ZSU-23-4

Ingo F
Hull is now completed and i am building the auto canons now. Hell lot of details for the canons. Hight detailed and much better the the af from RB Model.

Ingo F
Hehe, thank you James. There is no real secret behind it. As always practise , practise and again practise.
You can start with use of photoetch part on old kits where the PE is not expensive. If you screw up on some PE parts, its not a big of a loss.
I started off my PE first steps by using only big parts and/or parts that are easy to bend and attach. Parts where i didnt need to do bigger surgery on the kit. Dryfitted them many times until i was satisfied with the result.
And dont forget: You do not need to use all the PE parts that are in the set. 😄
Thats all.

Dan M
Another russian beast! I'm in! You are really fast Ingo with all your projects. Gotta have to admire that. Unfortunately due to personal issues lately i don't have any spare time to do stuff 🙁. Just keep buying kits, filling the stash and hoping that I'm able to go back to work on them soon.

Ingo F
Thank you Dan and welcome on board. Building the kits is the only way how i can relax after a busy day at the office. Just turning off my brain, listening to music and building kits. 😄

Ingo F
Finished the build of the auto canons. Many details but was fun to build. 🙂

Scott Dutton
Very nice, hope leaving ammo hatch open to see that interior detail

Ingo F
Thank you Scott. I have to disappoint you, i will close the hatches. 🙂

Scott Dutton
Tears, always loved the resin conversion for dragn kit, looked awesome.

Ingo F
Hah, the old Dragon kit. 😄 There was time when i was looking for this kit everywhere but could not find one for a reasonable price. Then MENG announced their kit.

Scott Dutton
Could have had mine 🙂 Any others I can help with, have a lot of the old Dragon Imperial series 🙂

Eric RENOUX
Awesome job !

Ingo F
Thank you Eric.
Nah Scott, not needed anymore. 🙂

Ingo F
Finished the build yesterday.

Ingo F
Thank you James. I decided to go with a two tone camo sheme that was used during first Chechen War: Russian green with patches of light green.
Btw will start my Leo 2A5 tomorrow.😉

Ingo F
Put this one on hold. Maybe for a short time, maybe for ever. 🙁
Ruined the model with the Vallejo Game Color paints. Tried to remove the paint and was successful but now i have ugly edges from the base paint in the area where i removed the second layer of paint.
Have to figure out what to to do now.

Bart Goesaert
do you have pictures? Maybe we can help thinking about the problem? Would be to bad to put this one aside. Or you can tranform it into a Shafrah (tanks-encyclopedia.c..syria/t-72av-shafrah):

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Ingo F
Hey Bart, i will add some pictures later when i am home.
I thought of removing the edges with a very fine sanding paper. Just the edges and then overspray the whole model with a new layer of black primer.

Bart Goesaert
or maybe you can use a glass fibre pen. you have more control, and by extending the glass fibre cartridge from the pen, en twisting it a bit, one can make it pretty soft too. To avoid damaging detail

Rene Scheiblich
If you have a bottle of Revell Airbrush cleaner around, you could try that too. I use that to get rid of paint I don't need anymore... Just as much as needed on a cotton swab or an old brush. 👍

Ingo F
I was also thinking about the use of airbrush cleaner. I got an small bottle of Revell Airbrush Cleaner from the Airbrush Starter set. Will try it out.

Rene Scheiblich
Never hurt the plastic beneath on my kits, but I clean it up quickly nevertheless😉

Ingo F
Tried it out. Did not help that much. Could only scratch a little bit of the color but instead broke off many small and big parts. Also let the parts soak in the airbrush cleaner but didnt help much. 🙁

Ingo F
Thinking of puting that one aside and maybe try it later or just bin it. I dont know have to think about it.

Rene Scheiblich
😮
Crap 🙁

I have yet to encounter a paint I couldn't remove with this stuff. Older paintjobs with enamels take a bit patience, acrylics wash away with no effort. Gunze take a bit of scrubbing too.

I have the cleaner containing glycol ether. Are there different versions of that cleaner?

