Ludwig/Taigen SU-152 (early production)

[Raminator]

A nice big package arrived today, coinciding nicely with the tail-end of my T-34/76 project.

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One of Juckenburg's very last SU-152 resin conversion kits, coupled with a Taigen metal lower hull, metal wheels, metal tracks and steel gearboxes. I'm not 100% sure on the electronics yet, but at this stage I'm leaning towards an IBU2 Pro.

I'll be building an early production SU-152 attached to one of the Independent Self-Propelled Artillery regiments that fought at Kursk, supporting the armour and killing the German beasts (Panthers and Tigers and Elefants, oh my). More to come!

[HERMAN BIX]

Legend !!
Can't wait to see this.
My favorite Soviet AFV

[tomhugill]

I used an ibu pro in mine

[Raminator]

As enjoyable as it is to create something, sometimes it's more fun to destroy. Some men want to watch the world burn, etc.

I've had a pleasant weekend butchering the Heng Long KV-1 upper to prepare it for the SU's big armoured casement. Saws, scribers, knives, files, even a hammer and chisel at one point. In the end, it feels like I've removed nearly half of the donor hull.

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Lots of extraneous bits got the chop too, you can see them piled up on the right-hand side. I hadn't realised how many differences there were between the KV-1 and KV-1S (and by extension, SU-152) hulls.

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Starting to look the business. It dwarfs the T-34 already, and I haven't even put wheels or a gun on it yet!

[jtracks]

Following along.

[Raminator]

Committing violence against this thing has been a nice way to unwind after work these last two weeks. More destruction:

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Cut out the transmission deck to fit the lower slope of the KV-1S cover, and spent the better part of 45 minutes hacksawing off the top of the rear armour plate to suit. This will let me have an open grille for the engine, which should help with the speaker volume. I've also removed all of the moulded bolt heads, since I'll be replacing them all with brass ones to ensure they match between the KV and SU portions.

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New front glacis and structural reinforcement for the fenders, since they're all that's holding the upper hull together until I epoxy the casemate into place. Following the theme of the last couple posts, I also filed off the rivet detail on the front armour, since they're only relevant for the KV-1 ehkranami that Heng Long and Taigen sell. The SU-152 should have a plain one.

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As good as the casement's casting is, there are a bunch of warped bits (unavoidable given the size, I imagine) and some of the details are wrong or inaccurate. I've cut, shaved and sanded nearly everything off so I can straighten it out and I'll be replacing them with styrene or brass versions instead. The channel in between the armour plates is for a milliput weld seam that will help hide the discrepancies there.

The resin kit has been a bit of a novelty for me, and I'm quite enjoying it. It behaves very different to plastic or metal, and besides the dust it produces it's very nice to work with.

[Raminator]

Making some more progress. The entire rear panel of the casement had the consistency of Swiss cheese; it must have been facing upwards after the resin was poured but a frankly heroic amount of Tamiya putty and Mr. Surfacer have smoothed it out. The moulded loader's hatches at the back contained more bubbles than resin, so I figured I'd cut them out and fabricate some proper scaled functional ones.

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I also epoxied the transmission cover in and blended it in to the plastic hull by using milliput to simulate scale-width oxyacetylene-cut armour panels. My first time using milliput, and it's very different to work with. I like the results.

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More millput armour edges, including cutouts for the periscopes. They're not as obvious as I'd hoped, but with a little creative weathering I'm sure they'll stand out more. I'm not entirely satisfied with the weld seams either, they may require revisiting.

[HERMAN BIX]

Coming along great. Where did you get your miliput from mate ?

[Estnische]

Are you having trouble getting it? My local hobby store has it.

[B_Man]

Last time I went to buy miliput the guy at Toyworld told me the Australian distributor had either gone out of business or wasn't importing it anymore (can't remember which) and it was no longer available. I went down the road to another hobby shop and had no such issues, they had plenty of stock.

I hope it's just a nasty rumor as it's great stuff.