Well, since I'm laid up from my second ankle surgery, I thought I would get back in the swing of things and get back to contributing to Armorama.

We already have an Out of The Box build going on by Blazey(Onkos1) and Jim "Cracked the Box" for us along with Gino's(HeavyArty) nice in box review of the kit. So I won't bore you with all the little details that have been said already. What this build/review will have are some observations I have made about the kit along with some tips and tricks. Finally, like all my other builds, I will add small missing features and details.

So, with that said, lets get started on steps 1 through 6.....
First thing I did was fill/fill all the sink holes that will be visible with the doors and hatches open.

Here is the rear compartment with sanded sink marks:


Step 1: I found it easier to attach the hoses, part A38, A31, and A39 to their appropriate location to ease with cleaning of the seem line.




Wish Tiger Models would have made the "comm's" a separate piece. Thanks to Blast Models for providing an update kit with separate "comm's" to be used.

Step 2: The seems for the left ammo rack can't be seen, so there is no need to fill there. As for the right ammo rack, only the back can be seen, so filling will be needed there.


I left the fire extinguisher off for ease of painting and to also add the missing hose that is coupled to the bottle...


Step 3: I attached part A11 to part H first before I attached A33 to A11. This helped in aligning part A33 to the corresponding hose, part A38. Seats and steering wheel where left off for ease of painting.

Step 4: Before I attach the fighting compartment to the lower hull, i will add some missing details. There is a slave receptical underneath the dash board on the passenger side. On the drivers side, under the dash is a pull knob that looks like it's for the fire extinguisher(I may be wrong). There is also the park brake release handle. I will also add the cables for the radio.

Steps 5 and 6: I left seats off for ease of painting.

I can't remember when I got it, but for the longest time, I had the Coree Panhard VBL kit stuffed in the box un-finished. here are some shots that show the lack of detail the resin kit had compared to the Tiger Model kit. Big difference!!!!!!!!

Its nice to see another one of these up and running- there's now a healthy amount of build references and help when I crack my own open at some point! Its a very interesting comparison between the resin kit and the plastic.
Great work so far- looking forward to seeing some paint on it.

Thanks!

I have that Coree resin kit, doesn't look to bad actually if you keep in mind not much will be seen of the interior if the vehicle is modelled "closed up". I think the exterior detailing looks a lot sharper on your pics.

Cheers,

Christophe

I hadn't seen pics of the Coree kit before and I must say that I'm not over impressed by the details and accuracy. I don't understand why the Azimut offering was rated under the Coree one. At least the interior was more detailed.

Keep on the good work Pete

Well guys, my laptop decided it wanted to go nuts, might have to re-install operating system. So it might be a bit slow getting updates in on this build.

Here are some of the things i added to the interior prior to painting and moving on to step 7:

I marked the spot where the slave receptacle will go and drilled out the plastic from the back. Remember, there is a black matting the covers the vehicle metal, so the receptacle will sit in a bit.








Next, I added the cables for the radio plus 3 cables that atached to the dash that I found in reference photo's. If I hadn't mentioned it, I like to use "wire wrap" wire for all my cables. Comes in different colors and can even be stripped down to a smaller diameter with a "wire wrap" tool.
FYI: part A37 is the hand mike. I filled the mounting point in the roof and attached the cable and glued it in place on top of the radio.




Next was the red pull handle and brake release seen under the steering wheel of the drivers side. I also added the cable for the parking brake and release handle.


Last, I found in some reference photos mounting points on the side of the rear left fender. I used plastic rod for this.


At this time, I have already painted the lower interior and seats. Decals have been placed on the dash and fire extinguisher. At this time, it is drying and waiting for a clear flat coat. Aside from my laptop issues, I will try to have some pics up of the completed painted lower interior before I move on to the inside upper interior.

I want to apologize first guys, I forgot to take pictures of the upper interior before I painted it.

Again, the Tiger Models Panhard VBL kit is very well detailed inside for such a small kit. There wasn't to much that I added.

There is a frame around the inside of the windows, so I added that with some Evergreen stock and also added some Meng bolts. I also added cables around the control boxes in between the windows. I also added the missing intercom and 2 control boxes to the roof of the interior.

Looking really good Pete

Nice work so far.

Pete this is looking brilliant- the wiring really adds a nice touch to the interior.

I just finished and submitted pictures and review but I wanted to show just a couple of pics before it was published.



For comparison, I took a picture of the Panhard VBL next to a Trumpeter UAZ-469 in Iraqi markings.

Beautiful job Pete with all the detailing and I can't believe how quickly you finished.

This turned out really nice Pete. Great shot with the UAZ to show the interesting size comparison.

Thanks Sean. Even with the small amount of extra I put into the build, it did come together pretty quick. Now back to that Buffalo.

Thanks Karl, just wanted to show it off with something else.