Vision Models BA-64B

Having stalled on the T-30S whilst waiting for parts to arrive, I thought I'd have a look at this BA-64B.

Lower hull, chassis & transmission dry fitted together. As you can see, there are quite a few ejector pin marks to deal with.

The transmission is still not cemented in place as it needs to be a different colour. There are a few mould lines to remove, but otherwise it is all going together quite well.

The lower hull is test fitted. I've had to do a second application of Mr Surfacer on the EP marks.

The hull top has no fewer than 10 large EP marks to be hidden, although they are all on the underside of the top armour.

The chassis has it's basic painting done. The interior painting is in progress.

Basic interior painting done. I'm not sure it's worth doing much weathering of the interior as it can only be seen by looking in through the turret.

The lower hull is twisted. The instructions have you fit the lower hull to the chassis before fitting the upper hull. This seems likely to distort the chassis. I'll fit the upper & lower hull halves first if possible. It should be possible if I don't fit the steering wheel.

Dry fit of the drivers seat and base of the turret.

The upper hull dropped in. Not much of the interior will be visible.

The interior is weathered, except for a bit of streaking and a bit of dirt.

Even if the doors were designed to be installed in the open position, you could not see much through them. There is no detail on the interior of the doors and the hinges are part of the door part.

The turret mechanism is now assembled while the cement dries.

The top & bottom halves are now attached. I cemented the rear half first as the fit there was good. Once that was set, I aligned the lower front half to the top, clamped it in place and then applied cement. The twist in the lower hull is now pulled into correct alignment. Having done a test fit of the side doors, I'm going to have to do a bit of sanding to get them to fit into the side opening as they are a little too large.

The doors & front mudguards are now fitted. The MG & wheels are test fitted loosley. The MG barely fits in that tiny turret. The joint between top & bottom hull parts needed a bit of filler, but nothing too bad.

This is another kit with no transparent part for the headlight. I might end up getting a third party lens again. All four wheels sit on the deck, so I must have cured the twist in the lower hull.

Primed, base coated & varnished.

Time to let it cure for 24 hours.

I've had to patch the paint above the rear mudguards as the coverage was poor. The chassis is now stuck in place. While removing some of the masking tape from inside, I managed to dislodge the drivers seat. Had fun putting it back. The turret & wheels are test fitted again. Next up, shading, then filter, then decals. After all that, weathering.

Shading & filter applied.

Might still be a bit of tidying up to do.

Decals added with Micro Set & Micro Sol. The carrier film covers the entire decal sheet, so you can cut the decals however you prefer.

The kit has had another blast of semigloss varnish and the chipping has been done. A chunk of decal came off whilst doing this, but I've managed to reattach it.

I'm currently preparing the exhaust before fitting it.

Balanced on wobbly wheels again

Not far off finished now.

The exhaust is now fitted. The instructions would have you assemble the three parts first, then fit the whole assembly to the hull. I fitted the two ends, then quickly fitted the centre part between them before the cement had set. This allowed me to align everything properly, which would be next to impossible to get right by following the instructions. Drilling out the end of the exhaust was fun too. Harder to do than the MG barrel end due to the angle of the end of the pipe.

The rust on the exhaust is a matt black base with several coats of Humbrol Rust Wash and a bit of Vallejo Old Rust pigment added to give it some texture.

The wood effect on the tools is a buff base followed by a couple of streaky coats of dark brown wash and finally a thin coat of translucent orange.

And it's finished!

The wheels were a bit of a pain to align as they are not a great fit on the ends of the axles. I used Revell Contacta to attach them as this sets slow enough to allow constant readjustment. At least it sits squarely on all four wheels, so I must have corrected the twist in the lower hull okay.

The prybar on the right clashes with the horn, leading to a slight bend in the prybar. I don't see an easy fix for this as the horn is a pretty positive fit. The headlight is an AK Interactive AK-218 5mm lens. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that these lenses are full of bubbles! You can see them quite clearly even in this shot.