B.W. Models FV620 Avis Stalwart

OK - so I decided to post this one up straight away rather than wait...  What can I say?

Anyway - my final entry to the Task 3 build was what I now beleive to be a B.W. Models Stalwart.  Previously I had stated it was a MMS model - but I now beleive that to be wrong.  That's what you get for buying second-hand models I guess - but hey, I'm definitely not complaining.

Here's a link to some info on the FV 620 Avis Stalwart on wikipedia

The only thing I really had to do to fix up this model was to pin each of the wheels.  From there it was simply straight onto painting.

Here's the final pics of my Stalwart:

Finally - heres some videos of Stalwarts in action

That's all for now - have fun...

Richard

Trumpeter T-55 with KMT-5

In the past couple of years I've made more plastic kits than I previously did in the last 20 years.  Some have been agony (ACE Models - I'm looking at you) some have been tricky (Revell Marders and Leopard 1A5s - I'm talking about you) and just one kit really stands out in my mind as both an excellent model and incredibly easy to build.  And of course that model is the Trumpeter T-55 with the KMT-5 mine roller.

Typically I take a few days to build a model - yes I am very slow - and therefore I also normally try and build 2 models at once, which kind of mitigates some of my slowness.

However, I popped open the Trumpeter box and built this little beauty in a couple of hours.  Which - you can see - is lightning fast for me.  I had previously been thinking I would just build the mine roller (which looked a little intimidating) and attach it to a T-72, but decided in the end to just build the kit straight from the box and see what happened.

So obviously I am very chuffed with this kit - I just now have to go back and fix up the main driving light onthe hull which I painted ina quick and fairly dodgy fashion - mainly just to finish off the build.

So here are some pics of my Trumpeter T-55 w/KMT-5

That's all for now - next up my Stalwart and then onto the next build which is plodding along slowly.

Thanks and have fun

Richard

Cromwell Models Chieftain Mk 5 ARV

Well, that week (my first back at work) has just spun by, and this is my first chance to update the blog.  This week I've got some more pics of my Cromwell Models Chieftain Mk 5 Armoured Recovery Vehicle.


According to the web, the Chieftain ARV was manufactured by Vickers at Elswick and was based on the chassis of the Mk 5 Chieftain MBT. The main double-capstan winch with electrohydraulic controls is provided with 122 m of 28 mm diameter cable. The similar auxiliary winch is hydraulically operated and provided with 260 m of 11 mm diameter cable. Power for both winches is taken from a PTO on the main engine. Mounted at the front of the ARV is a hydraulically operated earth anchor which, when lowered, allows the vehicle to exert a pull of up to 90,000 kg.

The Chieftain ARV has a crew of four and a loaded weight of 56,000 kg. Armament consists of a cupola-mounted 7.62 mm machine gun and smoke grenade dischargers. In total, 257 ARVs were built at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of this figure Iran ordered 73 (of which 41 were delivered) with Jordan taking a further 30 vehicles.

Review

This was a pretty nice resin model by Cromwell, for which the main problem I had was the fact that there were no instructions.  I was also missing at least 1 part - but that can be the nature of picking up models second hand.  Also like many resin kits the tracks were slightly bent, nothing a lot of very hot water couldn't deal with.

Like all cromwell models, I had to remove excess resin and this caused some problems with the tracks and I lost some track teeth.  The earth anchor also has excess resin, some of which I beleive would be next to impossible to remove, that that is for the most part unseen.

I had to create a new drivers hatch from scratch so don't look to closely at that!

Once I'd found a bunch of photos of someones very nice 1/35th equivalent kit online, it was relatively straight forward to work out what went where - and so for there the build and paint job was very easy.


So here is my version of the Chieftain Mk5 ARV:

and here is a comparison shot with a Altaya Chieftain Mk 5

OK - that's it for now

Have fun

Richard

Well I'm Back!

Finally made it back from holidays and whilst I absolutely loved every minute of it, it is nice to be home.

We had a great time in Europe, and my wife was very sporting in allowing me to drag her through a number of battlefields and Commonwealth War Cemetry's searching for relatives.  It did mean we got to see a few spots that really were off the beaten track.

Took more photos in 3 weeks than I think I have taken in my entire life - but just one that fits the Cold War theme of this blog.  Crappy picture as I was in the front passenger seat when around the corner this old beast came - somewhere in Southern Germany:

Picked up a few good terrain ideas for my Cold War gaming tables as well... more on that later.

Anyway - bad to more normal scheduling next week.

Hope you're all having fun...

