Another great build from you, Si. A real beauty - all your time and effort really paid off.

Si,
Excellent job...so much detail.

Eric

I'm starting with my 88.

Hopefully I can find the time build this one quickly.

so GREAT pictures gentlemen!
nice works in this campaign! im newbie with this; once the campaign will finished, do we will have some kind of gallery of finished kits?

:-p

cheers!

You may post them here Luis:

https://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/29935

Cheers,

Tat

Some slight progress. This kit is great to put together, once you understand the options and instructions.

Thanks, Tat!

Good looking build so far, Jon. I love the 88!

Nice progress, Jon.

Looking forward to see more.

Managed some good long benchtime yesterday and today.

Just got some paint on

Hi Tat! thanks for the info!

Jon: woooow! nice job!!! looking great!

cheers!

Hi all,
Bashing the base!

I want the effect of an old and beaten base with a newer gun on top.

Looks like you're achieving that effect, Jon. Nice work!

Update on the Trumpeter LAV-AD.

Rear hull. Assembly was straightforward. The only glitch were the jerry can and jerry can racks. Trumpy molds them as one piece with separate handles. They provide PE for straps and racks. As an alternative, they would have you cut off the molded on straps and racks. They do this with their recovery version as well. That is absolutely stupid in my opinion. At least send the bare cans. Anyway, used the styrene versions.


On to the upper hull. Nice looking upper hull, specific to this variant so no wackadoo cutting mods or anything.


I'm moving through this...no sense in showing step by step for each piece. Upper hull with driver's hatch, winch rollers, cover plates added, and the various tie down points and handles.
One of the mount arms for the mirrors on the light assemblies was broken. I repaired this and decided to leave them off for now. As an aside, Trumpy provides PE alternatives for the headlight mounts. As with the jerry cans, you have to perform some surgery to reuse the lights and mirror arms with the PE mount. I decided to use the styrene parts.
I left tools off for now.


The other side of the upper hull, including the PE intake covers. The kit uses the smaller exhaust. Trumpy molded on a tow cable (arrow)and it looks...well it looks like a molded on tow cable. I was tempted to cut it off but instead I'll leave it, paint it, and then cover it with stowage.


Hull assembly basically done.



And that's where I am now. The next update should be the turret.

Hello,

Flakvierling WIP:







Cheers,

Tat

Nice work Tat!

I have done some more tinkering on the 88.

and one more

Fantastic-looking builds, guys!

@Alex: Those do seem like some rather odd design choices on Trumpeter's part for what appears to be an otherwise nice kit.

Thanks Jon! Your build has come along quite nice and quick -- me I have just started to put primer on some of the sub-assemblies.

The kit-supplied gunsight was just a plain, solid piece. So I thought I'd fix it up a bit. Drilled through plastic, and wedged the thinnest styrene strip I have for the crosshairs:





I've tried using wire for the crosshairs. While the gauge looks better scale-wise I just couldn't mount it properly.





On to some paintwork.

Cheers,

Tat

Update on the LAV-AD.

With the hull basically done, it's time to start on the turret. I couldn't find a lot of information on the turret interior so I really stuck to the basics. I prepainted the interior Tamiya Sky, to represent sea foam green. The instruments were painted a neutral gray, but for some reason look green in the picture. The nobs are black. Even with the hatches open you really cannot see much of the turret's interior. And there's no way to place crew in without hacking off their legs. If you had the references you could rework the turret floor.


Turret halves together. Vulcan gun assembled. With the gun you have to be careful so the barrels line up straight. I prepainted the barrels to avoid any problems getting paint on the barrels.
The arrow is the sight for the Stingers. It's in one piece and closed. It would have been nice to have the option to model it open. The kit really could have used PE for the wiper arms.
The kit comes with masks for the turret windows. They went on well but really didn't want to stay on.



I started on the Stinger missile pods. The kit has included a rocket pod to swap out in place of one of the Stinger units. I decided to go Stingers all the way. So two Stinger pods built.


Turret assembly basically done...front and rear views.



Paint. I didn't want to do overall green like the kit suggests. I have two overall sand LAVs on the shelf...a 25mm turreted one and a recovery version. I had a coupel of ideas so I went ahead and sprayed it with a base coat of sand. I dusted the lower hull so the green still shows through. You may notice that only half of the wheels are in the paint tray.


Out of paint.


For camo I decided to add a secondary splatter effect olive green. I used a green sharpie to sort of mark out areas I needed green...like where the green wheel hubs would be.


I used a small stencil brush to apply the green. I used Poly S acrylic so I could fix any mess-ups. After covering the sharpie marks I played it by ear on adding more green. I really didn't want to over do it.


Another view. This view also shows the addition of a wire protector for the driver. The instructions just call for them on the turret. Pictures I've seen show them with and without one in front of the driver's position.


I started drybrushing. I didn't want to overdo things so I kept it simple. By the way, the turret elevation is not great and it doesn't like to stay elevated.


A view of the other side. You can also see the attempt to paint the molded on cable. I was so tempted to shave it off and swap it out with wire. I probably would have made a mess of it though.


I still have the wheels, pioneer tools, detail painting, touch-ups, and decals left. I'll probably will add some sort of stowage. I tacked the hatch covers on so if I decide to add crew figures it will be easy to open them up. I should have this one finished soon.

A lot of great progres on your builds! Really great work, guys.

I am about to start my build in a week or two.

More to follow.

amazing LAV!!! nice pictures! cheers!

a slow progress update, these Aussie summers dont encourage sitting in the model room








I deceided to do a slight upgrade, just the air conditioning unit on the turret roof to do now

Looks good, Colin. Some nice extra detail that sets it apart from normal Gepards.

Looking forward to see more.

As the campaign leader, I feel totally ashamed that I haven't even started my build yet when I see everyone doing such great work! Oh well, only two more builds to complete and then I can dive into something more flaky.