We started turning in our FNC1's in the late 80's. For early Bosnia, you would want a C-7. Depending on the year, it would either have a carrying handle or a C79 sight.

When the Squadron of 12 RBC Cougars deployed in late 1992 and then into 1993 and early 1994 the C7 without the C79 Elcan may still have been in use with the Infantry.

During the1994 summer tour with the Strathcona Battle Group the C7 with the C79 Elcan was used by the Infantry...and they used it for work up training too.

Thanks Jason and Graeme for the info on the rifles. I was not sure when the C7 came online and C1 was phased out. That makes it easy since I have tones of M16's not being used.

Chris

Chris

With mounting of the turret windscreen, would put the cougar around 97-99 time frame. After that they were replaced by the Coyote in Bosnia fall 1999. For Cougar crew they would have been issued the C-8, with the crew commander also issued a pistol.

Here are my photos :
http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/ldshrecceboy/AVGP/

Cheers

Anthony

Chris,
to add to your confusion, 4 CMBG in Lahr Germany went to the C7 and C8 and phased out the FN's and SMG's in late 1985 after fall ex. Jason and Graeme are correct, Canadian AFV crews carried the C8's and pistols.

RCDtanker

Thanks Anthony and John for the help on the rifles. I'm going with the straigh C7 without the optics just to make things easy.

By the way, would the tri-color scheme still be used during the mid 90's or would it of been solid green?

Well I believe I’m complete with the build so far. I have a few smaller parts I will off until the painting is done so I don’t keep breaking them off during the handling. The hull I added brass wire to simulate tie downs used to hold camo branches in place. I also used some tissue paper to make strips of hessian tape on the hull and turret. I made the dust cover over the barrel out of again tissue paper and some foil to make the retaining straps. I’ve rebuilt the wire cutters on the turret from plastic strip and tried to match the correct angle of them. The scorpion kit did not have enough smoke grenade launchers in the kit, so I had to make an extra casting of them. I used the turret counter balance weight on the mantle. I know there is suppose to be some casting marks on the weight, but I did not have anything in my stash to make this. I also used some odds and ends from the photo etch set to add some extra details to the turret along with the cable reel on the side of the turret. The last thing I added was a camo net made from gauze and parsley flakes. The crew are just in place to work out the dio I have planned later. I still need to modify their uniform a bit to match the correct ones worn by tankers. I think I can begin painting which will have to waiting once I get back from vacation, by then some of the figures I order should arrive to begin the rest of the project.

Well I’m back from vacation and have wasted no time on starting the painting of the cougar. I base coated the whole model with Vallejo primer grey to give it a nice starting point. This was fallowed base the base green which is Tamiya JA Green straight from the bottle. I then faded the green with some dark yellow mixed into the base paint. Next for the black camo I used some Tamiya Nato black and freehand the scheme. The black was also lightened with some dark yellow and applied in the center portions. The last color to add was the lighter green, for this I used Vallejo Model Air OD Green with just a bit of middle stone added. From here I added just a bit more of the middle stone to fade the paint job. I’ve also begun some of the basic weathering in the form of Mig grey and brown filters. Some dust streaks were done with buff oil paint. The last thing I have done is to pick out the camo net and hassin tape with different colored greens.

christopher

looking good, well done.

Anthony

I really like the colours you chose and the weathering....very realistic.

A few things I do see that you should add.....

1. You have no handles for the front engine access hatch.
2. Most Cougars had jerry can racks added to both sides of the coffin bin.
3. Most Cougars had at least one jerry can rack on the hull side.

Awesome work, especially like the weathering on the hulll sides, good job!


cheers

Thanks everyone for commenting on the build so far. I was not sure about how the green would turn out since I could not find a good picture of the lighter green that was used so I guess at it. The acorn website list a strange green that seemed a bit off since it used Testor's color charts.

Jason I plan to add some of the missing parts on the model, I foregot all about the handles and jerry can rack.

Would crew gear like ruck sacks and such be stowed in the vehicle or could some be hung on the outside?

No, literally no crew gear was ever stowed on the outside....maybe just webbing attached to the turret hatches but it had to be removed when the crew went hatches down.

Cougar crews would not have brought ruck sacks...just a small kit bag and sleeping bag valice. Everything was stowed inside..kit bags, sleeping bags, cots, and rations. The coffin bin was used for oil products, pioneer tools, and cam net. Only a rookie crew would stow personal kit or food in the coffin bin....as Murphy's law usually kicked in and sooner than later an oil bottle would leak.

The jerry cans would usually be a Diesel can and water can if two were carried.....maybe a second water can as well...one on the turret and one on the hull rack to get at easier.

The other thing you might see stowed on the hull side was stakes made from straight tree branches...about 6 feet long and cut to a sharp point on one end.....usually about four were carried. These were used for staking in defensive run up positions to mark turret down and hull down positions.

