Today we look at a small radio set to
match your US vehicles and your American soldier kits of choice – these resin kits from LZ Models look pretty nice – let’s have a look and see if they go
together as well as they look in the pictures.
Maker: LZ
Models
Kit: 1/35
US Army radio sets
Material:
20 parts of Resin
14 Photo Etch + 1 Wire + Decals
included
Instructions and reference pics on CD download here
Today for review we have rather a tiny
little kit – a set of US army radios in 1/35th scale. The packet for
these is tiny (but strong) – the parts for this are small - and even the
instructions come on a mini disk – but the detail of these radio sets leaves no
one short changed.
Inside the pack
These three radios come in a small box
10cm L x 8cm w x 2cm deep and inside that box are three small zip-loc bags
containing twenty pieces of cream resin, some wire for the cables, fourteen
parts on one P/E sheet and some decals representing data plates on one sheet.
The three parts of the radio
represented here are the SCR 506, SCR 510 and SCR 508 and before you get
started on them there is the excellent little instruction cd with a PDF of the
three radios on it. You can also download the instructions from their site HERE
if you wish or do not have a cd player for your PC which is nice and often the
case with new netbooks – nice thinkin!
The resin
The PDF itself is an eleven page
informative sheet showing the kit pieces and what they are along with the parts
constructed as well as many reference pictures of these radios in real life so
you have a wealth of info. The only downside of this is that some people may want
an old fashioned bit of paper instructions – I think though that these people
are in the smallest of minorities if you think about the plus points of this
method of instruction. To be honest there wasn’t really any pictures better on
the net I could find than some of these so thanks to LZ for doing the research
for us!
This set will contains all three
radios shown, SCR 506, SCR 510 and SCR 508. Mast bases MP48 and MP57 are
included together with 2 Phantom antennas. Some additional pieces, microphones,
phones and all the mountings needed for assembly in any vehicle. They fit VERY
snugly into the LZ Model’s M-29 Weasel just released a month or so ago. (Hint
hint)
Let’s go through the radios in order.
The SCR 510
was used for smaller applications in usually smaller vehicles like jeeps and
light utility vehicles – this radio was a small box shape with a small handle
which is provided with some wire and a small cream handle in resin. This is
accompanied by a base mast and Phantom antennas complete the radio.
The detail pictures in the instruction
file and pictures I have seen of this radio show me that the details of this
radio are right on - the three switches on the front are clearly recognizable
as are the two lights on the left of the front panel and the little dial in the
middle.
You can clearly see the two separate
parts are moulded into one here with latches on the sides – again wire supplied
in this kit will make two little latches to hold them together. You get handles
for the top and bottom of the radio halves and a telephone receiver that again
uses the wire for the telephone cable – All in all it’s a very nice little
radio well replicated and I would say very easy to detail with its knobs and
latches prominent but no too thick.
Set contains Radio set SCR 508 which was used in combat
vehicles like tanks and a.p.c.’s or vehicles that were large enough to house
them. These radios gave RF modulated Radio Telephone use and consisted of two
parts – the transmitter (BC-604) - and a
receiver (BC-603). A great source of info I found on this radio was here
With this radio you get both of these which are flawlessly reproduced in resin, not just in the positions of the items like switches knobs and gauges, you also get the A-62 phantom antennas, the cord to connect them ( the wire) and a telephone receiver as well as the resin representing the FT- 237mounting that it sits on. The resin cast has no real block to remove and you don’t even have to sharpen up the back edges.
You can even see details like the frequencies recorded on the front of the radio fascia. Amazing detail – All in all it is an excellent replica of the SCR 508 radio.
Radio set SCR 506 was also used in tanks, amphibian trucks, personnel carriers, and other vehicles to provide continuous wave and voice communication from one vehicle to another or between these vehicles and airplanes or base station, the radio itself contained a Receiver BC-652, a Radio Transmitter BC-653, and certain additional operating components. When you look at this page you can see the radio and also the vehicle mounting in action on a jeep.
Again a very accurate representation and it looked the part when
painted up – on I go to the painting…
The build...
Build time 8hrs. approx.
The boxes glued together with super
glue very easily – to make sure the larger radios fitted on their trays I sanded
the insides of them a little t reduce the width the slightest of a fraction.
The radios themselves went together with a minimum of glue and actually sat
inside their trays without any glue!
When it came to the Photo Etch Sheet
frames I use only the ones for the smaller Scr510 radio as I had no allied car
to strap them on to. The Scr510 though has no “tray” to sit in so I included
them. They bent easily without problems, the paint went on easily and I liked
their ease of use.
The PE was easy to work
To paint these radios and detail them up
took a few hours – and most importantly started with some undercoat. The cream
resin will not take acrylics without a decant undercoat – I used Vallejo undercoat
from a rattle can which is not water based and I decanted it to my airbrush – I
finally stopped using it from the can as it is so darned think and would cover
up some of this fine detail which I tried hard to pick out.
After quickly drying I first gave a
light coat of Vallejo acrylics. An overcoat of Panzer Olive green which was the
base green colour. All of the radios I found differed in colour and as always
you really should go with what your eye tells you – so I went with this very
green colour first .
With the first green and edges highlighted
Then a coat of darker Olive drab mixed
with the beforehand used Panzer olive green – this gave a darker colour which I
sprayed in the insides of the squares of the panels – making a darker shade
there and keeping it light on the box edges. These edges needed a bit of over
exaggeration, so I mixed in a bit of white model air to make a half shade which
I shot on the edges. This gave me some nicely defined 3D looking radio boxes.
The fronts of the panels were either masked
off or shot with the airbrush from above to make the black undercoat still
present in the recesses like the speakers and the instrument panels. I used
some silver pen and some red and white paint as shown on the reference cd
pictures and I was nearly there.
The decals for the placards go on easily
and stay fast. The only thing I would have done differently with these is
include some circular dials. The reference pictures all show these so I used
some 1/48th dials of the same type or really close looking from Airscale’s
decals sheets of instrument panels – these matched the photos almost
exactly and gave the missing element of detail that you need on such a small kit.
I know these are not exactly right but they look like the real thing to me.
Nearly there – and the added dials made a vast
improvement to my bad modelling skills
The kit just needed some silver
scratches and the wire joining to the receiver handles, this was easy with
superglue and if I were you I would drill little holes in them to better receive
the wire. This again was a painless part of the process.
Again because I had no vehicle to
mount these on to I painted and detailed the aerials up to show you how they
look - to me they looked dead on accurate and I thought I should show them to
you.
When looking at this set I was amazed
by the accuracy when I went on to research the radios themselves and at the
intelligent way LZ have reproduced them in resin, with minimal casting issues
and crisp and sharp lines. They built up quickly – easily and without too much
hair pulling. I had fun making them.
For accuracy – buildbillity and detail this is
a radio set that is without peer in this scale – if you want these radios –
these are the ones to get.
These radios are available from LZ Models now
– Many thanks to them for the kit we made.
