Hello Again, Folks,

I noticed in a photo that the inside/bottom of the driver's hatch on the LAV-25 has a round cushion on it, I would assume to cushion the driver if he hit his head/helmet on the inside of the hatch.

Do the Commander/Gunner's turret hatches and the overhead troop hatches have similar padding? Does anyone have pictures, by chance?

Also, can anyone recommend Tamiya color matches for the interior hatch color as well as the 3 color NATO camo scheme...?

Lastly, does anyone have any recommendations for adding the non-skid texture? The kit is 35th scale...

Thanks again!

Regards and Aloha,

John B.

Tamiya NATO Green (XF-67), Black (XF-68), and Brown (XF-69) and the inside of the hatches would be NATO Green also.

There are several methods you can use to simulate the non-skid. Gino (HeavyArty) uses the Krylon TerraCota spray can method and Pawel (Vodnik) used the Mr. Surfacer method using an airbrush.

Yes, the hatches have the interior pads. Sorry, no pics of them. No idea on Tamiya colors either, I only use Model Master enamels myself. Here is my technique for anti-slip texture though.

There are no pads inside the rear troop hatches.

For a photo of the inside of the Commander's and Gunner's hatches go to Prime Portal...go to "The Battlefield"...then go to the second entry for LAV 25...then go to page two...second row, second image from the left.

The pads are only thin black rubber about 1" thick...it still smarts when you hit your head even when wearing a CVC helmet when hatches down.

If you look at the driver's hatch(from the underside), the black foam liner is circular, and it conforms to the shallow dome in the hatch. Like someone said, it's about 1" thick, altho I never banged my head into it, with or without the CVC helmet on I did run an LAV into a ditch at speed, which then caused the vehicle to jump about 3 feet into the air. None of us were ready, and the loader broke his elbow on a vision block (cracked it, too!). The inertia of my head brought my chin into comtact with the front deck really hard, and i had a huge flap of skin hanging down with blo... anyway. The VC made out fine, altho he was freaked out. Anyone wonder why I hate driving my LAV into a dust storm into the sunset, at 50mph?

Anyhow, the turret hatches have the pads, too, and like the driver's, they conform to the dome shape. I don't recall the troop hatches on top having the pads, and I know for a fact that the back doors don't. The troop hatches and back doors DO have a thin black seal around the rim, tho. Probably something to do with sealing the vehicle for using the NBC system. The inside of the drivers, VCs, and loader's hatches are dark green, with black for the pads. If you're simulating a new LAV, the pads are slightly glossy. It wears dull in a year or so, depending if your freak of a driver uses armorall on his pad

Everybody who says the black things weren't shiny... I was one of the Marines who unwrapped them when we got them from the factory They were semi-gloss once

To the OP... sorry for writing so much. Hope some of it was helpful.

As Colombo says... there's just one more thing, sir..

The stuff Gino used in his demo on the M1 might be a little coarse for the nonskid surface of the LAV. Gino, did you paint over that brown, and if so, did it soften it a bit?


Not criticizing you, Gino, I am far from expert on technique. I'm asking because I'm doing an LAV diorama right now, too, and I was wondering what I'd do for the non-skid, which is a really fine grain, like beach sand.

No problem. The red/brown color does get overpainted with the hull color. It does tone it down and it looks really close to me once painted.

Here is the finished model with it on.



More here.

The seals around the back doors and troop hatches were meant originally to ensure a good seal when swimming the LAV.

I have also used the Rust-oleum technique on an M109 I am currently building. I used the silver-grey coloured version. From my experience of working on AFVs with non-skid surfaces I think it looks very realistic and in scale for 1/35. I will be using it for any LAV series vehicles that I build.

Thanks, Folks!!!

As always, awesome info and pix...

Much obliged!!!!!

Aloha,

Johnny B.