Just a tiny side note.....most Cougars in the Regular Force Regiments removed the headlights during exercises for tactical reasons. It is not wrong to have them mounted but it was a pretty standard SOP to remove them.

One other builld point I picked up.....you mounted a grenade stowage box on the left side of the turret....on the Commander's side.....the Cougar never had a box attached there.....there was just the long and short one on the Gunner's side.

Mounting kit part F3 ....grenade stowage box....on the left side of the turret is incorrect...I am surprised that wasn't pointed out before.

Some crews mounted non issue ammo boxes on that side (used exclusively for the commander's webbing and other odds and sods!!!)....old metal 76 mm ammo boxes. 40 mm ammo boxes could be seen on some of the Somalia Cougars.

Thanks Jason for the great info
I wanted to make sure about the crew gear before I started to dig around for packs and such and not waste my time on painting.

Well that sucks to find out about the grenade box, go figure that something had to pop up like this after everything has been painted. I could always just drape more camo net over the area to fix the problem. Much easier than trying to remove the part and damage the paint job.

Anything else I might have missed along the way?

There are always small details that could be added but since you have the paint on I say forge ahead as is.

If you are planning a range diorama the driver's hatch should be closed as the driver would be hatches down.

If it is just an exercise then the barrel end on the coax GPMG should be yellow for the blank firing attachment.

If those are the figures you plan to use just be aware that the Canadian crew helmet covers were slightly different than the US version. The Canadian versions had two pieces versus the one piece on the US helmets.

The gunner figure should be either totally in the turret or only as high as the Commander on the left side. The driver should have the top of the shoulders at about height of the lip of the hatch ring.....if the hatch was open.

Keep 'er going!

This is really fantastic,good job!


Kind regards,Sven

I think you did a great job.
Here are a few shots of mine. out of the box, UN paint.









As this is my first, white paint job, in years. I hink it nice. the weathering was based of a picture from the internet.

Mark Giles

Christopher - I like where you took this kit. I've got one on the bench now as an easy weekend project. Did you ever post finished photos with the wheels and crew in place?

Sorry no I haven't posted any updates on the build. I've taken a short break from modelling and just got back into the grove of things. It's sitting at about 95% complete with base and all. Damn thing fell of my desk oneday so I need to make some repairs on it. Hope to have it posted in a couple of days.

Chris

This is a beautiful build. I would be throwing at lot of money at the kit to obtain the level of detail you have scratch-built. The paint job is very impressive. May I ask what ab you use/used? I have a new Iwata, but haven't bought the fitting to attache it to my Badger hose. I feel it's too late to subscribe, but I'll try to keep an eye out for this one.

Ah, I can relate. I'm just back at it after a year off. Wanted something easy & pretty much OTB. Mine's built now, two evenings worth of work, but I took a lot of short cuts.



Graeme's Cougar

Matt,
to answer question, I use an iwata hp-bcs airbrush that I've had for the past 5 years. Just buy replacement parts when I need new tips and needles. I also use a badger hose and fitting along with a crappy compressor that my dad got from work about fifteen years ago. It's done a fine job for me over the years and maybe oneday I will upgrade my airbrush.

Here are some shots of the crew figures, the TC, gunner, and driver. I still need at add the mic boom and ICS cables to the helmets. more to follow soon.

Well it’s been awhile since I have posted anything on here, but after taking a short break from modeling, I’m now getting back into the grove of things. Picking up from where I left off from, I now have the model about 95% complete along with a simple base and crew figures. There is a couple of areas I need to touch up on since the cougar fell off my desk one day, but it’s all an easy fix. The figures are from ultacast with just the TC uniform modified to look more like Canadian uniforms form the 90’s. The other two figures I was not too concerned about since just their heads pop out of the hatches Well more to follow very soon.

Nice boat!

Not overly weathered, like it.


cheers

Here is just a small update that I have done over the holidays. I’ve made some changes to the turret by adding some MILES gear to it. I used thin strips of masking tape for the sensor belt with plastic rod for the sensors. Brass wire was used for the wiring along with thin strips of tape to simulate the Velcro tie downs. The kill light came from an old tamiya M113 kit.





My small arsenal for the troops and cougar crew. Blank adapters are just scarp plastic .



I also made some range target boards for the base. I still need to print out range targets for the boards, but I ran out of ink for my printer.



Here are some of the infantry I will be using. I know my Canadian troops are not 100% correct since web gear and body armor are slightly different from our. Just did the best I could with what I have, not exactly the best sculptor yet. The RTO and medic came from some dragon set, not sure which. The kneeling saw gunner came from ICM. The US advisor / OC came from dragon also, which I believe is their modern ranger set.