Allright, I have almost completed the interior portions of the Hobby Fan M163. I am converting this into an IDF Machbet and am waiting on the Legends Machbet conversion with sandbags to complete the exterior.

As far as the Hobby Fan set goes, WOW! The resin is really good resin. It is not to fragile and even has a little flexibilty to it. Of all the pieces in this kit, only one small one came out of the box broken. All of the fine wiring harness pieces came intact. The directions are a little vague but with the drawings and a little work you can figure it all out. In the directions though they label two wire harnesses as part number 100. On the parts layout one is 100 and the other is 101. If you track the wire in the directions you can figure out which one goes where. Be careful when adding the wires, most just come from one plug and go up into the ceiling. A few go from one plug, across the turret and into another plug. Again just a little, following the wires through the directions and you can figure it out.


Main gun turret wiring harnesses


Main gun interior

There is also an almost complete interior in the Hobby Fan set. There is the obvious large ammo drum on the left wall and the smaller ammo feed box on the fllor next to the large ammo drum. The interior hooks for the rear ramp are included as well as the pulley section for the ramp wire. The right side has shelves, radios, boxes, all kinds of goodies. The only section not in the Hobbyfan set is the drivers area. I have the AEF Designs interior set as well as the Eduard interior set. I have used a combination of all these sets to finish the interior.


Left side wall. Yellow resin is Hobby Fan, Grey resin is AEF Designs.


Right side wall. Yellow resin is Hobby Fan, Grey resin is AEF Designs.


Rear ramp looking toward driver section.

As far as the exterior goes, again I am waiting on the Legends set to complete this project. The Hobby Fan set is outstanding though. The main gun includes 6 turned aluminum barrels. The resin is kinda thin up here so you have to be careful with the small parts but again I did not have much problem with it. There are wiring harnesses up here as well. I am not using the large radar dish or the sight because of the Legends set. I glued to sight into place then realized it had to be removed. I broke the sight harness trying to remove it but I think it is all repaired now.


Main gun assembly.


Turret ring.

All in all I am very happy with the Hobby Fan set. If you are interested in it I recommend looking to Lucky Model (much better price!). The resin is pretty clean and free of bubbles. The plugs are simple to remove and don't cause a lot of breakage when removing them. I will continue to post progress pics as I go. Thanks.

I'm assuming your doing the IDF verison of the M163? I've been planning on building one myself, just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

Great build

Far too much resin for me buddy :-)

Great build, looking forward to see it finished

Cheers

Wow thats really stunning work so far. Im building the Academy M163 and doing a US version. The kit didnt come with an interior so im real jealous of your build.

The main gun turret in the Academy kit was pretty accurate and so was the exterior. Was simply an M113A2 hull so am not sure if you can use it for your IDF version.

Am not sure if you were still in the midst of assembling your gun turret but those hydraulic arms that raises the turret up an down should be connected to the frame of the gatling gun. They look disconnected from your frame.

Really keen to see more progress shots.

I have to have thah Hobby Fan set!!! That looks bloody amazing, superb detailing work you have done there and excellent use of the AEF set. Ive been putting off getting the HF M163 for a while but think I had better start saving cos that is stunning!

Thanks for the comments. Yes this is going to be an IDF version. I should be getting the Legend set this week. I just purchased some paint for the interior, the "seafoam green" color. My only problem with this Hobby Fan set is that the hatch where the gun goes is all connected to the one piece hull top. I have actually cut mine out of the hull top and am working on repairing the cut marks. I want to be able to take the gun out so that you would be able to see the inside of the tank and the detail on the gun.

As far as the hydraulic arms go, they are attached, its just really hard to see it in the picture.

I will post more pictures as I go along. Again thsnks for the comments.

Hi guys! Sorry to bring up the old topic, but I'm interested to see if any of you saved Cory's M163 in progress pictures for your own reference? The Machbet pictures were removed from kitmaker gallery and since Cory no longer has the model or any of the pictures he took of his build due to the unfortunate computer crash....

I'm just starting the M163 Machbet with Hobby Fan and Legend conversions, Modelkasten tracks, Eduard PE... the progress photos would really come in handy since Hobby Fan instructions are a bit vague.

Cheers,
Mario