it is possible. marines, during my time in anyway, are all uniform for the company/batallion as far as uniforms go. tankers will wear the one piece coveralls as well as any LAV crews. Depending on what that figure is wearing, it may or may not be accurate.

any vest that may already be on the figure should be fine. If the figure seems to have a two piece uniform set, you may have to do some modifying. But, with the coveralls, they are only solid colors and no marpat from what i have seen.
the link that was posted above has one of these shown.

Thanks Jesse for the explanation. I will go for a foot soldier, UMSC, in Fallujah (I've read a nice book from a Fallujah vet some times ago). The vest will be woodland, and the uniform desert Marpart, which is, I must say, a challenge, but that's what's thrill me

Below are the pictures of the naked truth, and it's not pretty. The accessories are like LEGO ones. I will have to consider replacing them by nice one. Does somebody knows if the Trumpeter figure kits on modern US soldier has good equipment. I know weaponery is said to be excellent, poses and anatomy to be awfull, but what equipement like amoo pouches and so on. If anybody has already experience with them, I'm interested.
Yesterday I've started the frankenstein process, starting with the head, and shoulder and ankle pouches. If my wife authorises me to make my autist two consecutive nights, I will post pictures here of the results tonight.
All the best,
Julien

Julien, maybe it's just me but the images aren't loading on my computer. I know I've always had trouble with the KitMaker Gallery, so if you're using that, open up a Photobucket account and give a shot. I've found it SO much easier to work with (no offense to the outstanding folks who keep KM up and running )

your will probably have the same look as what mine will. mine will just be in a larger scale.

His pictures are coming from another site. It's possible that the problem could be the viewing permissions. Image sites can limit who views your pictures. Or maybe the image site is down.

Gary, good input...can you admins see what site he's bringing the pics in from? Again, I have NEVER had issues with Photobucket, but that may just be me

a little update on my build so far. i apologize for the bad lighting. my good light broke a couple weeks ago...
still alot of painting to do im probably only halfway through with the painting process.

hello,
Problem resolved. Gary was right. i don't know why my viewing permission was set to nobody...I'm using skydrive from homtail, and I must say it's fine.
Nice figure Jesse you're on ! Is it a Jeff Shui figure ?
regrading mine, the accessories are just plain sh.t. I've read some review of trumpeter figures and I think I will go with the PMC or US soldier set, just to get a decent pistol holster.
Sorry no picture yet..soon to come

Julien

its an airborne miniatures figure

Hello everyone,

ok i got bored waiting for my wife to hand over my AAVP and when i came across a LAV-AD in my local model shop i couldnt say no, even more when i saw it was half price! i am going to try and upload a picture now and hopefully will start it tonight if im home at a good time from work. question though, does anyone know if this LAV-AD would be painted in NATO black, green and brown? the models guide says to do it in green only but its going to look out of place with my others that are going to be NATO 3 colour or desert sand colours, thank you!

i would go with the nato 3 color or desert yellow.

Yeah well I was thinking of going for NATO as I've just ordered AK Imteractive's NATO weathering set so will be a good chance to try it out

I've been working away on the cockpit of the Bronco for the last while. What Academy provides is fairly sparse and for the OV-10A I suspect. I've tried to add some detail where I could but super detailing, or whatever you prefer to call it, isn't really my forte. I don't have the patience to carefully cut and shape aftermarket styrene.

I've only got the one picture to show, it was getting the dark as it was taken which didn't help and the gloss coat has made everything look pretty dull. It looks better in person I can assure you and should look even better once weathered.



Some additional detail I've added include seatbelts made from green putty, they're a little on the thick side but once weathered and viewed through the canopy I think they'll look good. I also used green putty to add padding to both seats and I used it yet again on the front sidewalls to put down a few buttons. Academy left this area bare and I felt it needed something. There is a throttle lever there on the real aircraft but I couldn't replicate that. I added a black box to the side of the front seat as there seemed to be one on the real aircraft. I've also added another box to the top of the rear console and I'm going to paint a screen on it.

Finally I noticed that the Bronco has an abundance of cables snaking through the cockpit. I desperately wanted to recreate that as I thought it would look impressive. I first tried simulating the cables using strands of picture hanging wire but it wouldn't bend the way I wanted it too and the super glue wouldn't hold it down. Odd I thought as it was holding the wire to my hands pretty well.

So I settled on thin white thread. The thread was dipped in future and left to dry before 'installation.' You see when I get around to weathering the cockpit I want the wash to pool around the thread but not stain into it, the future should keep it safe. Also the wash could've caused fibres to splay out of the thread which I also didn't want. It happened when I tried to paint un-futured thread, terrible looking.

The plan of action is to build a shelf at the back of the cockpit, another thing Academy neglected to add, and run the threads into a box. Hopefully by the end it'll all come together. It's not something I'd been too keen on jumping into again.

By the way, I've made a small display base for the Bronco using a tea coaster and some sandpaper. If you're interested here's a link to the thread at IPMS Ireland.

if you want to replicate wire, you could try a thin guage necklace/bracelet wire.
I dont know what they have as far as art/craft stores, but here in the states, there is a store nearby me called hobby lobby which is a type of place that has painting, crafts, sewing, etc. type of stuff. they have really thin gauged wire. they sell different gauges on small spools
you could also use the copper wire strands from power cords, speaker wire, etc. They are typically very thin gauge wire as well.

to help with your super glue problem. you may want to use a razor tip or very small hobby drill bit to create something for the wire to hold to. they dont hold very well to a smooth surface when you have to start manipulating the wire.

