Trumpeter 1/35 SA-6 Gainful

I added some more details to the cabin bulkhead, the main part being a box with 43 buttons on the front. After making the basic shape from plastic sheet I drew vertical and horizontal lines on the front for the rows of buttons as these had to be straight, after which I drilled a series of 0.5mm holes through the front.

Using 0.5mm dia plastic rod cut to 3mm lengths, these were inserted into the holes to represent the buttons. When they were all in I carefully sanded the ends of the rods to make sure they all matched;

The box was then glued into place on the bulkhead and apart from a couple of other parts that need making, this area is pretty much complete.

Trumpeter 1/35 SA-6 Gainful

After chopping the hull, extending it, filling it and sanding it I was going to just leave it all closed up and get on with the build however I had always fancied detailing the interior when I bought it originally.
I got the WWP book on the SA-6 a while back and it is useful but a lot of the cabin interior has been missed out so I was having to guess the basic layout until one of my modelling friends supplied me with a whole host of interior and exterior pictures. FANTASTIC!
No excuses now so hopefully I can make steady progress as the interior is pretty complicated and I'm making everything from scratch. As long as it's close enough I will be happy and to be honest I am really enjoying it too.

The length of the cabin is about 45mm (2 3/4") so it will give you an idea of the scale.

Trumpeter 1/35 SA-6 Gainful

In the previous post I was explaining how the lower chassis was too short by 6mm...not any longer.
The cuts were made front and back, cleaned up, strips of .040 thou styrene were glued into place then the front of the hull was joined to the rear.
I used more strips of styrene to strengthen the join on the inside and when set I will fill and sand the hull as my joinery skills are not that stellar.

In the lower picture you can really see the difference the extension makes to the rear hull.
As for the swing arm locating pin I just sawed it off and will glue some plastic strip to the back of it to bring back the depth.

Trumpeter 1/35 SA-6 Gainful

To get the ball rolling on this I have to cut the lower hull in two places. The first cut is directly behind the three raised ribs at the front of the hull however one of the location points for a swing arm is here so I will make a mould of it out of Milliput.
When dry I'll melt some sprue from the kit and push it into the mould and hopefully it will reproduce the part. Failing that I will have to make a new one from scratch.

The other end of the lower needs 6mm removing and just goes to show how far out the Trumpeter kit really is here. From what I have read and seen so far this is the only real issue with the kit, I'm just hoping there are enough track links included to cover the extra distance.

Trumpeter SA-6 Gainful

One of the (dwindling number of) modelling groups I'm in on Facebook decided to have a group build with the theme of Anti Aircraft so I will be joining in with this;

I did have an idea to build it a few years ago but never got around to it so the group build was a good reason to dig it out of the stash.
I have a few aftermarket parts such as etch and wheels, I WAS going to use some Fruil metal tracks which I bought a few years ago but only found out yesterday that the tracks for a PT-76 were in the box instead. Whether this was due to a packaging error or some clown at a model show opening boxes and getting them mixed up (it happens) I'll never know.
After looking for any more extra bits I found out that a replacement lower hull is available as the Trumpeter one is 6mm too short. I won't be getting that but I will be hacking the kit hull so that should be fun.
The kit missiles need replacing as they are too long and too narrow, luckily I found a Cromwell Models SA-6 conversion set at a model show a couple of years ago so that takes care of them.