A few 1/35 IFV's and AFV's

[Ramba]

Slowly moving along with the ZTL-11 what if turret.

I tape everything on to test fit them before committing to gluing.


Once I make sure everything is aligned then I glue it all together.


The original turret has steps in it so some strips are glued to the original turret so the new sheet plastic parts don't sag.


The new forward section of the turret test fitted. Not glued yet as I need to fit the mantlet and the main gun. I don't have the gun barrel yet so I can't finish fitting the new front section yet. I will fit the mantlet once I get the main gun barrel. I still need to fill and sand flush some parts of the new section.


Turret test fitted on the hull. I had to move the engine grill and panel to the front seeing I moved the turret further back of the hull. You can see that I still need to fill some parts of the turret with sheet plastic but waiting till I glue the new section in place.

[apophenia]

Dang this looks good ... far better that original, inny/outy ZTL-11 turret!

Good call on going more ST-1 for the turret on this hull. Thanks too for the in-process photos 

[Frank3k]

Nice scratchbuilt modification to the turret! What goes in the hole on the left side?

[Old Wombat]

Coming along nicely! The mid-engine mount has precedents, so is very believable.

[Ramba]

Nice scratchbuilt modification to the turret! What goes in the hole on the left side?

Thanks! That hole will be covered over with sheet plastic. I didn't cover it yet as the new scratch built section isn't glued to the turret yet.

Coming along nicely! The mid-engine mount has precedents, so is very believable.

Thanks! Yes, the ST-1 has the engine in about the same place I depicted mine. Also the ZBL-09 which is similar also has the engine in about the same place. My engine grill is roughly in the same place as both of those other ones but my engine service panel is located behind the driver. The ST-1 and ZBL-09 have the engine service panel behind the grill.

Here is the ZBL-09. There is another hatch behind the driver where my what if ZTL-11/ST-1 what if doesn't have that second hatch so I put the engine service panel behind the driver on mine. I didn't have enough room to fit the engine service panel behind the grill on mine though as the turret is much larger than on the ZBL-09.

Dang this looks good ... far better that original, inny/outy ZTL-11 turret!

Good call on going more ST-1 for the turret on this hull. Thanks too for the in-process photos 

Thanks! Yes, the ST-1 turret is much better looking than the original ZTL-11 turret. I am pleased with the way it came out so far.

I did find a newer ZTL-11 prototype with a new turret and this new turret looks even better than the ST-1 turret. I am not going to change the turret again on mine though but I am seriously liking this one a lot HAHAHAHA!

[finsrin]

Digital camouflage combined with bright wide whitewall tires.  Hmmm.... 

[Ramba]

Digital camouflage combined with bright wide whitewall tires.  Hmmm.... 

The whitewall tires are for parades only.

[Buzzbomb]

Very nice scratch work on the mods.

I see the Chinese appear to be using old stock ATGM's by plonking on a rail hung on the side of the turret. Clearly have never plowed through the bush with that mounted. There would  be a L & D report at the end of the exercise for a lost missile and bent launch rail.
More than likely a parade fixture only, like the white wall tyres. Looks good in the Defence Publications

[Ramba]

Very nice scratch work on the mods.

I see the Chinese appear to be using old stock ATGM's by plonking on a rail hung on the side of the turret. Clearly have never plowed through the bush with that mounted. There would  be a L & D report at the end of the exercise for a lost missile and bent launch rail.
More than likely a parade fixture only, like the white wall tyres. Looks good in the Defence Publications

Thanks! the original ZTL-11 turret just didn't look right to me. The ST-1 turret is way nicer but the newer ZTL-11 prototype has an even nicer turret.

The missile is the HJ-73. It is a version of the old Russian 9M14. You can read about it in this link.
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.php?smallarms_id=1216

Here is a ZBL-09 firing the HJ-73.


Most of the reference photos of the non parade ZBL-09 that I have, they don't have the HJ-73 loaded but the rails are on the side of the turret as in these images.

[Ramba]

Continuing work on the ZTL-11 what if. As you all know, this kit arrived broken in several areas with the front upper hull completely snapped off.



With the kit broken in several areas, I tried to salvage the kit and do a different what if with it and had cut several other areas to attempt the other what if. This was my original idea but changed my mind.
\

I decided to go back to making it a what if ZTL-11 so I had to fix all the original broken parts and the parts I had cut off myself. Here it is now with plastic strips to fix the areas I cut. You can also see seam where the original part was snapped off. All this will need to be filled and sanded.

