The HSTV-L... or the LAV-75... or the RDF/LT... who knows...

The High Survivability Test Vehicle - Lightweight or HSTV-L was a light tank testbed developed under the US Army's Armoured Combat Vehicle Technology program in the late 1970s.  Only one of these vehicles was ever produced and it while it was originally made to test the concept of speed instead of armour, it was also used to test a number of other concepts, including its 75mm Automatic main gun.

Who doesn't approve of the idea of a 75mm Panther type gun, firing modern ammunition in something like full auto mode!

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about this vehicle here - mainly because there are some excellent websites out there with all that information so if you what to find more - here is a good place to start - that's a link to the Tank Encyclopedia article on the HSTV-L.

I came across this vehicle sometime around 1986 when I purchased this book:

Which has a number of illustrated plates of various vehicles including this one:

In TW:2000 it was always known as the LAV-75 - so that's my preferred nomenclature.  In that setting the LAV-75 equipped the divisional light tank battalions in the US Army's Light Divisions, as well as the assault gun battalions in the US 9th ID (Motorised) and replaced the Sheridan in the 82nd Airborne Div.

In Battlefront's Team Yankee game I believe they call this the RDF/LT.  I understand that was one of the many programs undertaken to replace the Sheridan, but beyond that I'm not really sure.

In my Cold War setting for Battlegroup, so far the LAV-75 is a Speculative Weapon that is one of the Light Tank/Assault Gun options useable by the US 9th ID (Motorised).  I intend to expand that at some stage to also cover the Light Divisions and the 82nd.  Maybe more...  Here's the AFV Data Card for the LAV-75

Anyway - a while back I bought an STL for the HSTV-L from Wargaming3D.  It's a lovely little model which I scaled up to 1/72 and it printed very nicely.  It comes with a large turret stowage rack which I now understand was used for instrumentation during some of its testing.  It's not shown in photo or TW:2000 drawing above.  I decided to leave it on as I like stowage, and I bet most tank crews like having a place to stow things as well.  The rack is quite light - so if you don't want it, it wouldn't be any drama to cut it off - or if you're more skilful than me - simply don't print it.  I printed 4 tanks to make up a platoon and here they are:

 

This will be my Platoon Commander's vehicle, with a Friendship Models commander.

 This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Commander's section of the platoon.

This is the Platoon Sergeant's vehicle, again with a Friendship Models commander.

This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Sergeant's section of the platoon.

Here's the platoon together

One thing I had a hard time with while I was making them was just how big I thought they were.  So once I had finished them I thought it might be worthwhile to put them besides a M1 to check out whether or not they really were that big.  I thought the result was quite interesting:

So they really were much, much smaller - just with a really long main gun barrel!

So that's my LAV-75 platoon.  I have more US Light Tank options in the pipeline, but before they get finished, I've got some Canadian vehicles coming up next.

So let me know if you like these crazy speculative vehicles and would like to see more and/or include them is some 1980's Cold War action.  You never know, if I can sort it out you may get to see a couple of LAV-75 derivative vehicles as well!

Thanks

Richard

A Horde (almost) of Hummers

One of my (ridiculously too numerous for words) projects that has been plodding along in the background for a long time is finally starting to see the light of day.  I've been collecting HMMWV kits and models for years now and am now starting to work my way through them.  Very, very slowly...

Anyway - as always it seems the kits/models I got most recently tend to get finished the fastest - so here they are in no particular order.

This is a AN/TWQ-1 Avenger.  Basically a HMMWV with a Stinger SAM system turret, which also mounts a .50 cal HMG.  This is a resin model from The Hobbyden.  It's not the world's greatest model, but I'm not the world's greatest modeller so.....  I think it looks great and as a wargaming piece it couldn't be simplier or more fit for purpose.

This is a M997 Maxi Ambulance.  Like the Avenger it's a standard HMMWV chassis with the specialist extended and heightened Amblance rear cabin.  This is a Revell Kit which also comes with a TOW Carrier.  I think this is a simply beautiful model so it jumped straight to the front of my queue.

These next two are HMMWV RED-T's.  RED-T stands for Remote Electically Driven - Turret.  Imagine an engineer looking at a M2 Bradley and saying "I bet you I can fit the same gun onto a Hummer!"  And he did.  A few were made as prototypes but it never saw service... in reality.... so why not in my gaming I say.  If it's good enouigh for Twilight:2000 it's good enough for me!

Let's be honest.  It's not the best model - a free 3D print from Thingiverse - and my original 3D printer was kind of going through its death throes at the time, but it was the only one I could find at the time and again - it will do for gaming.

These last four are HMMWV M998 Troop Carriers with their tarpulin's raised to keep the chaps in the back dry.  These are from BobMack3D and are simply excellent.  The plan is for these guys to be the platoon vehicles for a US Light Infantry platoon.

And finally the mini-horde.

That's it for now.

