LAV-TUA Build

[GINge!]

Here's the Trumpeter kit. I reckon I am 4-5 hours into it so far. The plan is to build it straight from the box, with no additional after-market parts or scratch building.

Kit includes some PE POL/H2O can holders. The fit is not great as the joining edge does not take into account the stepped portion where it crosses over the Add on Armour (AoA).

Suspension in progress. Not much of this is visible when the model is upright. #2 axle has some toe-out which I fixed after this photo with a file. When fixing the toe out, its important to keep the file perpendicular, or you will mess with the camber. Another solution would be to turn the front wheel pairs, but then that would be deviating from my out-of-the-box

Rear tire carrier. I had to consult pics of the real vehicle to figure out how this went together. Check out the website 'prime portal' for thousands of vehicle reference photos.

Pioneer tools are kind of chunky looking

The rubber-like tires are well moulded with "michelin" logos. They also have that wavy feature on the sidewalls which will look great under some Afghan dust

You can just see how the #2 wheel is canted out slightly..

Not much of the drive train can be seen at all, even at this low angle. When I build the LAV-III, I'll probably not bother assembling those parts.

 

[GINge!]

Just got the turret left and some small bits to add.

 

[GINge!]

Going to say this one is built now. The turret parts did not go together as smoothly as the rest of the kit. Getting the launchers squared up took some super glue, and the MBSGD (did I get that right this time?) have separate caps that are hard to keep looking round when they are cut off the sprue. The C6 looks a little out of scale to my eye. The good news is, we have a LAV-TUA kit for around $40.

With the last remaining ADATS missiles expended as of a few days ago, and seeing the LAV-TUA depart the LdSH(RC) lines for RWS re-fitting, it makes me wonder what we'll have for a long range anti-armour platform.