I started talking about this dio in Feedback, but I decided to move it to here since the idea phase is over and I'm on to construction. I'll repost the story and layout here.

The idea revolves around a personal experience I had while in USMC Infantry School at Camp Pendleton involving a LAV and a not-so-aware PFC in my Company. Funny story too, we were training on embarking/debarking LAV's and normally there are just wooden ones to train with, but we were lucky enough to be training with the real thing. They would take 4 or 5 of us for a ride and we would get out, form a defensive perimeter, and then get back in. Rinse, repeat. Well on my turn, there was a guy with us who was the tall, gangly type, and he usually had alot of trouble fitting into the neat tidy Marine Corps spaces. His name was Craig Johnson from Minnesota. I remember him well because we used to have football arguments. So we all get out and form our perimeter blah blah, get in line to get back in and he is the first to go.The instructor, Sgt. Avery, gave us the typical "get on my friggin vehicle!!" and Johnson headed for the hatch. Fortunately for me I gave Johnson some room because he did not duck far enough to get his head in when he thrust himself towards the hatch and he hit his helmet on the underside of the hatch outline and basically knocked himself out, fell backwards lifelessly and landed on the deck with a resounding whump. It only took him a few seconds to regain consciousness but Sgt. Avery had him lay down and wait for a corpsman.The rest of us were practically hysterical with laughter, including the stoic Sgt., who stood up promptly and commented, "Gents, that's what called a 'peacetime engagement'. Unfortunately for Johnson his head lost that one. Do not hurl yourselves at hardened steel, gents, I can't graduate you from a sick bay." Something like that with more of the typical Marine Corps sarcasm thrown in.

I'm going for the moment when he hits his head on the LAV (just slightly after) since it would be the easiest, I think, moment to capture of the whole scene and then the viewer can be part of the "discovery" of the whole funny moment. I am doing the whole LAV, rather than a wedge, even though it might make the scene more understandable if I just did the rear of the LAV, mostly because I don't quite have the skills for that and this way would be some training for me in the realm of PE and scratchbuilding. I am sacrificing a bit of understanding for the opportunity to learn some things.

Here's the updated layout:




The setting is Camp Pendleton which I have some ref. pics for. I have the figure poses pretty much done at this point so I'll just post the pics sans heads (which I'm still waiting for).

I used a combo of Tamiya and Dragon figure sets. Both have the proper gear but for the scene to be right the students need the flak jacket plus H-harness with BDU sleeves down, and the instructor should have harness without the flak jacket and then whites-out rolled sleeves.

Figure #1 is the "victim". It took a little bit of careful filing but I think I got the posture correct. The figures head will be bent backward, and I haven't gotten the head or the LAV yet so I'm not sure what to do with the helmet. I'll probably have it tilted down over his brow, as I remember that happened to me quite a bit after bashing my head on some object.







Figure #2 is the instructor. I had to chop up the arm and hand to get the proper pose. This was an interesting process for me and I had to experiment with a few things before I really got a good working order. I'm still having some issues with the squadron green putty being too coarse, though it works really well for shaping.





The other 2 figures are pretty straightforward, though the poses are maybe a bit difficult to get around without the weapons and slings. I only have one good M16A2 so I'm looking for two more. The Figure standing up is reaching for the sling which is over his right shoulder with the weapon being "balanced" up by his right hand.






I'm sure I forgot to mention a ton of things but please remind me.

good idea , just 2 things
1 will the green putty hold well , its not too brittle is it ? would the epoxy puty be better for this application ?
2 the second figure (the one pointing ) it looks like the sleeve needs to be a litle smaller around the elbow where its rolled up .

there should be a group build on events that someone acually went through

nice idea and progress on this dio look forward to keeping an eye on this build. brings back some funny memories about some live fire exercises

Hi Chris, I'll be watching this one myself! I had a few funny shots myself in service.
Try using Tamiya's basic gray putty, easier to work with and liquid cement will thin it so you can apply with a brush. It's the only putty i use anymore because of it's versatility.
Regards, Ed

Great idea mate i remember when you posted the idea the figures look good
it will be intereasting how you paint them

keep up the good work

Brock - 1 its brittle, yes. I'm going to use different stuff from now on. It has its advantages with sanding but its very coarse and I doubt its the best stuff to work with figures. 2 I thought that the sleeve was a tad too big also, I'll be filing that down a bit. Thanks for the input!!

