BTR-80A
Comments
3 22 September 2018, 23:21
Steven Van DyckThe interior is painted in white and Gunze 303 and has some shadow on it.
24 December 2018, 23:47
Steven Van DyckThanks, Chris and James! Today, the details on the interior are painted. I had to unassemble the dashboard decal.
27 December 2018, 00:22
Steven Van DyckThe PE fenders went on easy! Now the hatch has to be mounted, this sadly gets pinched between the two metal fenders.
29 December 2018, 22:59
Steven Van DyckFor those using the Voyager set, don't replace the Trumpeter head light protectors. These are correct as they are, opposed to the distorted Voyager ones. You can see the kit part on the BTR picture being perfectly congruent. I did have to lower the lamp supports, as these are better represented by Voyager, but these take more space due to the support rib.
29 January 2019, 18:09
Steven Van DyckI finished the turret, but now I encourage to replace the barrel, at first sight looking cool but it appears to be overscale about 5mm. It also tapers too wide and has the wrong proportions. I'll try my luck on Magic Models and in the process I also replace the machine gun, being moulded shut. The top shutters are not easily upgraded with the Voyager hinges, them being too short.
17 February 2019, 01:22
Steven Van DyckThe figures are assembled, but one had such a small face I replaced it with a German soldier that got a Hornet head. Some parts didn't fit as well, but I made them. There are still 2 mg's.
3 March 2019, 23:25
Steven Van DyckSome of the Voyager hatch hinge halves just don't extend far enough to go around the pin. I replaced these parts with Albion Alloys 0.6mm tubing.
30 March 2019, 23:19
Steven Van DyckVoyager has got the aft fender plates wrong, these are for BTR-70. Luckily Trumpeter has them right. Even then, bending on the kit bend tool is not enough, because PE always reverts a bit. A drill can correct this problem.
9 June 2019, 21:15
Steven Van DyckI had to add an extra facet to the Trumpeter hull, that has still the BTR-60 configuration on the driver lookout position. It's unlucky that I found this out so late, so I can't finish the inside paint, but this part would be concealed by the turret anyway.
15 June 2019, 22:30
Steven Van DyckThe wheels are fixed temporarily. I added an extra viewing glass protection that I saw on pictures. The last picture is with the crew, construction is almost done now.
13 July 2019, 23:26
Steven Van DyckThe personnel has been primed and base-painted. I also made a general arrangement for the diorama. The BTR will be emerging from a pool and has mounted a ramp, where the crew has evacuated to remove a tree or something else hampering their progress. The soil will be covered with Joe-Fix snow, intermitted with masses of dry leaves made with an RP-tools leaf-cutter.
30 July 2019, 19:43
Steven Van DyckThe base is hardened with pigmented plaster. The road is covered with fine sand. I'm considering a few materials to cover the base, like making a broken ice shelf on the water.
2 August 2019, 00:09
Steven Van DyckThanks, Ingo! I just made things a bit more complicated by fabricating an ice shelf, that will float on AK Swamp Gel (tested it out on two pics, with untreated and painted styropor underground) and will be crushed by the BTR. I posted some schemes and a reference pic to make things more clear for you guys. The difference with the reference picture is that the water will be still, because I have not installed a driver figure. The problem is how to fill up the space under the ice and still be able to insert the vehicle and a tree fallen in the pond near it. But you have to keep some challenge in your build.
7 August 2019, 21:14
Steven Van DyckThe ice shelf is broken up with the help of my Dremel cutting disks, in a pattern drawn out with the wheels of the vehicle above them. This is as fun as it looks, breaking stuff...
8 August 2019, 22:01
Steven Van DyckMe too, but for now I continued mostly on the BTR PE. It got finished and I could put it in a primer coat of black. It will be painted in the olive green/sand/black camo. Today I also added the Hong Shilka to my stash, when I went for these colors.
21 August 2019, 21:34
Steven Van DyckMr.Hobby 303 has been airbrushed. Then I darkened with Tamiya Olive Drab and then highlighted with Dark Yellow. Only a few specks of the black primer will come through.
24 August 2019, 00:29
Steven Van DyckLight Sand has been sprayed and the black spots have been redone after gum traces remained.
26 August 2019, 16:14
Steven Van DyckThe basin is filled with pigmented plaster and the ice fragments are already placed.
1 September 2019, 22:50
Steven Van DyckSome figure painting has been done and the swamp gel is applied between and under the ice shelf. Then the surface has been whitened by airbrush. This got just the effect I intended, where the uneven surface moderates the airflow and the ice seems snowed under.
4 September 2019, 21:35
Steven Van DyckThe outside of the dio is egalised with plaster. The BTR has got a layer of OIF /OEF wash, but some decals came later.
13 September 2019, 20:17
Slavo HazuchaNice progress Steven, I really like th broken ice theme, but also details such as the sawwed off tree trunk half sunken into the base. Lot of experiments & unique ideas in here... 👍
14 September 2019, 13:16
Steven Van DyckThanks, guys. Now that the tyres are still off, there is one dilemma I face. Because of the casting process, apparently the side where the vinyl is attached to the sprue fits too loose to the wheel flange. You would see this as a tiny seam running around part of the tyre rim. The eight tyres are cast identical, so there are four that need to be put with the badly fitting rim on the outside. In that case, I could submerge the seam on the aftermost tyre, but at least three would be visible. Or, I could put all of them in the same direction, but then one side of the vehicle would be wrong.
14 September 2019, 13:26
Steven Van DyckThanks, Tim. I did rework the base on some glass panes. This improved the look and made it easier to paint the water gel, after some black primer. Then mud was added with pigmented plaster to the base, the hull and the drivers.
3 October 2019, 22:34
Bryn CrandellLooking great. The end must be near. What was your decision about the wonky wheels?
7 October 2019, 12:16
Steven Van DyckThanks, Bryn. I put them on like they should and threw some mud on them. More on that later today, I think.
7 October 2019, 16:17
Steven Van DyckIt took a few more days, but that's because the BTR will attend the contest of Plastic and Steel tomorrow. At least, I hope so, because I didn't have the chance to pre-inscribe...
The snow is made with Vallejo Foam and Snow covered with Joefix snow powder. A last layer of Still Water is just added, it's still a bit opaque. The hatch retractor cable and an antenna are added. The airbrush strated to act a bit weird, but because this resembled snowflakes, I went wild with it. I hope you like it too.
11 October 2019, 23:47
Steven Van DyckIt must be the middle nineties for an 80A, I read on Wikipedia...
12 October 2019, 06:41
Slavo HazuchaVery well thought out & executed Steven - the action with the crew & line adds a lot of character 👍 Wish you a lot of success on the show!
12 October 2019, 07:38
Steven Van DyckThanks for the nice comments, it didn't work out for the BTR at Affligem. One figure got a bit detached, so I fixed it a bit different with wire pins. I also added a lot more snow, maybe it's working out better at Arevelde Challenge this weekend.
26 October 2019, 00:21
