ISU-122 two

After doing my bodged-battery, I had the bit firmly between my teeth. Loyal readers may recall these PSC IS-IIs I did (four years ago, really?). Well, they normally come five to a box, but I only built four as I had in mind a conversion to match this:

I've had this old clunker for years. I think it is Roskopf (?) version of an ISU-122, even though the chassis is clearly a KV-1. It is pretty much 1/100th scale in terms of length and height, but the hull is  a few mm wider than my KVs.

I had in mind a conversion to make another one, based on my spare PSC IS-II hull.

I put the PSC IS-II chassis together,  but hedged my bets by not attaching the hull top. PSC provide two alternate hulls, so if it all went horribly wrong I could just build another IS-II.

I measured up and built a basic casemate out of 20 thou plasticard. I used the Roskopf model as a basis so they'd end up looking similar, but I had to adjust it as the PSC hull was narrower. I started with the top piece and adjusted the sides to fit.

It doesn't look too bad on the chassis, maybe a bit upright, but hey ho.

One thing I'd learned may decades ago while converting a couple of Airfix Pz IVs into Jagdpanzer IVs, was how hard it it is to model the chamfered angled armour cut in bits on sloping casemates. My preferred method then and now is to cut the final bits out of 10 thou card with a pair of scissors and just keep trimming it down to shape. 

After an awful lot of measuring and trimming, the wedge bits fitted OK in the end. I also had to cut bits out of the mudguard supports to get the tapered armour plates to fit.

The next scary bit was building the gun mount. In the end I made the main mount out of some trimmed bits sprue and wedged the gun barrel locating lug between the two halves. Then I made a couple of cheeks for the mount out of plasticard to hide the gaps.

It all ended up surprisingly square, solid and looked OK.  I like working with plastic, it is so easy.

Then it was on to detailing. Some hatches from the spares box, some grab rails, and other bits and piece like the drivers vision block

The superstructure just needed a little bit of filler where I hadn't quite managed to square it up properly. The amount of filling required was pleasingly little.

Here is the finishing thing, painted up and based.

It doesn't look too bad from a distance! In fact it compares very favourably with the similar conversion I did as a kid to turn to Airfix IS-IIIs into ISU-122s to go with my Airfix T34s. The superstructures on those were rather more boxy, and they ended up being used as vehicles captured by the Germans (!) as the school wargames club didn't do Russians. Oh well. The only place you could see ISU-122s fight alongside Roco Tiger IIs. Anyway, I digress.

Here it is with its pal. The most noticeable thing is the difference in the thickness of the gun barrels. I gave the older model a quick drybrush in the same green as the new so they'd look more similar, and also added a commander to the original IS-II rom the spares box. Otherwise they are just my standard Russian green with mud all over the tracks and running gear.

That was a very enjoyable foray back into the world of converting plastic kits. I must do some more.