Richard

S and S T-55 AVLB

Well this will be my last post for a few weeks as I'm going on holidays and doubt I'll have the chance or ability to post anything - may be - you never know.

Review and Build

The S&S T-55 AVLB is one of their newer models and it shows.  The resin is clean and near 100% few of bubbles or deformities.  As always the metal is very crisp and clean.  Not much claning was required on this model at all.

Everything I have to say about this kit is essentially positive.  Not only do you get a great little T-55 AVLB with a folded bridge, but you also get a deployed bridge included.  The bridge laying mechanism can be put together so you can have it on your tabletop driving to the river (withthe bridge on top of it) but once you reach the river and deploy the bridge, you can simply take off the folded bridge, lower the bridge laying mechanism and park the AVLB next to the bridge.  Pretty cool in my opinion.

If anything left a little to be desired, its the instructions - which are fairly basic - but very, very useful no the less.  After a bit of fiddling and working out how the photos in the instructions related to the model I had no real problems.  Everything fit together very well and nothing had to be trimmed or anything like that.

I totally rate this kit and am very impressed with it.

Here's some photos of the S&S T-55 AVLB:

And the bridge:

and finally the bridge with a T-72 crossing it:

That's it.  See you ina few weeks and have fun...

Richard

Cromwell Models FV434

Sticking to the British theme - the next up is a Cromwell Models FV434 Armoured Recovery Vehicle.

You find find out a little about the real deal here on wikipedia witha selection of good photos here

Again this is a second hand model which I just had to fix a little and then paint.  It's slightly smaller than my Britannia FV432's but I can easily live with that.  I'll be using this as a HQ attachment to my FV432 mounted Mechanised Infantry Company.

Not much more to say so on with the photos:

You can see on this one I added a little bit of green stuff to look like a oily towel or something like that.  One I'd painted it I kicked myself, because if I had thought of it previously I would had tried to sculpt it into a DPM jacket, which I think would have looked a lot cooler.

There a variety of video clips on youtube - including a whole series of some guys re-fitting an FV434.  Here a couple of others:

:


Spot the FV434 in this lot



Thanks and have fun...
Richard

S and S FV512 Warrior MCRV

To complement my (reduced) Warrior MCV company I needed to get a Warrior Mechanised Combat Repair Vehicle - which would be attached to my HQ Section.

S&S models do a nice little Warrior ARV which fits the bill nicely - and is far as I'm aware the only one out there.  Once again I got mine second hand, and it was missing the machinegun for the mini-turret, so I simply contacted Shaun who sent me one when I picked up my T-55 AVLB - for free.  He's a very nice chap and provides excellent customer service.

Review - and build
I beleive the S&S Warrior ARV is one of their older models and in some ways it shows - especially when you compare it to their new moulds.  Mine was a little worse for wear and I found it easier to cut off and replace all the vision blocks on the mini-turret rather than just try and fix them.  There was also some damage along one side of the vehicle, one of the driving lights was wrecked and some rods along the front needed to be replaced.

Reference pics showed rolled up tarps or nets along the sides of the hull - so with my fairly weak green stuff skills I was able to add rolled tarps to each side to cover any damage.  Again I attempted to use green stuff to fix up the driving light, and after I removed the rods along the front I completely forgot to replace them!  Duh!

The tracks are metal and had to be manouvred a bit to fit properly - but I like them.  A number of other metal peices come with the kit and but looking at online photos it was relatively easy to work out where they go.

The crane (another metal bit - well about 3 bits actually) can be portrayed resting (?) or raised.  The winch head (again ? - my crane knowledge is obviously quite bad!) is designed to show the crane in use, so I cut of the wires and attached new ones to try and match pictures I had with the winch head secured to the hull.

So - overall I think this is a very sexy little kit - an excellent wargaming model.  Apart from being the only one out there - it produces a lovely looking Warrior MCRV (in my opinion) - which will add some nice variety to a Warrior Company.

Here's some pics of mine:

From the front - you can see where I forgot to reattach some rods, the reconstructed light of the right, the new vision blocks on the turret and the tarp along the side.  You can also see the front of the crane and the winch head resting on the hull.

The left hand side - which provides a great view of the crane and the support that gets lowered to the ground at the read of the vehicle.

The right hand side - showing all the cool storgae areas, and a better view of the turret.

The read view - showing the system that is lowered to the ground when the crane is in operation.

Rear top view

Front top view

And finally a comparison rear top view (sorry about the lean...) of the S&S Warrior ARV beside a Revell Warrior MCV.

That's all for now - couldn't find any videos...

Have fun...

Richard