Greetings and salutations! This time we're going to talk about Battlefront's SA-13 Gopher SAM Platoon boxed set (TSBX06) for Team Yankee . This continues the series on Team Yankee Soviet vehicles and is a little bit of a review but mostly me sharing my thoughts and tricks and tips on this model.
Bottomline up front...Battlefront has another great metal and resin kit here.
- Flash on the Tracks, missile pods and pedestal.
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| Lots of flash in between the road wheels |
- Missile Pod Placement. This was fairly easy. Just dry fit first and make sure you have the pods even
Build Plan. These are the old school resin style. Mount the pods to the pedestal and the tracks to the side of the hull and you are done!
Magnets. You have 2 magnets on this model and it couldn't get simpler. If you've been following along, you know my simple magnet tricks by now, but if you're new check out the article on the T72s, BMPs, and the 2S1 Carnation
- Place the magnets on something metal so that they keep the same orientation throughout your assembly
- Mark the top of the magnet stack with a Sharpie
- Put the first magnet into the piece with the deeper hole first
- Put the second magnet so that the opposite side shows (marked/clean or clean/marked)
For SA-13, you need to drill a little hole in center of the pedestal...just deep enough for the magnet to sit.
This makes it harder for the magnet to just pop off. After the hole is drilled, glue the first magnet, marking the top of the magnet first as well as the next one in the stack to help you maintain polarity orientation, to the hull. We do the hull first because it is the harder of the 2 pieces to guarantee placement of the magnet. Since the hole is deeper in the hull, the magnet could flip very easily and trying to get it out could be a pain.
If it does flip, not to worry...we can guarantee positive placement on the pedestal since it has a much smaller hole. So wrap it up now and glue the magnet into place and mark the top of the magnet stack (I cant stress marking the top of the stack each time enough). Make sure the magnet has the opposite up from what you see on the hull magnet's top. If the hull is marked, glue the unmarked side facing out on the pedestal...and if the hull magnet has the umarked side up, make sure the pedestal has the marked side facing out.
Paint Plan. I used the paint plan from the Team Yankee book (pages 116-7) as a guide.
- Vallejo Surface Primer Black
- Basecoat of Vallejo Model Air 71.017 Russian Green.
- Then I hit it with Ordnance Shade From the Team Yankee Color set.
- Then a hi lite of 75% model Vallejo Air Russian Green 25% AK Interactive Dunkelgelb Light Base coat AK-007.
- The rubber areas on the road wheels and cables are Vallejo Model Color Black 70.950, then a little hilite with Vallejo Model Color Black Grey 70.862.
- The big flat screen on the pedestal & Glass areas/Vision Slots: 70.950 Black, 70.816 Luftwaffe uniform, 70.943 grey blue
- I did the tracks like the book. A dirt brown with a metal hi lite and then an Ordnance Wash. Very nice way to do metal tracks.
- Glass areas/Vision Slots: Vallejo Model Color 70.950 Black, Vallejo Model Color 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform, Vallejo Model Color 70.943 Grey Blue
- Next the model is gloss varnished.
- Decals are now applied. Micro Sol used were appropriate to kill the edge and make the decal melt into any detail and when dry a little gloss varnish applied over the decal, ensuring this layer covers the decal and goes over the decal edges. This helps keep those edges from coming up.
- A pin wash of Black was applied to the detail areas. A pin wash is a very targeted wash, just to those detail area and any excess that gets on top is wiped off. My wash is a pretty traditional "Magic Wash" of 10-20% Acrylic Floor Was (I still have a bottle of Future Floor Wax I use) then the rest distilled water. I add a drop or two of Vallejo Model Color Black 70.950 to the mix and there you go. The Gloss coat on the model pulls the floor wax in the wash (and the rest of the wash with it) into the detail doing a lot of work for you.
- Lastly seal it all with an anti-shine spray. I LOVE Army Painters Anti shine. About the best I have seen. I use mine through my air brush with no issues and have never frosted a miniature as can happen with spray cans of anti shine. Don't go heavy with any anti shine...too much and can get a shine and defeat the purpose.
Jeff Flint "SonBae" has been a long time contributor to WWPD and admin on the forums. A long time gamer and painter and recently a new studio painter at Mastermind, Model and Miniatures in Huntsville, Alabama. Just trying to keep the cats herded in WWPD-South!
