Hi everyone

I just got started on my latest project, I'm going to scratch a 1/35th Panhard M3 VTT APC in Irish Service.

(The Piglet is on hold for now for anyone whos following that build)



The Panhard M3 VTT APC was a French design using 95% of the Panhard AML series components. It was produced in 1971 and the Irish Army ordered 60 examples, delivered in 1972.

In 1978 14 examples were sent to Southern Lebanon (with four AML90's) for service with the Irish UN Contingent there. The M3 VTT was difficult to drive, cramped when full and suffered from reliability problems due to its tiny 90hp petrol engine, this was a particulor problem in Lebanon were some hill roads had sharp inclines were some of the M3's struggled to perform under a full load.




The Irish Panhard M3's had the excellent Creusot-Loire TL.2.1.80 manual turret with two 7.62mm MAG 80's and although the vehicle was underpowered it served well in Lebanon, including at the infamous Battle Of At-Tiri. The Panhard M3 VTT was replaced in Lebanon in 1989 by the SISU Xa-180 APC.


At Home in Ireland the Panhard M3 VTT served as the main APC for the Defence Forces, they were planned to be replaced by an Irish Produced APC from a company based in Meath called Timoney (designer of the Bushmaster and Guardian suspension system).

During trials and fielding by the irish Army, the Timmoney APC Design was purchased and copyrighted by the Belgian firm Beherman Damoen for foreign sales as the BDX APC (in service with Belgium, Argentina & Chile) and the Irish Defence Forces never ordered anymore.

As a result of this The Panhard M3 VTT APC soldiered on in Irish service until replaced by the first of the Mowag Piranha IIIH APC's in 2001. The last M3's to see service were with Border units who had used these with great success during The Troubles as the M3 was ideal for the many narrow roads and lanes of which crept across the entire Border with Northern Ireland which were used for smuggling and terrorist activity.


With plans I procured from a very talented modeller Mr Aaron Smith I plan to scratch a Panhard M3 VTT APC in 1/35th scale. Another talented modeller here at armorama "Mecanix" has offered to assist me with this project so I thought it might be an interesting subject to have as a build log here.

I started today using the plans I got and began cutting out the main hull using plastic card.


not everything went together so easily but here below is some of the process and where I am now














Please feel free to leave any comments good or not so good, I hope to post an update tommorow

looks good so far!

unusual topic therefore i'm looking forward to the updates ...

Hi Roy
Do you plan to use Azimut AML60/90 kits wheels ?

Good luck with your project

Frenchy

I am quite interested in this build. I hope model companies will pay more attention to modern Panhard vehicles in 1/35 scale when they run out of Panzers to (again and again and again).

Hi Roy,
Nice to see someone else with an interest in the less "mainstream" type vehicles. Hope the build goes well.
Just a suggestion, when butting plates together (like on the frontal glacis) I cut the plate slightly oversize then after glueing, file/sand down to size. That way you get a nice sharp edge and no need for fillers etc.
Had the misfortune to ride in one while in Somalia - nasty cramped things .
Looking forward to your progress.

Roger.

nice project for a nice vehicle !!

the beginning look clean

do you plan in the future to make the AML 20 ?

keep posting of progress pics !

Guys thanks a million for the kind comments and support!

Thomas: Yes it is a bit unusual kit I suppose by todays standards but I just cant figure out why nobody has produced this vehicle in kit form before. The Panhard M3 has seen action in more conflicts than most other modern model vehicles available, the list is too long to mention here

Frenchy: Yes I already recast the Azimut running gear and wheels for this project. I widened the wheels slightly as I feel the Azimut wheels are a little to thin.

Gary: I hear ya mate, too much of the same aul stuff out there! Maybe I'm wrong but is the 1970's & early 80's era missing alot of Military vehicles in Kit Form that would be quite popular?

Casper: Thanks for the tip, I was using it already but decided to cut away the "excess" a little to early before the glue had hardened properly and so some joints look like they need some attention which I'll get around to. ..yeah they're cramped little feckers alright, I can only imagine the heat being in one in Somalia, ouch!

