I'm now in the process of detailing the engine compartment on the AFV M-88A1 kit. That's such a HUGE space it just seems a shame to leave it empty. I've ordered the Legend M60 engine kit which should be close enough, but there's a lot of other stuff that goes around it.

And to think at first all I started out doing was making the APU hatch operable. And then of course there had to be something behind it and it just snowballed from there.

Here's some samples of how the madness progressed. I think my next step is scratch building all the hatches for the side compartments.

The full set of photos is here.

http://s360.photobucket.com/user/thathaway3/library/M-88A1%20Project?sort=9&page=1

Great work Tom. Between the engine compartment and the interior, this is turning out to be a real gem.

Yeah, if I ever FINISH it!!

Tom;
All of the work on both the engine area and the interior, as Gino stated, is really great. Very impressed that you are tackling both. One item I noticed in one of your pics is the ROC and the number underneath. I am guessing that is a serial number and that these were created for Taiwan, so you might want to remove the ROC is this is a US vehicle. Just a thought. Keep up the great work, really looking forward to seeing this one finished. Cheers.

Actually the casting mark refers to Rogers Olympic Company. They were the original company which made all the castings for the hull. The original vehicle manufacturing company, Bowen-McLaughlin-York (BMY) realized that production of the basic vehicle would come to an end and pre-bought 76 cast hulls on their own dime and tried to keep things going, but ultimately Rogers Olympic went out of business. This allowed them to have some inventory on hand when some new orders (mostly Foreign Military Sales or FMS) did come in. Other companies which made castings were Buckeye for a short while and Maynard Steel Castings, so you'll see a few other markings as well.

Sadly while I have the USA number and bumper numbers for the vehicle I'm planning to build (from my old USAR unit, 4/20th FA, one of the last Army Reserve Field Artillery units) I don't have any photos of the actual vehicle so I have no idea what the actual casting number was, so this one will have to do.

And while I don't have it in front of me in writing at the moment, I suspect that BMY also no longer exists since the York facility where these things (or the A2 now) come from is part of British Aerospace or BAE.

Here's an update on progress so far. I've been concentrating on the engine cover and the various hatches around the exhaust system. It looks a little "rough" at the moment, but that's sort of the nature of cutting up an existing kit to scratch build details I guess. The rods in the hinges are only temporary just to make sure of fit and function. They'll be replaced with cut off pins after final paint. I'm going to do this in NATO 3 color and I'm going to have to be careful masking off certain areas, so I probably won't add some of the items until after the entire vehicle is painted.

Time for another update. I've now pretty much completed all of the engine bay wiring/electrical with the exception of the items that will have to go in at the end. Next up will be the hydraulic system.

Great project, well excuted, this wiring looks impressive!

Cheers,

Christophe

Here's more in progress shots. I've now finished plumbing all of the hydraulic system and I'm moving on to the fuel system. I've gotten the two tanks done as well as a couple of lines. Next step will be the main fuel lines on the hull floor and the mechanical fuel linkages.

Tom-- marvelous workmanship!
Very well done
DJ

Thanks DJ. My "punchlist" says only about 70 more hours required to finish the engine compartment, although I'm already about 10 hours over my original estimate at the moment.

Haven't even thought about figuring out how much time it will take to finish the rest of the kit.


Once an engineering Project Manager, ALWAYS a PM I guess.

But I've gotta say I'm really enjoying the project!

Time for more update photos. I'm getting down to the last few systems to complete. One of the biggest problems is figuring out when to put items in place so that I don't build myself into a corner. It means having to leave some of the systems partially completed and moving on to others, but I'm estimated I'm about 2/3 complete with the engine compartment.

Looks awesome. Keep up the great work.

On the home stretch! I've now completed the entire electrical system with the installation of the batteries, and installed the accelerator linkage and the brake control linkage as well as put in the final piece of the fire extinguisher system. Next up will be the engine disconnect and finish the fuel system.

I have finally completed all the detailing of the engine compartment. It's been a lot of work, but at the same time very enjoyable. I feel like I know every system by heart now.

Next steps will be to finish scratch building the remaining hatches for the left hand side, and then I'll move on to final assembly and paint.

Masking this with all the detail work is going to be interesting!

I have finally finished all of the detailing of the engine compartment and all the hatches. Everything still looks a bit rough since all the scratch built hatches are still in natural styrene and I haven't touched up most of the places where I did cutting during the construction.

Next step is clean up and final assembly and painting. Since the hatches are pretty fragile and also are open into the engine compartment, I've made a separate cover for the entire engine compartment which I'll use when I mask and paint the rest of the vehicle in the 3-color NATO scheme. I'll lay out the hatches and engine cover and paint them separately. I think.

It looks great, Tom! I'm amazed at what you can do with styrene!

Thanks, Lucas. Painting all this and then masking for the next coat is going to be tricky. At least I'm finally finished with making new stuff!