HI Darren. Great to see some modern British Armour being built! Interesting to see your going to try and make it as accurate with little AM stuff. Good start to your build and good luck with that interior!

I am not aware of much in the way of AM items for this vehicle, and certaimly not an interior kit. Part of my reason for doing this (other than those that have asked) is that it makes it unique to me.

As I have said before the only part of the interior that concerns me is the breach and auto loader, the rest is reasonably straight forward now that I have good ref pictures that I can use.

If you know of any AM items I sould look at please post a link in this blog.

Eduard do two sets:

ED35566 (British 155mm AS-90 SPH) Link
ED35575 (British 155mm AS-90 SPH Mesh) Link

HTH

Jaymes Thank you for the links and I have taken a look at what they offer. I don't know if you took a look at my review build or not, but these sets do nothing for accuracy other than providing the backing plate for the smoke launchers. There are some nice detailed parts but alot of them are not nessesary and in some cases no better than the kit part and some are even innaccurate such as the front headlight guards. I am pleased you brought them to my attention though.

Hi Darren,
There's the Accurate Armour sets as well:
http://www.accurate-armour.com/ShowProduct.cfm?manufacturer=0&category=4&subcategory=35&product=1311
http://www.accurate-armour.com/ShowProduct.cfm?manufacturer=0&category=4&subcategory=35&product=1312
No interior bits though
The two main problems I recall in the kit were the too long barrel and the gun crutch was too 'tall/long'.

Cheers,
Jim

Jim I wish that was all the errors in this kit, however on a positive note none of them are overly difficult to correct (He says shouting HELP me please). I took a quick look at the AA sets I will look closer tomorrow when my eyes are working.

I have now hard a good look at both sets from Accurate Armour and Eduard, in my opinion the Accurate Armour product is the best as regards making an accurate AS90. The AA set corrects the position of the driver’s periscope, Gun cradle, smoke dischargers and places the correct mounting bracket behind the smoke dischargers, I can only assume that the new barrel corrects the issues there as well.

On the down side is that they have included gratings for the engine deck (as has Eduard), I have not seen anything on any AS90 engine deck which could be a grill, other than that which is already replicated on the model. The AA set has left off the guard that goes below the smoke discharger brackets, and at £45 costs nearly 3 times the price of the model kit. Both AA and Eduard also show the brush guard on the front of the headlights as flat when ther are domed.

The Eduard set while adding detail (a lot of which is superfluous) does not correct any of the placement issues on the model kit.

"Sorry the pictures are a little dark but the flash on the white Plasticard just blinds everything."

Pics look fine Darren, still watching.

Ryan

Way to go Darren !,I too looked at AA`s update set for this and nearly swallowed my tongue in shock.
Any tips and pointers to correct/update this WITHOUT spending a fortune would be great as i`m about to start mine too,but being on a tight budget,i can`t spend anything on AM stuff so i`ll be following you every step of the way.

Danny I did a review build and corrected most of the faults (I believe) on this site, I say that as I am trying to do an interior so this build will take some time. I would suggest you give serious consideration to getting one of the RB Model Barrels as it is vast improvement, other than that I believe all faults can be corrected with a little thought and inclination.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been doing a lot of overtime, and after a 12 hour nightshift you don't feel like doing any model making and you don't really have the time between your next shift starting. Normal service will return ASAP.

I am finally getting four days off and will have free time as of Sunday. I have come to realise that I am just not going to have the time to do the full internal build that was planned. Due to this and to get this done in a timely fasion I am going to stop all internal work and concentrate on getting the exterior done. Sorry to anyone who I have let down by taking this route.

i'm planning to build one of these, and following this closly! I thought of adding the AA stuff, but the price nearly killed me. Now I just need to finish the Chally.

Thanks for the barrel review it was very helpful! I assumed the "Braveheart" was in service!


Jeff

I myself doubt the Brave heart will ever enter service in the current climate, however with that great replacement barrel from RB Model why build it any other way than in its current config.

yeah, good call..guess its time to get one ordered up!!

I have started work on the gun travel lock. this envolved altering the hight of the lock for an AFV in current British Army service. I am also going to improve the detail of the locking mechanism, this involved removel of some basic mould detail and hollowing out the block from the side. In the last picture you can see the part of the lock attached to the hull, the lower area of this part needs to be filed flat

Hi Darren, nice review I really enjoyed it. And having just picked this kit up for £10 it will come in very handy for when I build it.keep up the good work with the blog!

Martyn

Here is the travel lock attached to the vehicle, there is a small amount of work still to be done on the travel lock but it is nearly there. I have replicated the locking mechanism and change the moulded spring for one made of separate pieces.





Tomorrow I hope to complete the travel lock and move onto the next area.

Nice attention to detail Darren, really like the spring.


cheers

That is actually 2 springs formed by rolling the wire around the brass shaft, one end of each spring is trapped below the white plasticard you can see the other ends sit on top of the block attached to the hull. I still have the wireing to do, the sheath that sits on the locking mechanism, and the activating ram thst raises and lowers the lock.

I have the same kit in my stash waiting to build. your start is good and I think your build will be a good referance for me..

I hope it lives up to your expectations.