Hi,
The reason why the ASLAV does not have guards on the exhaust on some cars.
The exhaust on all the cars are the same, except for the guards (that is even different between phases)
You will notice the ASLAV's with bar armour on the turrets don't had exhaust guards, as well as some other fitting on the hull.
That is because the hull bar armour has been removed. To mount the bar armour on the hull as well as the turrets, a lot of fitting have to removed to gain the correct clearance from the armour to armour. Because of this "new" baskets have to be fitted, also the removeal of fitting
Reasons for the removal of the bar armour on the hulls are many, threat, too wide in built-up areas for the vehiles to go into, etc.
by bit
Brett Gibson

Jason
Beautiful muffler/shield and guard,beautiful. The bar armour in the background of your picture looks very nice as well, can't wait to have it here on my workbench.
On all the mufflers without the shield and guard I had noticed the tan coloured square metal attachment brackets for the bar armour, figured that was why the guards were missing. A close look at the 25's with full Bar Armour reveals the same, no shielding. Thanks for the confirmation by all hands.
Good to know that the left hand side bin is different between the Phase II and III because of the Bar Armour. Would a Phase III ASLAV 25 in Afghanistan have the different camo bins having never had bar armour or were the cars redeployed from Iraq to A-stan? Can someone post a pic of that camo bin for the two phases please?
Ray did you start your external conversion with a MH set? I see two colours of resin and thought you were casting your own as well?
Very interesting details gentlemen.
Regards
Bill

Hi Ray,

I finished adding the engine deck to the hull last night. After a lot of dry fitting and filing here are a couple of pics (excuse the poor quality a new camera is on the way hopefully ) :

Top View of Hatch & Deck



Not much putty at all. Only a little on the RHS of the hull to fill the tiny lines from the filling & sanding I did to the fragments of the old deck. I added a little putty at the front of the deck to make sure that tiny bit of the hull was flat and the 'shut-line' around the hatch was consistant

Under view



I was able to retain the triangular section in front of the hull adjacent to the drivers hatch when I cut the old deck out. This was really usefull as I was able to use it to attach a tiny bit of tooth pick (you can see it above along the hatch shut-line) and a sliver of plastic from the chopped deck to the front of the resin deck with CA glue - so it was fairly easy to rebuild that lost section.

I did a fair bit of filing with a flat needle file and dry fitting the hatch to make sure the shutline was right, overlayed the top area and the edge with Tamiya 'basic type' putty and then sanded that back using wet / dry paper with a little water. It came up pretty clean and straight.

I'll check it again after undercoat for any bumps etc. ATM it looks nice. It's a pity I can't get the camera focus clear in that area.

If you haven't glued the two hull pieces together you may want to remove some of the putty and reinforce that area with styrene, It'll be a lot more rigid than putty alone and you'll be able to shape the shut-lines nicely (but you'll need to do LOTS of dry fitting and sanding).

I'm nervous about the suspension bumps, how did you get them round ?

BTW: I'm using MA112 as the conversion in this build (the same as you I guess ?).

Hope the info above help.

Paul

Boggie,

The antislip coating you applied to your vehicle looks really good.

What technique did you use to apply it? I can see from some of the posts that you applied some type of mask around each hatch as well. What is this material is it a sausage of silly putty or something.

Many thanks in advance

W

Bill,


No, I think you area bit confused. The PII '25 cammo rack on the left side is different to the PIII cammo rack. The large bin on the right side is part of the Bar Armour package and is only fitted to cars that have the Bar Armour. The only cars that have had BA are Phase III's.
The other bin (Wind screen) is just a PIII mod. No car's have been fitted with Bar Armour in Afghanistan. And all are Phase III's and have been that from the start of that Op.
Thanks for the comments on the muffler as well. Cheers.

Ray,


Cheers mate. I must say those gun sights and hatches look good.
We have done the 25mm liners but not the actual link and round. I have done a few casts but in the end John and I wern't to happy with it. But it may show up again one day.

Paul,


I do mate, but without sounding like a prick, no sorry. Well not at this stage.
The photo's Bill has posted and what's on Defence web site should get you out of trouble for now.


Cheers Jason

Wayne
I used electrician tape cut to size to mask out the radius around the hatches. I'm sure some pin striping tape would work as well.
In our hard ware stores we have a variety of spray cans that has a grit mixed with the paint. There are many brands Rusteolum being the most popular. They use it for non slip or decorative purposes and the grit is fine enough to suit the application of anti slip.
Jason thanks for trying to clear that up but I'm afraid I'll never understand it until I see them side by side (Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence).
Paul you look like you are well on your way.
Regards to all
Bill

Yeah I started with the old Ph 2 conversion, and have now stopped awaiting the Ph3 conversion release. The sight heads and hatches are Jasons work, I scored some of the Ph3 turret bits pre release thanks to John at Mouse House. Top Bloke!!

I assume all this talk of the 'camo rack' is the bracket on the LHS rear of the hull?
This is it on a Phase2


On most Phase 3 in Iraq it has been removed for clearence of the BAR armour.


I only found one photo of a car with BAR and the bracket still in place, and its not very helpful.

This machine for Operation Slipper has the Camo cage too. I think I'll be able to replicate it with 0.5mm styrene rod and some lead sheet.