I got half of the aircraft painted short of their canopies. The marine aircraft (v-22 and F-35B) are mostly constructed and almost ready for painting. Now if I can avoid losing any more of those tiny wheels in the carpet I will be good to go

Hi Alex, I wanted to build my LAV-AD in desert or three color as well, so did some research. However, I have not been able to find any pictures in either color scheme. Anyway, here are some photos as inspiration.

Jesper,

thank you for the pictures they are a great help. I've had a think about this, the whole reason for me to start modelling again was the online xbox game Battlefield 3, so i've tried to find pictures from there to get my paint job, i've found these two, the RPG cage (i think thats what it is) was dropped once the game was released but you can see that its in NATO 3 colour so i'm going to stay true to the game colours, as long as this does not conflict with the campaign rules........

Another update with loads of pictures too.

So I've closed up the fuselage halves and thankfully the seams on the tub aren't that bad but I've realized the Bronco is going to have lots of sub assemblies so there will be seams aplenty soon enough.



You can see what I was trying to do with the thread here; I made a 'fuse box' of sorts out of green putty with the idea of feeding the threads into it. I don't think the effect was really pulled off very well. In fact once I started weathering the cockpit the thread stained, as you can see, which I didn't really want. I'm just hoping that once the canopy is on it'll all come together.



The weathering was done with a Citadel wash, Babab Black in this case, and then a matt coat followed. The shelf the fuse box is sitting on is a piece of evergreen; Academy provided nothing for this area and there would've been a hole into the fuselage visible through the canopy. I still need to block up the back of it.



So that's the cockpit, certainly not the best I've done but it'll do I think. I might add some brake lines to the landing gears later in the build so if anyone has any suggestions for a good, and easily attainable, material for brake lines then let me know.



Weight is going to be a big issue for this build, I can tell. Academy suggests about 8g for the nose but there's absolutely no room in there. So I've added to two fishing weights immediately behind the cockpit and I'm hoping this will place weight just forward, or on, the main landing gear. I might be able to squeeze some one cent coins into the tail booms just behind the props to add in more weight.



You can see a few seams here on the underside of the fuselage tub. The indented area accepts the weapons station which will create more work as its fit isn't great. The fit of the nose to the fuselage also isn't great.



And here is the weapons station; the grooves in the front accept the OV-10's guns which are M60 machine guns. I thought I read somewhere that some OV-10D's had their M60's upgraded to 30mm cannons but I'm not sure. I'll be leaving the guns off until late in the build to make sure I don't damage them.



The OV-10 has long 40 foot wing and the kit wing comes in two pieces that need to be joined together with four small holes drilled out first for the wing pylons. The middle gap at the back of the wing slots over the fuselage tub while the other two gaps accept the tail booms. As far as sub assemblies go first I'll need to add the weapon station to the fuselage tub and clean that up. Then I'll add the wing to the top of the fuselage tub and clean that up. The tail booms will be assembled, and cleaned up, then attached to the wing and, again, cleaned up. Lots of seams and gaps to look forward too.



Finally the weapons loadout for the Bronco. Moving from left to right there are two LAU-10 rocket pods, an LAU-68 rocket pod, a 150 gallon fuel tank, an AIM-9L Sidewinder and a wing pylon launch rail for the Sidewinder. I took the loadout information from the Desert Storm website I mentioned earlier in the build blog.

The three rocket pods came from the old Italeri NATO weapons set, two of which I bought recently from eBay. The Sidewinder came from a Hasegawa weapon set and the fuel tank plus the wing pylon are from the kit.

So the next big job is to get the sub assemblies built and start joining everything together, then the Bronco can really start taking shape. There's a lot work involved but it's worth it for a Bronco in my opinion, great looking aircraft.

Now, let me ask everyone one last question. Considering the amount of gaps and seams I'll be facing what is everyone's favoured method for dealing with them?

One of the first ideas that comes to mind is the use of shims. I'd take thin plastic sheet and use it as a shim between the parts. A good coating of liquid cement will bond the pieces and make sanding easier. On that note, I like to use stretched sprue as a gap filler. I shy away from putties and the like unless it's absolutely necessary.

Just my opinion.

Now here's my progress to date. DML's M4A2 Late PTO, built to replicate a tank on Pelilieu. If you look at photos, you will see a progression of add on armor as the campaign progressed on the island. This would be a tank late in the fight.









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Wayne I had that kit and sold it, I'm regretting that now after my last Sherman build Yours is looking superb did it come with all the extra treads to use as added armor

Sal, I have had this kit in the stash for four almost five years now. I bought it upon returning to armor, and freaked out when I opened the box. I decided it was time as I have built a few DML kits.

Those are aftermarket Bronco tracks for the armor. They are very tedious to build, but look superb. I bought another set just to use on this build.

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im calling this one finished.
will be uploading the photos to gallery soon

Fantastic figure, Jesse! Love the pose and your paint work. Looks great!

Alex, I am not the campaign leader, but I think it is safe to assume your can make the LAV-AD in three color camo and even add a RPG cage if you want. In my opinion that is artistic license, NOT moving into the "what if" scenario.

Looking good Jesse!

Here's some more progress.







I'm going to use Panda tracks on this build.



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Painting has begun.









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