I picked up one of these on eBay, anyone tackle one yet?

Have never built one.....but have been looking for one.....however when they come up on Ebay, they usually go for a fair amount of money.

That and the Dragon Scud.......yeah I know....why would I want that pain in the butt kit....but its of a unique subject, and no one else makes it, and is very impressive once built!!!

How much did you get the Chapparral for??

Rob,
Like so many of my models, I got it built up to the point that adding the next parts would mean it did not fit in the closed box any longer 'doh!'

I do remember having some fit troubles with the roof (drivers compartment covers?? / upper deck, maybe with the hull front too... but this was a few years ago before I quite knew what I was doing.. yeah right... :-)

Mike

well gona build one have build it already for 15% but notmuch time.

I have the older kit of them ... well there seems to be one with other boxcover.

I got the kit for 15 euro's on the lowest stock in a model shop

I bought one after it was released the first time.It went together very well.The rear panel locking levers work,so you can display the panel down.The track pads do have sinkmarks on the outer surface,so if you are expert with putty,you will breeze through.








Happy building!

Rob - a fellow local club member and myself wrote a tag-team breakdown of the AFV Club Chaparral's pros and cons in four issues of IPMS Silicon Valley's newsletter 10 years ago. He worked on the actual system at the manufacturing level and I built the kit.

If you want, I can pull out the newsletter issues out of my archives and send them to you via snail-mail...

Gunnie

ah forgot to say...

the kit has this m113 steering handles but somebody told me this has to be something like a steeringwheel.

If anybody knows more please help...

The AFV Club kit is a bit of a mix of details found in the M54 and M54A1 Chaparral FAADS System actually - with differences being found in the type of Turret (Chaparral) fitted to the M730 or M730A1 and M730A2 Transporter(s). When setting out the build the kit - it is very helpful to decide on the variant you want to model and then modify/correct the details on both the Turret and Transporter to get the details to agree with each other. This is really important for a US Army or US Marine Corps Chaparral FAADS System. The base AFV Club kit was done through examining Taiwanese Chaparrals - exported by the US. Export model fittings can cause some confusion in attempts to model the kit - though the mixing of details is accurate for the exported systems.

Gunnie

Thanks, I think I'll just build it OOB using the Warmachines and Hunnicutt books to tweak it a little here and there. I was curious if anyone had any major issues with this early AFV Club kit.

I've always thought of it as a fairly impressive looking duck hunter. Perhaps I'll set it aside for an M113 FOV group build, or maybe someone will want to sponsor a "Duck Season" build where you build some type of anti-aircraft system model.

I built one a few years ago. I used Verlinden book as the main reference. I noticed that some details are from different version, like those steering handles. But I left the drivers compartment as it was in the model, just modified the turret slightly to look more like those in the book. I also omitted the winch and replaced it with blanking plate and modified front signal lights to the newer style ones. I painted my model exactly as the one shown in Warmachines book - with the vehicle hull paited in 3-color NATO scheme and launcher still in 4-color MERDC camo.

Some photos here:




I know, decals are silvering badly, but they were applied over flat paint... I used to make such errors back then. I tried to do something to correct it recently, but nothing worked - mostly because the whole model, with decals, was covered with matt varnish.

More photos here: http://vodnik.net/index_gal.htm.

Rgds,
Pawel

There's a few gaps around the cabin. And like has been said, it still has the tiller bars so it's not the most modern version, though the steering yoke is about a 30 minute conversion. The seats look kind of bare and could do with some padding, plus the NBC filtration system should be added. Go with the MK tracks though.

Hi,

Due to your post I remember my Chaparral.I don't know wich steering system there is on the M730, so I build it without any steering system
Here some pics. More on my webshots page.


Can some one say me what type of steering systen I can put in this ODS Chaparral. TIA
[ http://pageperso.aol.fr/Pascalbausset/Les+colleurs+juin04/Resize+of+Chaparral0011.JPG[/img]
pascal

One pic is missing :

Can some one help me for completing my model ?
TIA
pascal

Pascal,

I would expect ODS Chapparals to be similar to those shown in Verlinden Warmachines book. This means steering yoke/wheel, but I wouldn't be surprised to see old steering system as well. But take a closer look at photos of my model - newer Chapparals (even those with old steering) had some extra box at the front of the launcher turret (probably some extra electronics) and different style front turn signal lights - I added those two modifications to my model.

Rgds,
Pawel

Thanks Pawel for these informations. I put a old steering system in my Chaparral, and I will build the turret box (If you can give me the dimensions ?). When all is made I'll put new pictures.

Cheers
pascal

I don't know exact dimensions of this box. I just estimated them from photos. Here are a few:







And here are new style signal lights:





By the way - the vehicle on the last three pictures (AFAIR it is an Italian vehicle, but ex-US Army one, as it still had small gray US star painted on front) had old style steering levers:



Rgds,
Pawel

Rob,

See What You Started?

hehe....A wealth of info, pics and links...all from a single ebay purchase on a whim...way to go bud.

Now, all I have to do is find one...

Actually, I just wanted to know if the kit had any known build problems. I have the Warmachines book that covers the Chaparral and have a couple of M548s at work that I will use for reference for detailing the cab.

I find Stormfront's photos very helpful since they show some scratchbuilding detail. I was fairly certain that the missiles were not painted sand like Pascal's build and Vodnik's photos help confirm this.

The vehicle just looks very cool, like it would have fought Godzilla.

Thanks for all.

Pawel, I can make my little box with these pics.Thanks one more time.

Rob youre are right, the missiles are not yellow sand but green. I'll try to change this when I add the box. On my reference pics the missiles are green and I paint them in yellow

Here is my ref picture from the Concord book "Blitzkrieg in the Gulf"



Regards
pascal

When I built this about a year ago I built it with the covers closed (don't attempt this at home). The fit is quite poor and best to build this open and missiles stowed for transport.

Here is my new Chaparral




after rework.

Cheers
pascal

I was given one of these kits by a colleaugue a couple years ago, buut only proceeded part way throught the build due to lack of information. The thread here has provided enough to finish mine sometime in the future. Thanks gents!

Hey guys,

Having picked up one of these yesterday (after visiting the Motor Pool in real life, and of course NOT taking photos of the M548 cab...), this thread has been very useful in answering some questions I had - thanks!

Olaf