AS-90 in Iraq - 1/35 Trumpeter

Good day to you people. Hope you readers having a good day and all are good. 

As you all aware, I'm building a fleet of SPG and this is my final entry on the line. The fleet is a total of 7 SPGs consisting the the Dana, Type 99, Pzh2000, AuF1, K9, 2s19 Msta and this AS-90. 

This is the only kit of this kit available in 1/35 scale. Since it's release, a lot of sites including Armorama has reviewed this gal so I will not be saying anything about the quality of this kit. Although I can say this - even though it's old, it's a pretty good kit.

I was lucky enough to get it for £15 posted including the metal barrel with the sagged recoil sleeve. I also indulged myself with a Eduard upgrade set. I didn't spent money on the second set which consisted of the basket on top and the grilles. I thought it would be waste of £7. 

As you all know, the British Army desert colour is something that is very hard to paint and there is no exact shade available out there. So using XF-59 desert yellow as a base, I decided to play around with the high light and shadow as I know this will be a monotone vehicle anyway. Four other colours were used to play around with the highlights and shadows - XF-68 Nato Brown, XF-72 JGSDF Brown, XF-57 Buff and XF-55 Deck Tan. I admit I put in more brown than I'd like to admit and it makes the paint very brown in hue but I kinda like it. You can see the visible brown hue along the edge of the bottom of the turret and the upper hull. 

For the weathering, I wanted to show it used well enough from the strong offensive as we have seen during the Iraqi war. I also wanted to show a lot of sand and dusts on it to depict a vehicle going through the very harsh desert environment. 

I didn't have any kind of sand colour pigments so after pondering, I decided to go for 2 tubs of pigments from Pinnacle Modelling supplies and there were fantastic. I bought a tub of Desert Sand which is of a darker colour with a brown hue to depict the deeper part of the desert and another tub of Light Sand which is a typical sand colour but not as yellowish as beach sand.

The chipping colour is from AMMO and I actually enjoy that colour rather than the usual Vallejo German Black Brown ( or whatever it is called exactly). The Streakings colour are made from Oil paint and I used Serpia Brown, Burnet Umber and AK Streaking for DAK vehicle. 

The stowage comes from the Tamiya US military set along with some pouches I found lying around. The big tarp was made from a big cut out of aluminium foil, folded nicely and pressed along the edge of the stowage basket and then painted.

I'm vary satisfied with what I did, albeit it could look better but still, I'm happy.

It's time for the photos - 
(Just click on the smaller ones and they will pop out ) 

The running gears -

The Stowage on board -

The machine gun -

The massive amount of fuel spillage -

The streakings -

 

The dusts and numerous chippings from severe usage -

The exhaust -

And as usual, my show case photos from various angles -

And as usual from me, the Gary Wintin Shot  -

Well, that's all I can say about this. As you all know, my patience is my bane so the usual hiccups are met but nothing I can complain. I could have done a better jobs on colouring the periscopes, some of the P.E works and also on some of the over- and under-sprays but at least it is presentable. 

Ohhhkay, maybe I have one complain. I have no idea what in heaven happened underneath the exhuast marks. I didn't see it until I took photo of the exhaust. Just what are those squiggly lines underneath the black soot? Grrrrrr, it's pissing me off to see them. 

Oh and another thing I have to nit pick is that since I cannot find any information about this gal during the Iraq war except 3 photo of it in action, I had to wing it with the decals and I didn't know if I should put on the CIP panels or anything so that's another thing I didn't put on as I couldn't be bothered. That annoyed me but let's just say I took a artistic license hesitantly on this one.

Apart from that two fact about those squiggly lines, this was a very enjoyable build. I am more than proud to have this on my shelf. Now I can focus on other fleet such as SPAAG or IFV or wheeled vehicle. We will see. 

Until next time. 

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MENG 1/35 GCT 155mm Auf1 '' During the IFOR mission ''

Good day to you guys. Hope you all having a nice sunny, summer days. Weather here in London is crap though.

Anyway,I just finished another Kit. It's the GCT 155mm AUF1 from MENG. I'm not going to put in here how is the kit as a lot of review has already covered that when it came out. However, if you are building this, glue the infernal suspension (unless you want to put this on a diorama) and invest in another track set ( either metal tracks or other plastic offering).

The kit was built mostly out of box apart from the Metal Barrel from RB Models, a scratch build wooden box and a tarp made from putty. 

For colour, I bought some AMMO paint to test it out. The paint has a similar smell to the Das Modelling Clay so I presumed it is made from Cellulose ( hopefully not fibres). The paints are good but I don't think it is for me. I can't seem to paint fine line with it and I just can't get the consistency right. It's already pre-thinned and kinda hard to control. It gives a very smooth and nice finish though, a very lovely finish. It's the spraying and control that I had trouble with. 

The interior is painted using Tamiya light blue and Vallejo ModelColour White. Tamiya light blue has a very strong blue tone ModelColour white was use to bring it down. The chipping inside and outside are done with AMMO chipping colour. The AMMO Chipping, however, was a delight to use. I think it's much better than what we have always used; Vallejo Model Colour Panzer Series German Cam. Black Brown. 

Since I knew this was going to be a hard edge, I bought the pre made masks from J's model works. They are not perfect as the pattern are somewhat wrong but they do the job pretty well. Since I am not a rivet counter, I am happy with them. 

Wanting to show a used up vehicle, I opted to use the IFOR decals from the kit and put on the '' Mont Igman 1995 '' decals to depict a vehicle used in the IFOR mission. As such, I decided to go heavy on the chippings, mud and dusts and throw some busy stowage on the little rack at the back. 

Well, that's about as much I can sum up about the build. 

I'm actually not that  satisfied with what I did but I ran out of fuel while weathering this and I just wanted to call it done. I'm glad that it is at least a little bit presentable.

It's time for the photos - 

(If you think some are small, just click on them ) 

The running gears -

The scopes - 

The interior - 

The exhaust -

The on board tools -

The Stowage on board -

The machine gun -

The fuel stains on the engine deck -

And as usual, my show case photos from various angles -

And as usual from me, the Gary Wintin Shot  -

Well, that's all I can say about this. As you all know, my patience is my bane so the usual hiccups are met but nothing I can complain. I as much the kit is nice, the plastic are really soft. Most of the smaller pieces are very fragile. The most annoying thing was the track. That was such a let down. The track alone made me so angry with the kit that it messed up my good vibe and I forgot to put on rear lights. Too many a time the tracks came off and pisses me off to no end which resulted in a very sloppy job on the Machine gun ( too pissed off to do a good job on the MG) and insufficient weathering on the tracks it self. I am so not happy about that.

I couldn't keep building if not for my supporting friends and comrades. Thank you guys for always supporting me. Thank you dear readers for your patronage as well.

Until Next time.

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