Ed - YES thanks for the tip. I am going to try that stuff to fill in the pits from the green stuff. I was looking for a thinnable putty but I wanted to get a recommendation first. Cheers!

John and James thanks!

Chris,

Entertaining story and great start to the diorama.

Regarding putty, Magic Sculpt is undoubtedly the best you can buy, most sculptors at Historicus Forma would agree. It is workable, has a long shelf life, can be smoothed with a moist brush or finger.

I buy it in small sample containers as I don't use very much of it (yet).

Keep it up,
Chas

Chris,
Thanks for you reply on the other post , Its great to see this project developing Look forward to seeing more

Regards,

Jerry

Thanks Chas and Jerry.

Chas, I know your an Aussie but do you order magic sculp in samples from a particular place? I can't seem to find any vendors that sell the sample sizes.

OK I'm seeing some variations... there's Magic-Sculpt which looks just like Magic Sculp. Then I saw one called Magi-Sculpt. Is there a grandfather or are they all pretty much the same?

Alright, I finally got my Trumpeter LAV-25 kit. I also got some hornet heads, some verlinden heads, magic sculpt, and I'm waiting for the PE set, wheels, and barrel for the LAV. I will post some pics tomorrow, my camera is currently being used by my gf to display pictures from our weekend Vegas trip.

Anyone know of a place offhand that has some good LAV ref pics? I've seen the ones on the Marine Corps site, but I can't seem to find good close ups.

Hi Chris,

Re: the Magic Sculpt. I buy it from an ebay seller (well, I've only bought once 'cos these samplers last me forever...)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/M00056-MOREZMORE-Magic-Sculp-Sculpt-Epoxy-WHITE-2-oz_W0QQitemZ200306541546QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDolls?hash=item200306541546&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177#ebayphotohosting

Hey Chris, I'm not sure, but Prime Portal may have some pics as well as Toadman's site. Give those a try!

http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/index.htm

http://www.primeportal.net/home.htm

I'm officially excited. Here are some pics of my recent acquisitions

The Kit! (I had to get my Homer Simpson slippers some camera time too)




..some misc. sprues and other good stuff.




I ordered some wheels and tires, but these look OK. I guess the problem is that the rim is poorly fitted to the tire?





.. and the heads. I'm using the one hornet head for fig1 (the expression is pretty good for someone who just cracked his skull) and the other for fig 3. The Verlinden face is not good for the instructor, but I'll be using the 8 point cover, though I will have to do some sculpting with it. I'm going to use one of the Verlinden tanker heads for the LAV driver. I haven't seen all of the hornet options yet, but hopefully there is one that will do the part of an angry, shouting instructor.





Here is the epoxy putty I got. It seems to work pretty well, I already applied it to a few of the figures and the results are much nicer than I expected. I am going to clean up all the figures and finish them later, though. I am psyched up about starting the vehicle build.






Since the one door is going to be open I decided (thanks to Ed ) to scratchbuild some interior. I want to do enough that what would be visible will be, so I have started chopping and measuring. This is my first time doing anything like this, so I will be taking it sloooooow.

Other than that I have a lot of filing and sanding to do, yay.

Hornet head are superb they have so many differentposes !

Good luck with the scratch build take your time remember measure twice cut once

as for the tires some times the tires react to the poly cement glue i dont know in this case but good choice with the AM wheels

Great idea for a dio! Will follow this one. Thanks for posting!

