SO-90 M-36B2 Mod-1

p8160585a.jpg

Take an AFV Club M36 Jackson, add the Tank Workshop exterior update and the Eduard photoetch.
What do you get then? Well, with a little more scratch building you’ll get a Serb M36 from the war in Bosnia.
The Yugoslav army upgraded their Jacksons with the engine from the T-55 tank.
Fortunately you don’t need to modify the engine deck for this, only the rear end but that mod is pretty straight forward.

The Tank Workshop update set provides you with the correct M 36 engine deck, AFV Club made a mistake and used the M 10 deck in the kit.
For a review of the update set check the PMMS site
The set is pretty nice but as always with resin there is some issues to deal with.
p8180636a.jpg
As you can see here the lower part of the hull side needs some sanding and filling but nothing that will cause any problems.
p8180635a.jpg
I have cut the front fenders since I’m going to use the Eduard etch set.
p8240638a.jpg
Here I’ve started with the modifying of the rear end.
The Serb version has a cooling grill in the top of the rear plate so I need to build that one from plastic card.
I have also sanded of and filled all texture on the rear plate because I need to rebuild it completly.
p8240640a.jpg
A dry fitting test with the upper hull.
I still need to make the bottom plate and the grill.

Update September 7:

At first I was only going to use the Tank Workshop exterior update set but after looking at the AFV kit I noticed that there’s much missing in the interior, such as the drivers controls and inner floor for the driver and radio operator.
Therefor I purchased the Tank Workshop interior update as well.
The set is quite nice but some parts has a thick slab of resin that needs to be removed.
p9070669a.jpg
Here you can see the turret and drivers floor with some resin that needs emergency treatment with my Proxxon.
p9070672a.jpg
After sanding it fits really nice.
The moulded parts on the sponsons needs to be removed to give room for the resin replacements, some putty was needed to make it smooth after me going bezerk with my Tamiya saw. :-)

Update September 9:

I’ve done some work on the interior.
p9080673a.jpg p9080674a.jpg
The interior set is quite nice with good fit and nice details.
As I mentioned before the drivers floor and the turret floor had a big chunk of resin that needed sanding but the other parts are easy to remove from the base with little or no sanding required.
Some flash but thats easy to fix.
Pay attention to the instructions and read the entire instruction before starting because you need to make some sub assemblies before adding parts to the hull and the sub assemblies is described after the main assembly in the instructions.
I was lucky that I was still able to get the drivers pedals in place even thou I forgot to glue them in place before adding the floor to the hull.

Update September 14:

One of the things I worried about on this build was the cooler placed in the rear of the vehicle.
I was thinking of maybe using a tea bag to replicate the grill but didn’t quite like the texture.
Then I took a look in my scrap heap and found what was left over in my Eduard Leo2A5 set and found the mesh for the turret basket.
I made a plate out of plastic card and glued the mesh in place.
p9130676a.jpg
It had the exact right width but I needed to use both pieces since they are curved.
That won’t be any problem since there should be a strip of steel going down the middle of the grill.
p9130677a.jpg
Here I have glued and cut the two pieces of mesh and started on the frame.
I made the frame out of plastic strips 1 mm wide and cut them 45 degrees in the corners.
p9130679a.jpg
The grill is finished and dry fitted in place.
I still need to trim the edges and fill some spots here and there.

Update September 15:

The radio turned out to be a problem.
AFV provides you with some sort of WW2 radio but the cunning Yugoslavs had their own radios installed.
CAVAJEC radio
Image from Toadmans Tank pictures
This radio is of course not avaliable as an after market item so I need to scratch it.
p9140684a.jpg
After estimating the measurements and comparing it to an RT-524 from the Verlinden NATO radio set I first made a drawing on paper and then in actual size on plastic card.
Man, is this small and fiddly?
I still need to adjust the positioning of some details before starting to drill.
I will make one piece with the same measurements as backing and then drill and cut the front part and glue it to the backing piece to get the right depth for the knobs etc.

So, after a few hours of work the radio is taking shape:
p9140691a.jpg
I still need to make the knobs and meters, I also need to cut out the cooling flanges on the front and make the base plate.

After some more work the radio is almost finished.
p9150692a.jpg
I need to find a way to make the cooling flanges so they look good.
Tried to cut the grooves with my saw but it’s to uneven.

Update September 21:

Not much have been done the last couple of days but today I sat down for about one hour detailing the transmission housing.
p9210696a.jpg
I added some oil lines to the gear box and have started with the linkage for the steering.
I also made a plate of plastic card for the two boxes placed on top of the gear box.
These boxes are holders for spare periscope parts.
I also started on the drivers and radio operators seats.
p9210697a.jpg

Update October 3:

I’m more or less finished with the hull interior now.
pa030713a.jpg
Some detailing for the ammo stowage and maybe some small bits and pieces are still needed but I won’t do much more.
My beautiful scratch built radio will not be mounted because I noticed when trying to dry fit the top hull that it was too big and I don’t have the energy to make a new one.

