash effect and looks like she built up a dream...
congratulations again on such an amazing piece...

It's such a cool looking machine tool very dangerous... Feral.
You did a great job Dunhill.

Nice work dunhill, great thinking about the crayon

Man I love that camo scheme

nice tank hunter! i really like the camouflage! keep on the good work! mit kameradschaftlichem gruß andre

andreb87 wrote:nice tank hunter! i really like the camouflage! keep on the good work! mit kameradschaftlichem gruß andre

Thank you . Sadly I'm not a soldier anymore...
Trotzdem: Anker wirf!

Superb! I shall have to put one of these kits into the pile of kits awaiting building.