[apophenia]

'There and back again." Wow ... that's some surgery!

[Old Wombat]

Excellent surgery, one might add!

As always, very interested to see where this one goes, Ramba!

[Ramba]

Excellent surgery, one might add!

As always, very interested to see where this one goes, Ramba!

'There and back again." Wow ... that's some surgery!

The broken Hobby Boss ZTL-11 is the same one I am doing as the what if ZTL-11 with the turret modified and moved back on the hull. I am just filling in the areas I had previously cut to do cut for the other what if but had changed my mind. The ZTL-11 what if is staying as is. In the first photo below, you can see the gaps in the front side of the hull and original turret. In the second photo below, you can see where I filled with plastic strips and the new modified turret. The second photo shows it as it is today.

[Ramba]

I didn't feel like puttying and sanding the ZTL-11 what if so I started on yet another what if.

I will be making an African safari Land Rover pained in white with the zebra stripes. Something similar to the image below. Mine won't have the top on it though. The idea is that there was a coup somewhere in Africa and some rebels confiscated the LR and added a ZPU-1 to the back of it.


My kit is left hand steering though but here are a couple examples that are also left hand steering. One has the ZPU-1 and the other has the AGS-30 grenade launcher.



I will be using the Testors kit.



The ZPU-1 will be from Meng.



Here is the Testors kit so far. As you can see, I used the hood from the Italeri Pink Panther kit because I am using the Testors hood on the Italeri Pink Panther kit instead. I used the wheels/tires from the Italeri HMMWV kit because I am using the wheels/tires from this kit also on the Italeri Pink Panther kit. I still have to fit the fenders to make sure the HMMWV tires fit properly. They might be too big.



I also got the Meng ZPU-1 assembled.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

This is looking to be off to a good start!  The HMMWV wheels/tires certanily give this vehicle a more rugged off-road/cross country look. 

[Old Wombat]

All of a sudden ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp6z3s1Gig0s

[Ramba]

This is looking to be off to a good start!  The HMMWV wheels/tires certanily give this vehicle a more rugged off-road/cross country look. 

Thanks! Those tires just barely fit but I do like the way they look.

All of a sudden ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp6z3s1Gig0s

I used to watch that cartoon as a kid 

[Ramba]

I test fitted the fenders to see if they would interfere with the larger Italeri HMMWV tires but the tires just about fit. There is just enough clearance for the tires.



The way the tires are fitted on my kit though aren't really that bad. I found these images of a real Land Rover with bigger tires. The real one has more top clearance but about the same clearance at the front.

[Old Wombat]

The real deal probably has its suspension raised a couple of inches, you may want to try to simulate that somehow.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Good call Guy/Old Wombat.  Raising the suspension just a bit should give the tires a bit more wiggle room. 

[Frank3k]

Almost all 1/35 Land Rovers are from the original Italeri molds (except Tamiya). Those tires looks great! I think it should be fairly easy to raise the suspension or drop the axle attachment. Are you going to add a head (or statue head) to the fender?

[Ramba]

Good call Guy/Old Wombat.  Raising the suspension just a bit should give the tires a bit more wiggle room. 

Almost all 1/35 Land Rovers are from the original Italeri molds (except Tamiya). Those tires looks great! I think it should be fairly easy to raise the suspension or drop the axle attachment. Are you going to add a head (or statue head) to the fender?

The real deal probably has its suspension raised a couple of inches, you may want to try to simulate that somehow.

Thanks all! I fixed the tire clearance problem as suggested. I added a 1mm shim to the leaf springs and the clearance is much better now.

Frank3k, I am not that familiar with the land Rover. What do you mean by adding a statue head to the fender? Do you mean like some sort of animal skull like in this image?


Here you can see the 1mm plastic shims.


You can see the tire clearance is much better now.

[Old Wombat]

Yup, matches the photo's now!

[Frank3k]

The raised suspension looks much better!

I meant the head (hopefully not real) on the fender/brush guard/cow catcher in this picture:

[Ramba]

The raised suspension looks much better!

I meant the head (hopefully not real) on the fender/brush guard/cow catcher in this picture:

Thanks! I agree the tire clearance looks better and thanks to everyone for suggesting it.

Oh yeah, it looks like a mask. I saw that but didn't put two and two together when you said statue, I am a bit slow in the mornings  I could use a figure head to look similar but I don't think I will do that though. Maybe I could use a gas mask instead. I might have a WW2 German gas mask somewhere from one of my figures. Maybe put an animal skull instead but I don't have one so would have to look for one in 1/35.