Jean-Thomas: I completed the AML 20 last year (or year before, I can't remember) It was a big conversion, reproducing the Diesel Engine one the Irish Designed was harder than I thought especially without drawings, thankfully I'd only been on an exercise with one and had handy photos at hand which later I could make measurements from.
The Turret had to be scratched too, the South African design was alot bigger than the original AML 60 one.
Overall Lots of cutting and load of plastic card!







..hope to update later guys

ohhhh yes, now i remember your build of AML 20, nice build by the way

sorry for forgetting, plus you sent me some pics of the real beast for my current WIP (thanks again by the way)

No Problem Djiti, I forgot I'd sent you them before too

Excellent and impressive start for this M3.
Good luck with the next steps !

Olivier

This is feckin' ambitious boyo!

So far it looks up to scratch...(no apologies for the pun)!

The vehicle checkpoint picture would make a fantastic diorama, thats my two cents anyway.

Keep it up.

That's quite a chalange you've set for yourself Roy. Good Luck and I'll be watching with interest.

Here's todays update, things might be slow over the weekend as I have other plans , but everyhting will be back up to speed from Monday!

Today I spent some time detailing the interior, the reason behind this being so early in the build is that I want to have the interior complete and painted before I attach the roof etc so there wont be too much "cleaning up" involved on the inside after.

I never took much interest in the internal layout of the M3 before but after getting started on this model I'm finding it quite interesting. The people at Panhard sure made alot out of the the little room that was available!

I began by giving the base some support in the form of ribs. This allowed the interior floor to sit level & at the appropriate height.



I had no measurements or drawings for the interior so I used different photographs I had of the internal layout, lining different points up with different sections, this allowed me to sketch out a rough plan of where everything was to go and how it was layed out.
This took most of my time up today but was well worth it as I'm pretty sure everything is quite accurate now.





Next I built up the floor. The higher levels are where the seating will be added (later). The centre section with the "gold" floor plate is where the base of the Turret is attached (via the gunners stand) and allows the turret to rotate.





As you can see the driver section is also raised.





..There is alot more detail ahead of me but I'm hoping to finish the interior early next week. Hopefully I may get an hour or two on Sunday to get a bit more done too..

Oliver: Thanks, I thought this might interest you of all people

Karl: Thanks for the comments, I'm still playing with the idea of an Irish Border Dio circa early 90's but leaning towards the Leb setting at the moment (likely 81/82)..

Sean: as ever man thanks!

Roy,

Amazing work, your a skilled operator. I'm in awe at the process so far and I'm predicting a superb model by what i've seen here! There was me thinking I was doing well putting some copper wiring on the engine cowel for the alouette! ( by the way its al here, first time to post something.. ) keep me in the loop - have to agree with a previous poster though I'd be going for a border diorama circa mid 80's, but that's me. I wait in anticipation

talk soon

al

"even now brothers of man fight to survive far beyond the heavens.."

Well Al Thanks a million ..a "smooth operator" indeed, thats gas (BTW welcome on board to armorama)

Still dont know what to do about the color scheme!

Anyway I'll be putting an hour or so in later today so I hope to update the thread with some more pics this evening

chat later bud

Howya Roy,
Just signed up to this thing to follow your progress.looking
great so far,the speed of construction is impressive.See you
Thursday for a pint and look see at the real thing.
Regards
Aaron

Well Aaron, welcome aboard and thanks for the kind words man!
..see you on Thursday

Here's a quick update guys, a little later than expected sorry.

I've spent some time this morning buliding up the centre piece of the interior hull.
I began by building a support structure which I could then start building around. The shape of the tower shaft is quite complex.
The "tower shaft" as I'll call it (as I dont know the real term sorry) links the ventilation/cooling vent on the roof of the APC with the Engine which sits inside & underneath the the large shaft.





After I built the supporting structure I began building the general shape of the tower shaft using more plastic card.



I've still some filling and sanding to do but I'm happy enough with the progress so far..



I detailed some of the upper raised panels at the rear section of the interior using strips of plastic card too.



The small blue piece inside the centre of the interior on the gold plate section is the base of the turret pole that crew stand on to operate the turret, you'll see more of this later..



Below is a photo courtesy of www.toadmanstankpictures.com to give you an idea of the complex interior of the Panhard M3 VTT (this might be a past Iraqi vehcile but the layout of the Irish example is almost the exact same)



leaving the interior for a short while I also cut out the the hull panel section that contains the side firing ports. I cut these firing hatches out too.



thats it for now, I'm going back to do a little more, hopefully I might be able to update the thread again later

Hi Roy.

Looks good so far, I'm impressed with your skills.
About the M3 beeing replaced in 1989, there was still a couple left in service in Lebanon in 1991 when I was there.

/Thord

Your very correct Thord, I should of said the Panhard M3 "began being phased out in 1989" (instead of saying it "was replaced in.. 1989")

cheers for the kudos too

Well guys this is the last update until next Wednesday.

This afternoon I contined with building the interior wheel well buldges.

I used miliput to shape the covers using sculpting tools and a little water added here & there to smooth things out



When I got the desired basic shape I was looking for I put the interior section aside to allow it to dry.
I've still so much to do with these wheel wells, once they are dry they will have to be sanded right down and shaped properly. The finer detail will have to be added then again later, particulary the rear wells.

Whilst everything was drying I decided to move on with the Main hull and added some more detail.
I began by scratching the main drivers consoles using plastic card



I scratched the electric power box just left of the drivers position.



I carefully cut out the drivers hatch before adding some wiring at the rear of the electronic box using copper wiring I had from my spares box.
Then I scratched the Drivers foot pedals and attached all the above to the main hull









I then built the Drivers seat from Plastic card, Miliput & some spare PE I had lying around





After when the interior section with the wheels wells had dried somewhat I dry fitted it against the now slightly upgraded hull. I made adjustments to the front of the drivers section to accommodate the new foot pedals.





I still have so much to do with the interior, crew seating, storage boxes, equipment and hold rails to name but only a few! The wheel wells will need to be filled in slightly when I attach the interior section to the inside of the main hull but I'm not too worried (yet anyway)



I hope to update the build log with more pics on Wednesday but I'd appreciate any thoughts, comments or sugestions in the meantime

Hi Roy,

again you exceed yourself.

Top class build and spot on so far.I expect no less from a thorough bred as yourself.Now the big questions..is it to be the upgraded one or the bog standard version?

Just to be picky.

No shortage of photos out there.

The AML 20 was class even if the wheels were undersized. Increasing the size could prove a ltlle difficult as it was the Diameter of the wheel that seemed to be problematic..but no doubt you have a solution.

Nice little collection building on the Panhard line.Mid to late eighties Dio might be easier with an AML 127 thrown in. Piccie in Karl Martins book on page 87 sets a nice scene.

Keep up the good work

Paul

Nice series of build pics, can't wait to see more.

Hi Roy

I am loving your itchy scratchy work. I am ammazed you got all those angled panels cut and fitting perfectly.

Can I ask what the square vertical tunnel behind the driver is for?

Nige

Ta Paul, glad to see you here too! Your a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the Panhard it must be said, somewhat of a Jedi Knight in these circles I believe
(I saw that interesting pic on the bottom of Page 87 of Karls book, off topic a bit, I love the photo at the top and have plans to recreat that in a dio soon..)

Warren: Thanks a million for the kind words bud!

Nige: Thanks too mate, I was following your Booby Trap Training Dio, real inspirational stuff that!
I wouldnt say my angled panels went together "perfectly" but I'm happy enough so far, bit of filling done be done later however!
In regard to you quiery about the "vertical tunnel" it is I believe the Engine is situated, the upper "tower" section is where the engine gets cooled from air vents/ducts on the roof section just rear of the drivers position.

Maybe other people could confirm this? (Paul?)