Ray
I'm glad to hear that you are moving ahead once again, I look forward to updates.
The camo rack is an interesting feature, is it included with the Phase II conversion, Phase III conversion? I noticed that the bar armour attachment rails are left on (under rear turret and around muffler) the 25 after the bar armour has been removed from the body, will Mouse House include these in the Phase III upgrade set I wonder?
I'll look through my pictures to see if I can find some different angles to help with your camo rack scratch Paul, also will see how many vehicles I can find with the rack on with the bar armour.
Details details
Bill


Vision Ports covered, phase 3 rack.

Bar Armour and camo rack (full of poles?)


Phase II last two images

Hi all,

The cam pole rack on the left is different between Ph2 and Ph3 for the following reason.
Who ever design the Phase2 rack made it too short for the cam poles (did not fit) .
The Phase3 rack fixes this, but you loss the space to stow a POL jerry. So the vehicle can only really carry one jerry (back right side).
There were one and two other mods that were backwards on the Phase3, like the removal of the slave cable holders below the turret basket on the hull (Ray's first pic on his last post shows the two hooks).

Jas is right the ASLAV's in Afganistan are Phase3 without Bar Armour no special mods external. This info is only good for vehicles up till Aug this year. If you what to do an Afgan car Jas can help with all 2007 cars , he has some good pics. Be-aware with the changing tempo over in Afgan don't be suprised to see some bar armour there.

This has to be one of the longest post I have seen
Cheers all

Other thing.

All the vison ports, two at the back and two on each side.

On vehicles from around mid 2005 deployed to the middle east had these welded over with an plate. This was not an bar armour thing, as you can see ASLAV's that never had bar armour with this mod. There some ASLAV's in OZ that have it done, not many.

This many help those doing a particular vehicle form a period.

Thanks for the Cage info Brett and Pictures Bill.

I have included some close up Phase III cage pictures below. It is easy to see the differences to the Phase II item. One segment longer and a much longer sheet metal suppport bracket at the rear end.





The Phase II item below:



Paul

Well here is one more version you could do. Don't need to worry about all of the addon detail to the hull and turret.
Photo taken today by me on one of my many visits.

Cheers Jason

Wow that's a little different Jason. It looks great....

It's not Barracuda net, what is it ?

Maybe that'll be a project a little down the track. Do you have more pics and info ?

Paul

Jason that is a very nice looking 25, in Australia for trials? The wire on the ground is that what they use to attach the various bits with?
Regards
Bill

G'day,
Nice photo hey!
It’s not Barracuda (also known as MCS). MCS has a normal cammo net stitched to a backing that is then attached to the car to reduce the heat inside and reduce its thermal signature.
The way this is done is just a layer of hessian, then a layer or two of some old normal every day cam net followed by strips of hessian again. All of it is wired in place or zip tied to the car.
We have been doing this for years. It’s mostly a Recon thing. Mostly.

Cheers Jason

Yeah great photo.

Do you have a close up pic of the camo ?

Paul

I realize this image is of a French vehicle but the concept of the camo is the same as what's on the ASLAV 25 in Jason's pictures. Judging by this it appears very effective.

Bill

Very effective camo. That'd be great to replicate at some stage.

I'm going to build a few different ASLAV's so that could be on the cards if I can get some good close up pics.

Where do you stand with your PC Bill ?

I'm sanding the '25's' suspension bumps ATM to get them rounded. I just need to fill / smooth out a few scratches and marks (with putty) from scraping them (with a knife) to the required shape.

Do you have your '25' kit yet Bill ?

Paul

Paul
I'm at a standstill with my APC. I have to go back and shave off those attachment points on the right hand side of the box and move them forward, make the new antenna mount for the rear right and redo the gps antenna and all the bases for the others. I probably need to order the Phase III upgrade from HM to get the proper trim vane and pop the one I have on, off. Normally this would be easy but I used Vallejo primer and when I sand the area the primer separates from the surface and the job gets bigger and bigger. I thought it was the resin resisting the primer but it did the same on the Trumpeter plastic too. And yes the entire model was washed and de-greased prior to priming. It is the wrong time in the build to have to make these corrections but they have to get done, so what do I do, start building a 1:1 scale building to store my firewood of course. The next rainy days I will revisit my APC but for now we have a rare stretch of dry weather.
I want to wait to order the 25 Phase III conversion some PE and the Phase III APC bit all at once to save some time but I will have to wait until the Phase III 25 is ready to market.
I had been drawing the various antenna that I need to build in the mean time.

and a photo of the digital gps.

Bill

Way ahead of ya Bill.

Jason
Very nice....now when will they be available for purchase?
The kits just keep on coming, good on ya.
Bill

Great work Jase !

You need to get that stuff out there ASAP.

Now I'm counting down to the ASLAV crew, Late September release right ?

PP

Bill I love your PC and I'm looking forward to updates.

Mine will be modelled on a lot of the work you've done thankfully.

Paul

Paul
Nice of you to say, thanks and I will be watching this thread again for your insights when I get my 25 too, so it works for everyone. I put the shingle son my 1:1 project so with any luck I'll be back at my work table to move ahead on my PC. Now if Jason will send me those antennas I'll get this finished.
Keep us posted
Bill