Military Wheels 1:72 Lublin-51 - chassis.

I started with the chassis. This was built up from 20 parts, including 6 for the engine, all of which were quite rough and needed a lot of fettling. The chassis rails were particularly bad with almost a millimetre of mould lines to remove. The engine itself, a six pot sidevalve petrol, is quite nicely detailed with spark plug leads moulded into the flat head, and it does have a nice air filter which is not unlike a lamp shade;

The plastic used is odd, and doesn't glue as well as other plastic kits that I've built. The front springs which attach to the underside of the rails didn't want to stay attached, in the end I made tiny spring hangers from microstrip and used them along with a lot of solvent to help the springs stay put, this worked well and can just be seen in the photo above. I also replaced the rear axle with one made from 1.5mm styrene rod (well, it was sold as 1,5mm, its actually 1.6...), this was left overlength so that I could use it as a painting handle.

The fuel tank needed a fair degree of work, including replacing the straps with microstrip. In the end however I chose not to use it. As far as I'm aware most vehicles carried their fuel under the drivers seat, with the tank filler being behind the drivers door, which I'm sure would put any sensible driver off smoking in the cab. Some vehicles did however have both a chassis mounted tank and a tank in the cab as well, so I may change my mind. The kit also includes the cab filler, so both options are covered.

Holding the end of the axle in a pin chuck I applied a coat of Vallejo Model Air 097 Medium Gunship Grey as a primer;

I used my newly aquired Badger 200NH for the first time on this. More practice needed.

The top coat is my favourite (and quite ironic in this case) Tamiya Nato Black, thinned with Tamiya thinners and sprayed through my 150. I painted the engine with Vallejo Oily Steel, picking out the fan belt and air filter etc. in black. The exhaust pipe has had a coat of Humbrol Leather to simulate rust;

I'm not sure how I feel about the finish on the engine, from photos they seem to be unpainted steel, but the Vallejo paint that I've used is metallic. A squirt of Dullcoat has toned it down, and weathering should tone it down even more, but even if it doesn't the engine will be hidden from view anyway.

There's also some rust on the manifold. The ends of the front axle are masked with blu-tack.

And finally, here's a couple of photos from the Gaz 51 workshop manual, firstly the chassis;

And here's a good citizen of the USSR working on the engine;

It looks like our Russian friend is removing the cylinder head.

Load bed next.

Paul.