Harvester SK-5 Niva

From the moment Scalemates announced this new model, I wanted to have it. According to my knowledge for a harvester in scale 1:72 this is the only game in town.
With so many other projects still in the making, this will not see any progress soon, but I want you to have an impression of the kit, so I share some pics with you.

It is a resin and multimedia kit and not cheap (about 90 €). When checking for completeness, a few minor parts were missing. Nothing that cannot be scratched, but still a bit annoying. Have to check with the vendor of how to proceed with this.

Instructions are fairly clear so far, but not 100 % precise. For example: the main wheels appear as a single piece, while you have to assemble it from three parts.

First test fits of various pieces promises good fit and no necessity for a lot of guess work of where to put what.

I suppose that placing all the similar but still different wheels of the transmission correctly will be a bit of a challenge, as they are not specifically labeled on the casting block (which would have been nice and helpful).

Casting is precise and I have not found a bubble yet - only some rather minor imperfections.

some warp here, but that is about it.

nicely detailled engine...

...and small parts.

Casting blocks are small and quite easy to remove.

Here the assortment of the different transmission wheels

The photo etch fret. Most of it goes to the reel, cabin and transmission.

The clear parts appear not so clear, so I will most likely replace them with clearer sheet.
This should be fun to build.

I felt like soldering, so I started with the reel. The flimsy parts and small connecting areas proved to be a challenge.

After a couple of failed attempts I managed. Sanding, fluxing, tinning, alinging, soldering were the steps that finally led to success.

Before cleaning excess solder...

...and the final result I am quite happy with.

Main body assembled

Nicely detailed engine.

some more work on the reel. I managed to straighten the warped areas with boiling water considerably. To improve looks I want to sharpen the edges of the spiral as on the real thing the spiral is only sheet metal. On the left side (right side on the pic 😉 ) I am close to the desired effect. The other side still has to be done.

slowly taking shape

The outer gear of the reel posed a problem, as - contrary to the instructions - the outer chain parts were available in one size only, while one (left) of the drives is shorter than the other.

I did what I´d do at my bike: take out two links. Now it fits.

Assembly and mounting of the outer reel gear was quite flimsy. Using some brass here and there and replacing some resin axles with brass ones resulted in an improved stability.

everything just dryfitted as I want to paint it in segments.

resin and brass. I like 🙂

Instructions were confusing, misleading, and partly downright wrong. Instructions call you to use the parts PE2 but the fret has two different ones designated PE2. Their position is not all to clear too. I put the ones with the long bracket to the spare box and used the short ones only.

Some pins provided additional stability and a test for operational soundness of my interpretation of the instructions.

Looks ok to me.

Soldering day. I finally managed to finish the ladder.

I build new handrails as I do not like the flat PE ones

Those are the parts for the cabin. I replaced the clear parts provided with the kit as they turned out to be a bit on the thicker side (even after I removed the protective foil 😉 ).

Soldering the metal parts of the cabin. After solid preperation that was easier that apprehended.

Fortunately each edge had a true angle which made alignment easier.

Here dry fit with the resin part. Now I can fit the roof und color the interior of the cabin.

small step. Ladder is done

Grain conveyer. The solid parts hollowed out and everything ready for paint.

First batch of parts ready for paint

First parts are done

The harvester needs something to harvest, doesn't he? Building some crop.

A rough idea of where I am heading at.

First steps on the inside of the cabin.

Finally ready for paint.

The reel with the spiral required quite some effort. When scraping the edge became irregular and had to be built up again with Tamiya putty which in turn needed sanding and trimming again.

The thin pins on the reel are made from 0,4mm brass tube, all axles are 0,9mm in diameter.

Slow progress. Interior completed. Some more detail painting and weathering necessary.

Finally fed up with my futile attempts to achieve a flat surface here (it bulged out all the time), I changed strategy and build the wall anew with styrene sheet.

Looks ok and the reel is finally attached and aligned.

Now test fit of all the transmission pieces. The easy side.

The tricky side finally done. Instructions lack a lot of information. PEs are many but often no info is given of where to put them. I made my choices and am quite happy with the result. Axles are 0.4 and 0.8 mm in diameter. In case you want to build this kit and you are keen about more details of where I put what, just post me a pm.

Primer on, but some blemishes had to be addressed

Dark rust color as base color

After a lot of tweaking and puttying and sanding...

...the drivers cabin is finally ready for paint too.

Two more rust tones and everything sealed with varnish.

The color mix I will go for.

And the first result after chipping with hairspray on the lower side of the cabin (upper part will be white).

I gave the color a bit more of a reddish hue by adding flat red (Mr. Hobby Color H13). Getting the chipping done on those semigloss colors takes some elbow grease and you gotta be careful not to miss the sweet spot and to chip down to the plastic. So far I am happy.

Some panels were lighted with H313 to give a bit of color variation

With the main body and all the tiny bits painted and chipped,...

...a big step has been done.