Would be a shame to bin this gem 🙁

Ingo F
I too really dont understand it. Its just Vallejo Air Color paint. Usually its really easy to remove them.
Tried again and was able to remove about 80% of the color from the turret and it took me about an hour to do.
I decided to put the model back in the box and put it away for a few months.
Not going to bin it. 🙂

Ingo F
I used the Vallejo Game Color paint. Deluted it as usual and started to paint. I dont know what happend, the first layer was ok but the second one was like i sprayed plain water not paint. It started to flow over the whole model and seconds later it started to make splashes over the whole area. In the end i had a model with running color and color splashed and a clocked airbrush.
I really dont know what happend but i spent the next 30 Minutes with cleaning the airbrush. 🙁

Ingo F
Decided to put it back in the box for a few months. Will build a few models and then come back to this one to clean up the mess. 😄 Need some positive experience/builds instead of getting angry about this one.

Rene Scheiblich
I had some trouble spraying last weekend as well, but with Tamiya XF. Not as nasty as what you're describing though.
Looked like the paint and the thinner started separating after a while... Started spraying almost clear and very wet. After blowing through with 100% opening of air and paint it was fine for a short while again.

Maybe it was too humid around here (near Berlin), but the water trap didn't show much content. Still suspecting air conditions :/

Ingo F
Back in the game with this one! 😄 Was able to remove nearly all paint from the turret and hull. Turret received a good coat of primer yesterday and the hull today. Looks good so far. Nearly no hints that the previous paint was removed. Had to replace a few things on the turret as they were lost during the process of paint removing.
Will spray the base paint tomorrow.

Scott Dutton
Good recovery. I think atmospherics was problem, I've given up with these here as cant seem to get consistent results.. Pleased you didn't bin it

Dan M
It's good you managed to strip the paint out of it! What did you use for Vallejo? Kind of interested to give the same treatment to a few models of mine.

It happened to me a couple of times, I wasn't happy at all with how the freehand camo got sprayed and it totally killed my mojo for that model.
On that note I'm getting fed up with Vallejo on anything camo- or precision-related. Thinking on switching to a different paint but I'm not sure what. I find AK and Ammo to be just as bad, maybe even worse as some of their colors are too transparent for my liking.
Tamiya has a very limited color set and combined with the bad smell it's not making me happy. MrPaint and Gunze are also very smelly (and I'm not very fond of lacquer based stuff). Maybe I will try some AK Real Color, when my LHS decides to bring it.

Ingo F
Thank you guys.
@Scott: I nearly bin it but gave it a last try and it worked. 😄
@Dan: I had a small bottle of Revell Airbrush Cleaner and used it. I got a cheap toothbrush dipped into the cleaner and scrubbed the paint off. Be careful not to break off small parts like i did. 😄
I never had any problems with the smell of the paints. For NATO or WW2 vehicles i usually use Tamiya paints and AK/Ammo paints for russian stuff.
While using AK/Ammo paints i usually go with light multiple coats. First on the wheels then hull and last the turret. Then repeat it again. 🙂

Rene Scheiblich
Vallejos cover relatively good, but I only have dark tones. I find them less comfortable to spray (more cleaning the needle in between) than tamiya or gunze acrylics though. Might be me.
The airbrush clean is nice stuff. Wet the surface and let sit for a minute. You don't need to scrub that hard this way and an old paintbrush might suffice.

Scott Dutton
Dan, I've just tried the new Ak Real Colours, very happy, so for me its them Tamiya and Gunze

Ingo F
This one is ready for weathering.

Dan M
Looks really nice! It's very good that you managed to save it!

Ingo F
Thank you guys. 🙂
Yeah i am happy that i didnt bin it. 😄

Ingo F
Finished it yesterday. Was like a small adventure with this kit. I am glad i didnt bin it. 😄
Was very fun to paint and weather it.

Ingo F
Thank you James.

Rene Scheiblich
I am as well. It turned out great. I can see no real trace of the surgery you did🙂 these modern AA tanks do have a certain charme😄

Ingo F
Thank you Rene. 🙂

Eric RENOUX
Nice result !

Ingo F
Thank you Eric.

Scott Dutton
Where do you find the time, another gem

Ingo F
Thanks Scott. Unfortunately i can build only 2-3 hours during the week and go full hobby mode at the weekend. 😄

Murad ÖZER
Ingo does this come with single link tracks? Great job bwt. 👍

Ingo F
Thank you mate. 🙂 Yeah the tracks are single link and workable. You just need to click them together.
Mine are glued though as i never manage to click them together without breaking off the parts that holds them.