Thanks

Richard

Cymbeline Mk 2 Radar System

 Just a quick post today.  I've been lucky enough to get a new 3D Printer - my old one had kind of died - and even though it has already started to get pretty cold here, on the warmer days I've been able to print the odd thing or two.  Most of those I'm going to hold off showing (even though some of them are super cool) until I've actually painted them.

But in this particular case - as it was a wee bit more complex and it's kind of a bit different, I thought I'd show this mobile radar system.

Here's all the bits for 2 FV432 mounted Cymbeline mortar locating radars.

And here's how it looks put together

Not shabby at all isn't it.  At some point I might print another radar so I can build it closed up for road travel.  At this stage it has been undercoated, and I'll put up some more pics once it has been properly painted.

I do have an in game role for this vehicle, so that's good as well.

If you're interested in getting one of these, I picked up the file from Wargaming3D  I've dealt with the designer and he is a very nice chap!

Just in reference to my previous post - I thought I'd let you know that I managed to sort out all the photos on the blog going back to March 2019 before they disappeared down thge Photobucket black hole.  From time to time I will continue to attempt to go back in time and replace the photos - but I'm not sure how far back people would really bother looking, so unless I get specific requests it may take quite a while to redo the whole blog.

I also need to make sure all my old painting guides and TO&E explanations have pics as well.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Should have a load of new painted vehicles to show you soon.

Thanks

Richard

Potential Disruption of Services

 

Hi everyone.  Just a quick note to let you know you may see some changhes to the blog over the next few months.  This is because I have after about 10 years or more of using photobucket, I've decided that it's just getting too expensive so I'll have to move on from them.  This will mean I will lose 99% of the photos on the blog - something I've been trying to avoid for years - and will slowly have to go through as much of the blog as I can to try and restore photos.

Fortunately I still have pretty much all of my photos stored on my laptop - but it's going to take a long time to sort it out and some post may never get re-populated with photos.  I'll start with the latest posts and work my way backwards - so unless you want to look at something from years ago, you shouldn't notice much difference.  

Who knows...

So please bear with me as I slowly try and sort this out.

Thanks

Richard

Some West German vehicles

So like I said in the previous post a mate had sent me a few West German bits and bobs to paint for him - for which I got some very nice goodies in return - and due to a range of circumstances which I won't bore you with I was, strangely enough, able to knock them over fairly quickly.  The photos were quickly taken before the vehicles were packaged up and stuffed into my suitcase!

I was also able to try out a couple of things, including using my airbrush, so was generally pretty happy with the finished product.  Over a black spray undercoat I used Vallejo Air Colour NATO Green for the base coat and Tamiya NATO Black and NATO Brown for the cam colours.  I then did a black pin wash, used the Vallejo Air NATO Green as a dry brush, and then Vallejo MC Black Grey and VMC Flat Brown as the drybrush colours for the Tamiya cam colours.  Hope that all makes sense.

These first two are BobMack 3D prints of the Jaguar 1 with HOT ATGM fired under armour.  I was super impressed with these prints which were incredibly crisp and detailed.  Both designer and printer ought to be congratulated.  I added cam netting to one of them - all the other detail is simply an excellent model.

These next two are BobMack 3D prints of the Jaguar 2 with TOW ATGM.  Again - quite lovely printed, full of character and detail.  Again I added cam netting to one of them.  The TOW system shows excellent detail.

The last two are Hobbyden M113G with the MG mounts and the Milan mounts not added, due the likelihood of them breaking during travel.  Again I added netting too each of these and I think they came out looking great.

So that's it for now.  I'm slowly getting back into the swing of life and I hope to make a big dent into the unpainted and unbuilt stash of shame this year.

Thanks

Richard 

West German AFV Data Cards - An updated version

 Hi All.  Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while.  It's been a bit of a crap summer and I haven't had much time, energy or most importantly the right head space to deal with any gaming.  I have done a bit of useful reading - which has led me to make some changes to my helicopter and aircraft rules - and I'm currently working on a new design for Army Lists.  

Recently a mate has just sent me some lovely 3D printed Jaguar 1 & 2s which was the push I needed to complete this little side project (as in a good excuse to put off some painting!)

So just like the US 9ID Data cards, I had a bit of fun including some speculative AFVs in this West German set.

So here they are:

West German AFV Data Cards

You can also find them at the Data Cards Tab at the top of the page.  I've left the original West German Cards there as well.  Please have a look at the new set and let me know if you find and mistakes or have any queries.

Thanks

Richard

US 9th Infantry Division (Motorised) AFV Data Cards

 Well, I'm a little embarrassed.  I thought I had posted up the Data Cards for the US Army's 9th Infantry Division (Motorised) a while back, shortly after I had finished and posted up the lists for said division.

So whilst looking around on the blog after putting up all the Soviet cards, I suddenly realised I hadn't at all!

So here they are now. 

US 9ID(M) AFV Data Cards

You can also find them at the Data Cards Tab at the top of the page.  Please have a look and let me know if you find any mistakes etc.  Or even better pictures!

Thanks

Richard