CDW

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

Thanks EG. Those are good resources to bookmark. Interesting what indyals says about the gold markings on the WR1

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

The SU-85 was based on the venerable T-34 chassis. It was built to combat the Tiger tank as the T-34 at that time was equipped with a 76mm gun that could not penetrate the Tiger armor at combat range (1000 yards). The 85mm gun, a modified anti-aircraft gun, was too big to fit inside the T-34 turret, thus the stop-gap measure that brought about the SU-85. Tight quarters, very tight.
For any who might be interested, I highly recommend watching the Russian movie (with English subtitles) T-34. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the film and how it captivated my interest all the way to the end. Watch it. You will like it.
 
 

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

Thanks EG. Those are good resources to bookmark. Interesting what indyals says about the gold markings on the WR1

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

Thanks EG. Those are good resources to bookmark. Interesting what indyals says about the gold markings on the WR1

Thanks EG. Those are good resources to bookmark. Interesting what indyals says about the gold markings on the WR1

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

Today or tomorrow, will begin laying down exterior paint.

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

Today or tomorrow, will begin laying down exterior paint.

With the base paint of Russian green laid down, will next add fuel tanks, some other miscellaneous hardware and wheels/tracks before doing a winter scheme white wash and weathering.

I recently acquired the 1:12 Tamiya Wolf WR1 formula one model and there are issues with the gold decals. Haven’t found  a replacement sheet. Thinking about masking and painting the metallic gold myself when the time comes rather than depending on the decal. Even when I bought replacement/aftermarket gold decal sheets in the past, the gold has not been opaque, causing the need for a proper base color underneath. Fred Cady decals come to mind. Printers have a hard time with opaque metallics it seems.

Thanks.  This is only about the second time dealing with such old decals.   I still have some of the longest and most complex ones to do so I am not out of the  woods yet.  And on a few that I have done, I could see that about as much of the color stayed on the backing paper as on the decal film.  In the past I've made a few decals using the inkjet printer compatible decal paper but I am sure my inkjet could not recreate the metallic gold decals on this kit.
 
Thanks for the links!   I've bookmarked them just in case...I hope not for this kit but possibly in the future.
 
And thanks to all the others for the likes.
 
I've continued with the kit.  The next part is mostly construction of the front suspension.  And yes, that was quite a beast to complete.   I've got it about 80% done but the rest should be much easier.  They design it so that the suspension moves like the real thing....deflects up and down, the front wheels turn left and right, and they rotate as well.  When they rotate, drive shafts also cause the inboard mounted brake disks to rotate.   So, many of those parts just snap together to allow movement but when gluing the two main frames together, you need to hold about 8 other pieces in place, so it was not easy.  And with all that, one of the wheels does not turn as freely as I would like but it'll do.
 
I had one near catastrophe.  The uprights/hubs have two ball-and-socket joints, one on top and one on bottom.  On one of the hubs, I broke off one of the balls.  Without that ball, the hub would not attach to the suspension.  Fortunately I had some sewing pins with small, round plastic heads.  I was able to sand down the round head of one of those pins to make it the same size as the broken ball, drill a hole into the hub and cut off most of the pin and then CA the pin into the hub.  That worked surprisingly well.
 
For now, just one picture.  Once I complete this a bit more, I'll post a few more pictures.  I've used a variety of paints on this....tamiya gun metal, metallic gray, and black, alclad black and semi-matte aluminum, and model masters steel.

 
 

The SU-85 was based on the venerable T-34 chassis. It was built to combat the Tiger tank as the T-34 at that time was equipped with a 76mm gun that could not penetrate the Tiger armor at combat range (1000 yards). The 85mm gun, a modified anti-aircraft gun, was too big to fit inside the T-34 turret, thus the stop-gap measure that brought about the SU-85. Tight quarters, very tight.
For any who might be interested, I highly recommend watching the Russian movie (with English subtitles) T-34. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the film and how it captivated my interest all the way to the end. Watch it. You will like it.