Styer RSO/1 Battle Tractor with anti tank gun - Completed.

[BradG]

I bought the RSO more than several years ago, before the Dragon kit was released. I should have put it on ebay considering what they were going for (saw one go for 300 bucks), but I intended to build it and I never thought there would be a new one released. Anyways, with the new Dragon model this is basically worthlesss and rather than pitch it in the bin I thought I'd just build it with maybe the addition of some aftermarket tracks if I can find some that are not worth 50 bucks which is the cost of the new Dragon RSO/1! (btw if you have a set of the Modelkasten tracks and don't want them please drop me a line). I'm sure I'll add some stowage to the tray as well.

 

 

To mix things up, I got this ZIS 3 a few years ago at a swap and sell for 2 dollars and thought it would look cool being towed along. The Germans used a huge amount of captured equipment on the Eastern Front and artillery was a favourite thing to pinch. The Soviets produced over 100,000 of the 76.2mm ZIS 3, with some captured weapons being modified to fire German 75mm ammunition.

 

 

 

[Paulster]

Love the idea. Quite a mix.

[BradG]

A couple of hours work and I'm almost ready to put some paint on it. It came up alright considering what I paid for it. There was a gun crew with it, but they were pretty much junk. I haven't glued the wheels yet.

 

 

 

[BradG]

So far so good. It's not too bad, there are some rough areas that need to be fixed up, a few ejector pin marks but you won't see those once I fill the tray with supplies. I plan to have a fairly well armed and equipped anti tank gun crew so I've put an MP 40 in the cab. I also have a 14.5mm PTD anti tank rifle that I'll put in the back along with weapons and ammo.

 

 

 

[Paulster]

This is coming along quickly.

[Dave J]

Wow that's quick... Looking really great

[One-Oh-Four]

HeeeY, nice project!!

[BradG]

Cricket season is over so I've more time on my hands.

[One-Oh-Four]

Ah, I see!

 

[BradG]

That's croquet Erik. Cricket should have been all over the news in Netherlands since you guys beat England in the T20 world cup just recently.

[BradG]

Mucking around with stowage today. Got fuel, jerry cans (not quite finished), small arms, captured PTRD-41 anti tank rifle, plenty of ammo, tools, other assorted stuff, I need some hose though to go with the hand pump.

 

[James H]

Awesome, and so quickly. I need to pull finger from ass on my Matilda.

 

How are you displaying this?

[BradG]

I dunno yet. I thought about a base but I'm not that good at them.

[JeroenPeters]

I actually love the RSO. 

Now i feel sorry i sold mine some time ago.

Dragon recently released a RSO with PAK. Real nice..

[BradG]

I actually got the RSO/3 with 5cm gun for christmas, but I thought since I had this one that I didn't flog off for a ridiculous price on ebay back before the new Dragon kits, I'd build this first. I'm not that good at mud movers so it's a good thing to practise on.

[Grant]

This is superb Brad! I'm definitely watching this big time ...  I just love these and any other "quirky" vehicles.  Great stuff !

[Dave J]

Really cool. Love the stowage that you are adding

[BradG]

A little paint for the gun. Humbrol 150 makes a pretty good Red Army green.....also a special on beef at the big butcher and I need to go shopping. Good thing there is a hobby shop about 5 minutes away, I can kill two birds with one stone. I can see where I missed a couple of spots, damn orange plastic was a pain to paint.

 

[One-Oh-Four]

 

That's croquet Erik. Cricket should have been all over the news in Netherlands since you guys beat England in the T20 world cup just recently.

I know but couldn't resist.... As a kid I always mixed up the 2 sports, though. Never knew about the World Cup, BTW. Cricket gets literally ZERO attention here. It's all football, frustratingly... I don't even know the rules to cricket...

 

BTW; it's good to see how nice those old Italeri kits are, most of the time. As opposed to their figures, BTW....

 

I have an older Dragon 5cm PaK 38 in the stash. I think I'll see if I can get that built alongside my Tarawa Sherman.

[Paulster]

DAMN!! Meat's expensive there.

[BradG]

I sprang for a set of workable tracklinks. I had asked online but nothing turned up until a local online retailer got them back into stock. I had been looking at this stiff, silver rubber things, thinking how the hell was I going to paint and bend them. Looking at other people who built this model with the rubber tracks, it looks like they were unable to make them work. You can see in the pic how stiff they are!

 

[BradG]

Cut pin glue repeat....about 3 hours work tonight to just clean up all 140 track links and get one side done. I thin I've got one or two links too many, in any case I have to take off 1 as I put the wrong one on; the links are sided. The box top is not all that level so I should do that one a table and I have glued on the front of the cabbin. Unfortuantly it was broken in two when I got the kit but it will allow me to paint the insides first.

 

 

[Paulster]

You might just be fine after you set your sag behind/in front of the sprockets. At most your 1 too many.

[One-Oh-Four]

DAMN!! Meat's expensive there.

 

Wait till you order a Van Dobben croquet instead of a regular kroket at the snack stall!

[One-Oh-Four]

I agree with Paulster on the track-link issue! In any case, those tracks look 1000% better than the standard kit trash!