I moved my attention to the turret and boy, what a mess.
The top and bottom parts hardly fit together and will require some serious work with putty and sand paper.
This kit is like a rollercoaster ride, up and down.
Some details are great and parts just fall in place and some are like an old ESCI kit, poor details and no fit at all.
pa030709a.jpg
The turret only has half a basket on the gunners/ TC side.
Fairly easy to assemble but some details lack guide pins so you have to guess where they should sit.
I also managed to break the gunners control handle when taking it of the sprue, it’s very delicate and I need to try and glue it back with cyano.
pa030710a.jpg
I mounted the ammo storage in the turret rear but again, no guide pins for the parts so you need to guess where they should go and then dry fit the two turret halves to see if they fit together.
pa030711a.jpg
Under the left ammo bin there should be a small tube but it’s not supplied in the kit so I made one from a piece of Evergreen tube.
pa030712a.jpg
The gun is made to recoil and it’s a little fiddly to get the spring in the right place.
I still need to sand down the joints and fill some sink holes.

Update October 4:

pa030714a.jpg pa030715a.jpg
A lot of parts in the main gun assembly had big chunks of exccess plastic on them that needs to be removed before I could use them.
Also some parts are not marked correctly on the sprue with some parts having the wrong number and some parts having the same numbers.
The recoil system assembly needed some filling and sanding for it to look good.
pa030717a.jpg

The turret has two ammo racks in the rear and they are too short so I added some plastic card to them.
pa030716a.jpg
When the turret is complete you won’t see that much of it but without the extention it would not look good.

Update October 5:

pa050718a.jpg
The gun assembly is finished.
It required some sanding and filling but I think it turned out quite good in the end.

I have now turned my attention to the turret roof and that will be interresting since I don’t have any measurements to go from.
Right now I can only look at the reference images I got and guesstimate.
pa050719a.jpg
The first, and easiest, thing to do is to add the rim running around the edge of the turret opening.
This is used to bolt the turret supports to.
I used a piece of strip styrene and started from the back where the turret side is straight.
I then glued the strip up to where the curve starts and let it dry over night.
Now the fun starts, bending the strip styrene bit by bit and glue it in place without letting it curve back again.
pa050720a.jpg
One side down and one to go……….
pa050721a.jpg
Now both sides are finished, only thing left is to cut the strip to correct length but I’ll let the glue set for a while.
After the glue had set I strenghtened the joint by adding superglue to the underside of the rim.

Update October 5, later in the evening:

I jumped right into the fabrication of the turret roof and so far it’s been easier than I thought it would be.
First I made a drawing of the roof on paper and tested it against the turret.
When I got a shape and size I could live with I cut the individual panels and glued them to plastic card.
pa050722a.jpg
I didn’t have any plastic card with the right thickness so I took two pieces of .25 mm and laminated them together.
It’s probably a little thick, about 17,5 mm up scaled and I don’t think the roof is thicker than maybe 12 or 13 mm but any thinner would have been to flimsy.
I then cut the panels out with a pair of scissors and glued a thin strip of styrene to the edge of the front piece and to the sides of the center piece.
pa050723a.jpg
After that I made the legs for the roof.
As usual I had to guestimate the size and I made them 7 mm long witch gives a height of 24,5 cm in real life.
pa050724a.jpg
Here I have made the four front legs with a small support on the inside.
The same type of support is also placed on the inside of the roof panel.
pa050725a.jpg
Here all the legs for the front roof panel is in place and I’ll let the glue set over night.

Update October 6:

pa060726a.jpg
The front section of the roof armour is in place.
I had to trim it a bit to get the angles better but now I’m pretty pleased with it.
pa060727a.jpg
Here’s the front angled plate ready to be glued in place.
I have made supports that alingns with the legs when mounted.
I cut the supports from a piece of plastic strip and glued them in place.
pa060729a.jpg
The left side is finished, only some filling and sanding to do.
In the right corner of the front there’s a hinged piece that I’ll do later.
Some images of the work so far:
pa060731a.jpg pa060733a.jpg
This was the easy part, now all I have to do is the rear plate, the hatches with hinges, locking devices and handles and…………

Update October 11:

As you have seen in my previous update I first made the flat roof sections and added the angled pieces later.
That worked great for the fixed roof section because I could make support pieces and place on the inside.
It did not work on the side hatches thou, since I can’t make any supports I had problems making the joint strong enough.
I then remembered that my friend Erik gave me a piece of offset plate and I used that to strengthen the hatches.
pa110734a.jpg
I first drew up the shape using the plastic pieces as templates and cut it out with a pair of scissors.

After that I used my HoldnFold to make the angle using a piece of plastic card that I made previously as template to get the right angle and then I glued the plastic card pieces to the inside to get the correct thickness.
pa110735a.jpgpa110737a.jpg

I also started replacing the tie downs on the turret.
pa110739a.jpg
There’s only about three millions of them and I have to make sure not to drill too deep because then they will be visible on the inside.
It’s much easier on a closed top vehicle because then you can drill thru and you don’t need to worry about the length of the legs on the tie downs, you just adjust how deep in they go.
Here you need to be more precise when you cut the tie downs.

To be continued……….

About Thord Wedman

What Thord doesn't know about modern Swedish armour is not worth knowing. Thord is also known for actually finishing a model once in decade or so.
This entry was posted in Build blog. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to SO-90 M-36B2 Mod-1

  1. Erik G says:

    Why are there fuel lines leading to the gear box? Fuel acting as a coolant?

    /E

  2. Thord W says:

    Don’t know what you are talking about.
    The text says oil lines, can’t you see that? 😛

  3. Erik G says:

    Editing is cheating 😛

  4. Erik G says:

    The roof is coming along fine. It looks really good!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *