Sounds good Scott, if I can't find any Aussie armor in the near future this campaign will still give me a good reason to get another one of those Firefly's out of my stash and onto the display shelf

Quoted Text

---

Sounds good Scott, if I can't find any Aussie armor in the near future this campaign will still give me a good reason to get another one of those Firefly's out of my stash and onto the display shelf

---

Jeremy there were no Aussie Firefly's

Title makes the campaign sound like it'll be full of Men at Work Vignettes!

Title makes the campaign sound like it'll be full of Men at Work Vignettes!

How about including dioramas/figures so i have an excuse to pull my finger out and crack on with the modern diggers i have been wanting to create.

I was thinking of kitbashing a decent M113 FSV from an Academy M113 and the bits from a Tamiya kit - or is there a complete model out there already?

Tom

I was thinking of kitbashing a decent M113 FSV from an Academy M113 and the bits from a Tamiya kit - or is there a complete model out there already?

Tom



There were two kits made but I don't remember seeing them in a long long time. Tamiya made one using the turret of their old Saladin Armoured Car (another kit you don't see around). Not sure if it's an FSV or had another name but I seem to recall AFV Club made one using Academy's M113 and their FV107 Scimitar turret.

The Kit:
For the purposes of this review, the kit is built basically out of the box. This is to show what is in the kit and explain any problems with construction.
I have already started a second kit making all the alterations and adding the detail for an up to date Aussie MRV. Most of these alterations relate to small details, there aren't any major errors, AFV Club has done well in providing the larger parts required, although there are a couple of bits missed as described below.

The kit is a co-operative effort between AFV Club and Academy and like the Dragon Shermans comes with it's own spares box. The kit comprises 8 sprues and a lower hull "bathtub". 6 sprues of individual track links and a turned aluminum barrel. Three of the sprues come straight from the Academy M113 kits, the road wheels plus two others from which only a few small parts are used here. The main hull tub is also from Academy. Four sprues are from AFV Club's Scorpion kit, two for the turret and the two road wheel sprues. These are only included for the periscopes and other small turret bits on the same sprue. One new sprue from AFV Club contains all the parts to make the Aussie MRV.

afv club The decal sheet has markings for two vehicles, one in overall desert sand and the other in the great looking three colour cam scheme currently used on Australian Army vehicles.

One noticeable thing is the difference in quality of the Academy and AFV Club parts in the kit. While the AFV Club parts are up to today's standards the Academy bits look dated. There is excessive flash on some parts, especially the smaller bits (eg. Headlights) and the fit leaves a bit to be desired in places. Had AFV Club done the whole kit themselves the overall quality would have been better, but due to economics chose the co-operative route.

sounds good, but what AFV's do Australian and new zealand use? i know that the aussies use ASLAV's but thats all i know of. do they use leopards?

In all honesty I don't think we currently have anything other than the LAVs which replaced old M113s, but I could be wrong.

Quoted Text

---

sounds good, but what AFV's do Australian and new zealand use? i know that the aussies use ASLAV's but thats all i know of. do they use leopards?

---

Quoted Text

---

In all honesty I don't think we currently have anything other than the LAVs which replaced old M113s, but I could be wrong.

---

It is my understanding that the Australian Army has purchased a small quantity of M1A1 Abram AIM tanks over the past few years to replace their older Leopards.

And OzCam sounds cool, I'm really unfamiliar with Australian camo though.

Paul, I'm not sure I follow what you are referring to as the first post. Just want to make sure we're not talking past each other.

And OzCam sounds cool, I'm really unfamiliar with Australian camo though.

New Zealand currently has no heavy armour ( or an airforce, thank you Labour Government ). We use the LAV III.

We used the Firefly in Italy in WWII. Aussie bought their boys home to fight in the Pacific which is why they never got the Firefly. In WWII we used pretty much whatever the British were using. The initial LRDG were made up heavily of Kiwis so there were a lot of LRDG trucks with Kiwi monickers.

Whenever I think of auscam I always think of the jellybean BDUs.