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 Rank: Vice-Master       Groups: Registered
Joined: 07/01/2015 Posts: 856 Points: 2,479 Location: Sevenoaks, UK
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As I mentioned under my unboxing review, I started building this kit as a kind of in-between - for which it is suited perfectly because there's no need for painting for quite a long time. The first, second and third thing I noticed while building it, is how insane it is a kit in the amount of detail, the number of very tiny parts, and the complexity of the build. I got through three first pages of the manual, putting the part count at around 150, and I haven't even fully finished the engine yet. Every time I think there's no way to add more to this incredibly detailed replica of a Diesel engine, a new layer of details is called for by the manual. Completely, utterly insane especially in the 1/35 scale - and just as much enjoyable.
Please note the parts are incredibly tiny, and the harsh light plus sharp lens bring every irregularity out. To the naked eye the build looks much more clean and smooth.
So, a few photos of the engine and the process of building it up are in order. The small assembly below alone is composed of 12 parts...
More of the engine subassemblies:
The engine block:
Up-close and personal:
And the other side:
This is, I think, timing belt assembly:
A bit more built up:
On the oil line (diagonal at the top) you can see I've been fighting a lot with breakages of the tiny parts; with naked eye the irregularities are almost not visible and should disappear under the primer and the paint:
And this is where I left off today, with the first part of the tractor frame and MUCH more detail all over the engine - this is around 150 parts:
See the coolant lines, they are about .5mm thick and about 4cm long, and had 7 injection gates each that needed cleaning up - each of the injection gates was thicker than the element itself.
And a penny shot for size comparison, sorry for the blurry image:
To summarize, I love this kit. This is an incredible challenge for me, I've never seen this level of detail in any kit, and it's giving me a lot of the kind of frustration that turns into pure satisfaction with enough patience.
Will keep you posted :)
Any images I post on my personal builds are free to be used and shared under Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can do what you want with them, on the condition you mention I'm the author.
Happy building :-) http://www.model-space.com/gb/
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 Rank: Semi-Pro Level 2  Groups: Registered
Joined: 30/11/2014 Posts: 86 Points: 267 Location: Vancouver, BC
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Really enjoying this! Love the small size, really appeals to me. Oh, and your photography is first rate! Cheers, Gord. Subscribed: Suzuki GSX 1300R Hayabusa In The Last Few Years Builds: DeAgostini Samurai Armour Kobayashi Kougei: 1/100 Horyuji Kondo, 1/100 Horyuji Inner Gate, 1/36 Muro-ji Five-Story Pagoda, Public Bath House of Showa, Model Shipyard: 1/72 Los Morrillos de Cabo Rojo Lighthouse. 1/72 Kermorvan Lighthouse Woody Joe: 1/150 Azuchi Castle. Building: Kobayashi Kougei: 1/100 Himeji Castle, 1/70 ji Kinkaku. Received but not started: Woody Joe 1/50 Ishiyamadera Pagoda
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 07/01/2015 Posts: 856 Points: 2,479 Location: Sevenoaks, UK
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Hi, thanks for looking in, I really enjoy building this model. On this stage I can say the engineering is not on the level we expect from Tamiya or Meng - there are lots of joins that do not hold on its own until the glue sets, so it's flimsy at times. But somehow it makes building it even more fun - probably because apart from that, this is a fine kit. The detail is great, the fit is perfect, and even with all these details it doesn't feel overengineered - the engine will be exposed in the finished model and it will be a very faithful replica of the real thing. I found some reference pictures and so far I'm pretty sure every bit is there, reproduced in styrene. This is just outstanding. As for the photos - it's really a mix, some are quick snapshots with iPhone, and some are done with my Nikon and a macro lens, some by natural light and some in a makeshift light tent (the last ones). I'm slowly getting where I want to be with the quality, but that's because I'm lazy and can't find the time to do a proper setup - I should close the aperture more and lower the ISO but to do that, I'd have to get my tripod out... While there's always that little bit I can glue now instead :D Any images I post on my personal builds are free to be used and shared under Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can do what you want with them, on the condition you mention I'm the author.
Happy building :-) http://www.model-space.com/gb/
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 Rank: Super-Elite   Groups: Registered
Joined: 27/01/2014 Posts: 5,060 Points: 14,980
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Wow, that's an incredibly detailed engine. Fantastic effort putting it all together, you can start to see the detail that is going to be in the rest if I too now. Like you said I think when you get a layer of primer down a lot of the tiny imperfections won't be seen at all, I know all to well how harsh macro photos can be  Since taking my digital camera apart to clean the sensor and the cracking the glass that covers the sensor when putting it back together, which now means the crack show in pictures, I just tend to use my Samsung Galaxy S6 now, it takes some really nice pics. Will have to get round to fixing or getting a new camera in new year though. Look forward to seeing more of this 
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That is fantastic!! Superb detail!! 
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 Rank: Master  Groups: Registered
Joined: 19/05/2015 Posts: 1,419 Points: 4,272 Location: Darmstadt, Germany
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This is utterly insane. And I love it.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 07/01/2015 Posts: 856 Points: 2,479 Location: Sevenoaks, UK
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Small-ish update before I switch to to large-scale wood project (Riva Aquarama) - I need a bit of rest from all these tiny parts - and then head off for Christmas in Poland on Thursday morning.
In my first update, did I say this is insanely detailed and at places, tricky to build? Damn, I had no idea.
Next steps involved a lot of long and thin parts - different levers and linkage. It might seem not much has been added since the last update but the amount of work... I think I can safely say this took at least as long as the previous part. The plastic used in this kit is of a poor quality, very brittle and easy to break. The thin parts are moulded using A LOT of injection gates, from minimum of four on the shortest up to seven or eight on the longest. This is incredibly difficult to clean and there's not a single part that I didn't break in at least one place. Some of them broke in three separate places, sometimes on the stage of removing them from sprue. Tamiya's or Meng's plastic behaves much, much better.
But even though at times, I have been close to chucking the whole thing at the far wall, I still love this build. Any amount of frustration caused by these issues is by far trumped by the satisfaction of overcoming them.
So, the pictures. The first one is slightly fuzzy, sorry for that - but it still shows some of the delicate parts involved:
Better view, and if you look closely, you'll see the first photo-etched part, (I think it might be a throttle linkage):
More details:
As an interlude, the spring assembly...
...and then we cover all that fine work with the floor panels:
Underside view with the spring installed:
And that's all for today, thank you for looking in :)
Any images I post on my personal builds are free to be used and shared under Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can do what you want with them, on the condition you mention I'm the author.
Happy building :-) http://www.model-space.com/gb/
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 07/01/2015 Posts: 856 Points: 2,479 Location: Sevenoaks, UK
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A bummer. Part H4 is missing from the sprue. And it's quite an important part, as other parts later connect to it - while being too complex for me to scratch-build. I checked my unboxing review photos, and it seems it was missing from the very beginning. I'll try to contact MiniArt - until then the build is, unfortunately, on hold. Any images I post on my personal builds are free to be used and shared under Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can do what you want with them, on the condition you mention I'm the author.
Happy building :-) http://www.model-space.com/gb/
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