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Wednesday, December 28, 2022

That's big!

That's big! The barrel of the Italeri SU-100 assault gun that is! I would not have wanted to be at the wrong end of that back in WW2.

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

As you can no doubt tell from the photo above there has been some rapid progress on this kit which is most unlike me! I think there are about 30 parts left to fit. Mainly hatch covers, grab handles and similar as well as the tracks which are the rubber band type.

What I did find surprising is the amount of flash on some parts such as these auxiliary fuel tanks.

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

However despite the flash the way the kit designers have moulded these parts is brilliant. The two main parts fit together and then the ends are like a cap including the strap which means the whole issue of getting rid of the seam line is so simple. Nice!

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

The gun barrel is also a surprise in this kit. I would normally have expected two halves to be glued together with an end cap. Although the kit had an end cap the barrel itself is a one piece moulding. It had a very slight mould line that was quickly smoothed off . I also drilled out the end of the barrel as far as I thought safe just to make it look as though it was a tube. The photo is not great but it just about shows what I did. The end cap went at the end of this so it does look better in real life - honest!

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

I did mention that the kit came with a metal barrel but this unfortunately is for a SU-85 which was the next generation of this vehicle. The metal barrel is significantly shorter and smaller than the plastic one so I have put the metal one aside for another time!

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

 Strangely enough I did build the Tamiya SU-85 kit some ten years or so ago and There are some photos at the end of this post. In the meantime the SU-100 kit is looking like this.

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

Italeri SU-100 assault gun

Now for that Tamiya SU85. You can see that basically the gun is the only difference but it is a big difference. I have also found out that there are two more SU type vehicles - the ISU-122 and the SU-122 which may be two kits I need to build to complete the collection! However that is something for the future and if Mrs. Woody asks I blame it on Mr. Beecham for giving me this kit for Christmas!

Tamiya SU-85 assault gun

Tamiya SU-85 assault gun

Tamiya SU-85 assault gun



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