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This is tamiya's good, but basic kit of the Stalin III. The model as it comes in the kit is missing fine detail, more so than other contemporary kits by tamiya.
The detail was all added using plastic card, rod and strip, as well as brass and steel wire. The towing shackle clips (let's call them "duckbills") were made by casting four replicas from a milliput mould. Weld seams were added where needed using gel type super glue applied between two pieces of tamiya tape. Foil was used for straps and the tiny smoke discharger wire conduits - yes, they're hollow.
The kit was converted into a model 1946 by adding the stowage locker lids on both sides. The dimensions for these were extrapolated from a close-up photos of the ABER items in the article by Andrew Dextras in Military Modelling. The lifting rings of the mantlet are grandt line items.
The only aftermarket items used on the model are jaguar's fuel tanks and smoke dischargers, Model Kasten tracks, Karaya towing cables and a tron lens for the headlight. Total number of extra pieces, excluding the tracks, is 368. The model is finished with humbrol enamel, an oil wash and random black spots of dirt and oil, which help to break up the surface. Additional light, muddy spots were added to places likely to be walked on. Chipping on the other hand was kept to a minimum!
We intend to place this modle in a small diorama of the streets of Budapest in 1956, so the vehicle is slightly dusty rather than muddy. The IS-III's in Budapest, like many of their brothers, carried no markings, which makes for a slightly less interesting end result.Still, summing up, this is the most ludicrously detailed model we have built, and it is likely to remain so.
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