Trumpeter SA-6

[Stuke Sowle]

I thought I would share yet another project I have started.....

Nice little kit so far, although some seem to be having problems with the kit:

Trumpeter problems (http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=64443&page=1)

I will start on the tracks tonight to see if I encounter anything unusual. This vehicle will be finished as one serving in the Middle East and will be chipped as hell similiar to my BRDM.

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20334&img=PB290005.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20336&img=PB290007.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20335&img=PB290006.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20337&img=PB290009.jpg

[sam_dwyer]

Looking great Stuke!
Watch those chips tho, you want to make sure the vehicle youre modelling has em, lest some one post on and on about how inaccurate they are! ;)

Great to see you modellling again mate!

Sam

[Larry Bates]

Looks good Stuke! :thumb:

Glad to see you've broken through the barrier!

Larry

[Stuke Sowle]

A little work done on this kit in the past few days.....very little that is.

Gouged up the roadwheels quite a bit as this vehicle is going to represent something that has been rode hard and put away wet.

These shots will also show what I found to be the biggest quirk of the kit thus far. The fiddly roadwheel arms. The method used to secure them is very fragile and was difficult to align properly as you can see in the picture below. However, with just a slight little tweak you can move the arms to a better position!

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20532&img=PC050015.jpg

Some shots from the side:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20529&img=PC050012.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20530&img=PC050013.jpg

This next picture identifies what could be a problem area when assembling the tracks. I like to keep the roadwheels loose, glue the tracks together and then be able to remove them. The lip on the front fender is going to interfere with that process. I might remove it and replace afterwords with stock styrene.

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20531&img=PC050014.jpg

In the end I want my tracks to resemble what I did on my KV-2:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=20533&img=PB080214.jpg

Maybe some more progress tonight, but not likely. I have sold my house and have 24 days to pack and be out!! It'll take me that long just to get my model stuff boxed up. :)

[Finnmodeler]

Stuke,
looks interesting even thou I'm not a fan of modern stuff. Too bad that Trumpeter seem to have some kind of pitfall with almost every model. Now with those RW arms.

Well, best of luck with it :)

Niko

[Stuke Sowle]

Some progress made in the past two days now that I have finished moving the majority of my hobby room. :)

Some shots of the base of the launcher:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21332&img=PC250009.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21333&img=PC250010.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21334&img=PC250011.jpg

Also, Tim Roberts was nice enough to show me a sweet little link to this vehicle. Now I can see all the details that are missing!!

Pics (http://www.militaryvehicles.cz/index3.php?sek=200-15&lang=cz)

[Stuke Sowle]

Now some shots of the missiles. I have decided to model the vehicle after firing it's first missile, so I only constructed two. The halves fit together well, but the stablizing fins or whatever they are proved to be a bit fiddly.

Basic construction is done, but I need to add Mr. Surfacer in many nooks and crannies to fill in some small gaps.

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21328&img=PC240004.jpg

Some gaps in the nose that needed filling and sanding:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21329&img=PC240006.jpg

Underside:
http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21330&img=PC240007.jpg

Top:
http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21331&img=PC240008.jpg

Completed:
http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21337&img=PC270017.jpg

And a few shots of the launch rails:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21335&img=PC270013.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21336&img=PC270015.jpg

[Sheeds]

Looking the Biz Stuke. :)

Will this be plain green, or camo'd? I assume Iraqi, or do you have another country in mind?

Willy.

[Stuke Sowle]

Cheers Willy!

I'm about 95% sure it's gonna end up being an Iraqi vehicle. It has seen service in Syria and Egypt as well.

I've got an old Warriors tank berm base that I think I am going to stick it on to add some atmosphere.

[sam_dwyer]

Yes, Stuke, I also think your SA6 is looking ace.
I trust it will be apropriately cheeped?


Sam

[Stuke Sowle]

You can bet your next Christmas Party that it's going it to be cheeped Sam! :)

[Stuke Sowle]

Well, sitting here solo in my house with an hour to go before New Years so I thought I would kill the time by posting the latest progress on what is turning out to be a sizable model!

Still got lots of odds and ends to add, and I've totally farked up the missiles which I will show later. But she is getting there.

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21496&img=PC310005.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21497&img=PC310006.jpg

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21499&img=6723PC310008.jpg

[Sheeds]

Das ist gut Stuke.

The rockets look fine, how did you mess them up? Also, how many orange whips have you had dude, the bottom pic's a touch blurry. ;)

Willy.

[Stuke Sowle]

Yeah my camera pretty much sucks...or maybe it's the user that sucks? :)

Some further checking on my part shows that I didn't screw up the missiles as I thought I had. I had believed that I swapped A7 and A11 around on the missile body. A7 faces down onto the launch rail and so that side of the missile is less visible.

A scan of the instructions, which I did follow correctly after all:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21532&img=7703scan.jpg

However, the way the kit is engineered there is a gap in the missiles created by the assembly of the halves. See below:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21534&img=3802P1010005.jpg

This gap because of the placement of A7 faces up instead of down, and therefore less visible. Below is a shot of the A7 side which faces down and has no gap:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21533&img=359P1010004.jpg

In hindsight, I would've flipped them around as the gap is unsightly and a tad difficult to fix. Also you will note that I need to add Mr. Surfacer to the gaps in the fins on the missile body.

Not sure if I will attempt to address the gap issue with much effort or just leave as is.....

[Larry Bates]

Hey Stuke,

It's looking good man. Those are some big missles. Gaps? slop some Mr. Surfacer on and hit it with some steel wool. ;) I used to build planes, and I never ever saw a plastic missle, or bomb or whatever that didn't have major gap and seam issues. :lol: Actually, coat them liberally with some thicker cyano and sand, should do the trick. Keep at it dude! ;)

Larry

P.S. I like the way you beat up the rubber on the road wheels.

[Stuke Sowle]

Thanks Larry!

Now that I have some free time, I will hit her up with whatever it takes to clean up those gaps. I also found this shot somewhere on the web:

http://www.kitpic.com/is.php?i=21573&img=SA-6_26.jpg

Glad I am not painting the missiles white......

[Larry Bates]

Hey Stuke,

Nice pic dude, after looking again, those gaps aren't too bad, especially for the scale. Just fill them up with cyano, should work just fine.
Nice camo, what country?

[sharkmouth]

Hi Stuke,

http://www.track-link.net/forum/news_industry/8539

Seen these? They will be available soon.

Last, since these missiles seem based on a dummy (like those on display at Nellis); it lacks many of the panels, joints, screws and fasteners. This will be the most work.

You should not have the problem mentioned in the Armorama thread if you do not glue the hull together after gluing in the suspension (without dry fitting the tracks). On my kit, I kept the drive sprockets loose to 'feed' the track. However, I will remove them when I get my production SA-6 tracks from LMD.

Regards,
Saúl