Tank and Rocket Launcher

Soviet Union IT-1 rocket launcher by SDV Models and Petner Panzer T62 tank.

The Soviet Union only made about 30 of these, but they are pretty neat looking.

Big rocket and only a few fit in the turret.  Discontinued in service after only a few years.

Russian truck shadows.

Working on spray painting the trucks.

Way over 100 of them to do, did primer work on over 70 of them in one day, did the flip side a couple days later.
 

Painting Tricks

While I have an airbrush, I much prefer a rattle can for spray painting.  I use the airbrush mostly for aircraft, and only for tanks or ground vehicles when I need a color I can't approximate with a spray can.  Sometimes I want to spray the same vehicle as soon as possible.  Some paints are ready for a second coat immediately, some in 15 minutes and others in an hour or more.

Rather than bother to look at the clock and try to remember what 15 minutes after 2:37 is, while the spray paint is drying, I just got a little timer.  I found it in the kitchen gadget section of Walmart, but I am sure similar timers are in many places in many stores.  Twist the knob and it makes a noisy buzzer when time is up.  So if I am distracted with a phone call, Internet, building a kit, watching a TV show, my trusty timer is on the job.

Did you know that Rust-Oleum sells paint by the same name with different stock numbers?  I have found the DEEP FRST GRN with this number and a shorter number.  I suspect different numbers refer to different retailers, rather than actual paint differences, but I am not sure.  They seem to be the same, or at least within the margin of error.

I am using this color on my Cold War Soviet vehicles.  Here some SDV stuff gets painted.  Note the black circle on the spray can lid.  That is an indication the paint can has been used.  It helps me to find the open can, and helps me with inventory control.  Just a quick circle with a marker pen.

The paper towel I use to wipe off the nozzle after every few sprays.  It helps keep it from clogging.  I keep a paper towel on the can lid of every open paint can so it is handy when needed.

I spray paint most of my stuff on a wooden board, or sometimes on poster board, or even cardboard.  Cardboard is nice because I just take an old Amazon box, cut it up and use it a couple times and toss it out.  Less flammable material laying around.  Same with poster board.  My wooden boards are just scrap lumber from previous projects.  In this case you can see there are Popsicle sticks white glued around the perimeter of the wood.  That helps keep wheeled vehicles from rolling off.  There are also holes drilled in the wood so I can put the Roco turret pins into the holes and paint the turret as it sits flat on the board.  It also keeps the turret from being blown around by the paint.

The cardboard box from Sam's Club is there because this day had intermittent rain.  So I would rush out, paint a couple vehicles and sneak back inside.  If we started to get a few drops of rain, the vehicles would be covered enough by the box to prevent rain getting on them.  Rain and spray paint is a bad mix.  You can get little water blisters of spray paint on the tanks.  Voice of experience.  It means paint stripper and starting over!  The glass brick is square and heavy so it keeps the box in place.  Having the box open allows more air flow to prevent too many fumes.

Comment below if you have a spray painting tip to share!
 

Modern Russian Tanks and Vehicles

Russian soldier with ARV.

More Russian troops with BMP.

A quiet, peaceful little cluster of houses.

With an upgraded tank.

Upgraded tank with dozer.

 

Buildings and AFVs

This is an SDV T72 tank based armored recovery vehicle in HO scale.

I showed the kit being built a while ago, but it's finished now.

 I think it turned out well, despite some rather vague instructions.

The figure is an Orion Modern Russian Federal soldier circa 2001.

A few more SDV models with two identical dollar store houses, painted differently, Marx toys trees.

SDV Tank Retriever Continues

The SDV tank retriever is coming along.

The machine gun port looking hole is actually for a big cable attached to a drum for towing vehicles out of the mud.  Pretty clever.

I decided to glue the crane into a semi-erect position, and here it is.  So not too high that I can't drive it down the road, and not so low that it looks like it is not doing anything.  A better model builder than I could likely make the crane work.

Top view.  There are a bunch more accessories left to go so it won't look so plain when it is done.

Side skirts and other bits ready for installation.

It's a shame to hide such nice looking wheels.

Test fit, file, test fit, trim, test fit, sand, test fit, close enough.

The construction so far.

Well on the way to completion.
 

SDV and Batman?

I am often working on more than one project at a time.  Sometimes a project gets delayed due a lack of materials, don't have the right glue or the color of paint I want.  Or sometimes I need more research, or maybe I am just waiting for the glue to dry.  Here while working on my SDV model, I am also working on a Batman related project.  I gathered a few hats and figures to use for the Mad Hatter and perhaps Clock King.  Two Batman 66 villains.  You can see a test fit for one of the hats in the photo.  I am also collecting hats for use on Mad Hatter Henchmen or perhaps for display in his lair.

These are the instructions in the SDV kit.  They are adequate, better than some of the SDV instructions.

The models themselves are not too difficult but the do require a lot of study of the instructions to insure correct parts placement.  I always test fit pieces to insure they go the right way.  You can see progress has been made on the hull and suspension.  I was waiting for all the little wheels to dry before continuing work on the project.

Here is the exploded view of the crane arm.  I remove the parts from the sprue, trim the flash and them place them on my workspace in the same relative position as they are in the instructions.

I find it very helpful to visualize where the parts all go.  Sometimes I do this on a piece of paper and even label the paper with each part number.  Then parts get test fitted and then slowly glued together.  After I glue two parts together and they are good enough to handle, I test fit the next pieces before it is too late to make any changes!
 

SDV Kit

SDV makes a lot of Cold War era Warsaw Pact kits.

The parts are not marked with their construction number the order of construction and each part number is referenced on a sheet of paper.  So I usually cut most of the parts off the sprue, then trim the flash and finally organize the little piles in order of construction.

Here I am working on the suspension.  They go together pretty well and are sturdy when the glue is dry.  The tracks are one piece and slip over the suspension parts which is a good technique for lining up the road wheels and making them good and strong, yet preserving detail.

This is the crane part.

Here is the casement and the lifting gear bits.  This is a tank based armored recovery vehicle.
 

Tank IT-1

This is an SDV Raketovy Tank IT-1.

It is essentially a T-62 tank with 15  3M7 Drakon missiles on board.

It had very good long range accuracy and penetration but the rocket created a dead zone of several hundred meters before it could be guided.  So it was not in service but a few years in the early 1970s.

I think with a reasonable secondary weapon of perhaps a 30mm auto cannon it could have been a decent weapons system give more time to mature.

The SDV kit is pretty easy given that there is a bit of flash on most of the parts.

So while not hard to put together it is a bit slow going.

I like to take a lot of parts off, clean them up and them assemble them in batches.

I have a lot of Roco T54, Armortec T62, and Petner T72 tanks and using the SDV vehicles I am added a few specialized vehicles to give them a little variety and in some cases a few more capabilities. 
 

T72 and TOS

T-72 and TOS.

T-72 is from Petner Panzers and the TOS is from SDV.

They are nicely sized and look good together.

The TOS was used in the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and in their invasions of Chechnya and Ukraine.

Two models from my collection in HO scale.