Bottomline I am quite happy with the result

Next step will be oils

Quite a few of those machines had spare parts in other colors than the main vehicle. So to achieve some visual interest, I decided to paint the engine in green

The tappets of the grain converyer were added

The fuel tank received some details.

Some cables and rods to bring life into the engine

Two inner struts I discovered in pics from the net were constructed and glued into the reel.

After some detail painting I started with oils. Here it is the wheels only.

The side walls progressed nicely. I am getting closer to the desired look.

Smaller parts done already

Well worn look of the driver compartment.

Painting is done. Tackling now the transmission.

Main parts are assembled.

Only the engine as major component has to be installed.

The main belts are soft tubes with a diameter of 0.4 mm.

Basic painting is done. The skin needs some more attention and I have to work a bit more on highlights and shadows. But for the first time I more or less managed to apply a glazing technique, keeping the preshading visible.

Puh. Installing the engine with some tubes/rods and pipes was tricky. Painting everything will be another challenge.
But now it is only the electric distributor with cables and a few bits and pieces to go.

For some visual interest I decided to color the "replaced" engine green with an aluminum gearbox.

Electric distributor with lines added and all hoses and cables painted.
Hard to handle that beast.

The last bits to be added.

Done. All missing bits and pieces were added (save the grain conveyer as I realized afterwards ?)

A few touches with oils at two or three spots will be the last steps.

Some parts I did not install intentionally, like the rear view mirrors or the cabin door. The former because non of the reference pics showed it with any of them, the latter as it would block the view into the cabin which I wanted to keep free.

Finally finished.

A few strokes with a brush, some flat varnish on glossy hoses and lines, a wash here and there to tone down parts too shiny, some oils and a detail here and there were the last works.

Finally some progress on this base too.

Let's continue with the base. Masking the area where the uncut crop will stand.

I had only 2 and 6 mm fibers. 3 would have been perfect. So I opted for the longer ones and will trim them later.

Where the harvester would have driven I flattened the fibers.
Next step: to place the hay the harvester discards when the glue is dry.

I added a bit of short green fibers, as no wheat field is free of some green stuff.

I planted all of my wheat I produced so far. But if I continue like this this build will never end. So I will have to change my technique here. Got an idea or two. Let´s see...

Tried a couple of approaches to plant my wheat, but nothing really convinced me. Let's try this. I fenced in the area where the uncut wheat stands, put white glue and packed long fibers into the fence, thus forcing them upright.

Anxious to see how this will work out. I hope that only about half of the fibers stick, as they are too packed this way. I will use my shaver to cut them to the desired length when the glue is dry. Cross your fingers. 🙂

Removed the fence. Unfortunately with some of the paint of the base too. Will have to fix that.
That's the way it looks after vigorous rubbing, combing and brushing. As hoped the fibers are much less dense now, but still stand nice and upright. The heap of fibers I combed out is quite impressive. Just looking at it you wouldn't expect one left standing, would you?

The glue Vampifloc provided as a sample when I bought their fibers - and which I used for this base - has some nice features. First, it doesn't form a skin so that handling is much more comfortable than with regular white glue. Second, you can just rub of excess glue from flat surfaces after it is dry. And the fibers stick quite good to it too.

Next step: trimming the length. I used my electric shaver for that purpose. After I achieved a uniform military style top surface, I cut it irregularly to make it look more natural.
Puuuh, fibers all over the place.

Now, let's turn the fibers into crop by planting the spikes. For this I use some plant parts I came across somewhere.

I haven't figured out another way than to put those individually. Still a tedious job but still much faster, than to make each plant individually.

Getting there. I am starting to like the appearance of my little wheat field.

First segment done.

Puh. Finished. But I like how it turned out.

Only the harvested part looks not right yet. Compared with pictures of harvested fields it is much too green and the vegetation is too dense.

So I rubbed of a good deal of the gras and stubs. The last ones not being prominent enough anyway. That is closer to the real thing.

To get more prominent stubs I planted the rest of the field with fibers too. When the glue is dry it will be time again for my shaver.

Well, the first attempt didn't work out. The fibers were too packed and attached with too much glue. It just didn't look right. So here is the second try. Much less packed.

And the result after shaving almost everything off again. Getting there. 🙂

Now I have to pack the heaps of the cut stems the harvester spits out, then to finish the figure and lastly add a few details and perform minor repairs.
I should be able to complete this for Moson.

For the cut hay I used fibers cut to length and packed them with several layers of hairspray as glue.

The final step was a layer of hairspray onto which I sieved very fine scatter from the fiber-material to blend everything together.

I am still considering to give the hay and the wheat stems a more brownish hue. Haven't decided that yet.

The little maintenance scene is set. I changed the color of the box from orange to light blue. Like it better that way. The tools are a mix of photoetched parts from Hauler and printed ones from EMP3D.
The peeled off paint at the base was repaired, a little scatter put at various places to make the heaps of cut stems look more natural. Then a satin varnish was applied to reduce the artificial sheen. So the base is ready now. The harvester was attached to the board and secured via pins in the main wheels. Next - and last - step is to finish the paint job on the figure.