So things have been going really slow for this project. I had a Vegas trip, a birthday and a bum car all happen in the last 2 weeks so modeling time has been minimal, plus I'm still waiting for my PE set from Hobbyeasy so I haven't been able to do much as far as construction.

I've been doing some filling and sanding, plus some of the sub-assemblies I have put together, whatever I can do without the PE.

The turret went together pretty smooth with only a few minor gaps to fill in, I'm still working on the smoke launcher caps. I drilled out the tops and I'll be filling it with putty to simulate the depressed rubber cap. I thought that would be easier than trying to make the depression in the plastic with a file.





The lower hull I am setting up for the interior scratch building. The floorboards are correct as is, but the bench and the sidewall are a little off. I'm not going to mess with cutting anything out though since there is such a tiny bit that can be seen. I'm only going to go back as far as the troop compartment goes and I'm not going to do all of the left side, only what can be seen.




heres some of the undercarriage assemblies





I am going back and forth between the LAV and the figures. I put the head on fig. 1 and cleaned him up a bit.





Hopefully next update I'll have the PE set and get some of the interior put together.

The figure looks superb with the hornet head on , im looking foward to seeing the out come of this diroama

Great work so far. I think this definately could be a cool piece!

-Mike

Ps: I have those Homer slippers too...

Chris,

That looks like a fantastic job on "Johnson " You can almost here the sound of skull and hardened steel meeting, That LAV looks like a bit of a beast !!

Really enyoying watching your progress .

Best wishes,

Jerry

Great work on the figures! Will be nice to see this develop!

Martyn

I finally got my Voyager PE set on Tuesday.

Very exciting time for me. I have been messing around with it the last few days, putting odd things together to see if I like how they look, etc.

Here is the PE set in all of its metallic glory:



The interior is coming along slowly, alot of trial and error for me, but things have worked out pretty good in the end. I have a long way to go, and it is a constant (but fun) learning process, but I think I am moving along steadily, if anything.

I've taken a few shortcuts considering the fact that the full interior will not be seen, but you all forgive me right?






Here is the beginnings of the new and much improved turret basket. I'm hoping my eye will do the trick, as measuring this bad boy is nearly impossible for me and my inferior equipment.




I've attempted doing some weld seams on the gun housing. I have yet to decide if I am going to try and replicate every seam on the vehicle, since some of them are provided by Trumpeter.




This is my very first PE work! (sorry it was exciting for me) Its not much, but I think this is how I will be using PE sets from now on. There were things I liked and things I didn't like regarding the look of the final PE assembly for the rifle rest. After looking at the real thing for hours I decided to use the plastic one with some PE highlights. I must say some of the PE assemblies are horribly delicate and highly frustrating.





I also began working with wire for handles. I think my poor cats are going to be scared of me for a long time and hopefully my neighbors weren't outside to hear me during this exploration of hell. I'm finally off the oxygen tank and I think I've developed a decent technique at this point.





After I get all the handles and hooks done I will be concentrating full blown on the interior. Time for straps and belts! (and extinguisher tanks)

Ooh-Rah Chris!

I like your concept, its gonna be nice!
I think we've all known a few "PFC Johnsons" in our days.

Ok I'm going to update today, but I wanted to post some questions I've been wondering about so they are not skimmed over.

I didn't have the minuscule amount of foresight to start this thread as a build log. Is there any way I can change it to such?

Also, is anyone having problems with the pics loading, or loading really slow?

Thanks in advance.

I've made some progress on the interior but most of my time has been spent with the @$#%@#$% turret basket. I got the crew compartment divider done which has been shortcut a bit, but overall I think its ok.








Here's a pic of some of the handles and the hull is almost ready for primer.






Now onto my Achilles' Heel. I had it completely done with some wire that at first looked ok, but after comparing it to the real one I decided to chuck it and start over with some thinner wire. It took me a long time to get the darned thing put together, but I'm pretty happy with it like it is. There are some chunky spots, but I want to see what it looks like primed before I do any "correcting"








Finally heres a pic of the dry fit so far. Its coming along! (slowly)