Finished the Hobbycraft AS 90, Really quite pleased with it. I lost faith in it half way through the build, had some major fit problems with the turret but over came them with plenty of fine wet and dry and elbow grease !!. I really like the colour, Humbrol 63 Matt Sand, I was going to give it a light burnt umber wash but decided in the end to just highlight various areas with Tamiya's excellent new "C" weathering set using the gun metal and silver pigments. It doesnt show up very well in the pictures as I only have my camera phone to use which isnt as good as a proper digi camera, but I think you can get an idea with these pictures. Overall I would give the kit 8.5/10 for ease of build and 9/10 for overall looks when complete.

Im now going to start on an AFV Centurion MK.5 which I think is going to be a lot of fun !!!.


Cheers


Kev

No comments up to now, it's a pity ! I'm sure some members have interesting comments to help.


Your AS90 turns well but you could improve it quite easily with a little weathering. In fact, it looks too clean for a vehicle on operation. Some pigments should do the trick.

I would advise to clean the turret basket mesh with a pin head, some holes are filled with paint I guess. It shows well on the 3rd picture.

Last thing for me, your figures are a little off but mine hardly turn satisfactorily at least to me too. It's quite another job to paint figures and I'm still learning how to tackle this!

Keep on,
Olivier

As an AS90 OOB and painted "Desert Sand", it's... Ok.

It needs weathering and dirtying up a bit. And some good pics taken.

Sorry, but... It needs work...

Hi

is it humbrol 63 matt sand you used, because my tin looks more brown than yellow.
im asking because it looks a good colour in the photos

thanks mark

Its a good start. As the others have stated, it needs some weathering and paint chips down to the green/black under color to make it look like the actual vehicles deployed to Op Telic (Iraq). The sand paint used as an overcoat was very poor quality and wore through quickly. There should be no silver on the model either. Paint scrapes rarely go down to bare metal, and when they do it is more of a wear rub and the metal is dark from grease and grime off your hands where it has been worn down. It is also in very select areas (around hatches and where the crew gets on and off) and not all over the vehicle. Did you shorten the barrel and make it in the proper 39 caliber, or leave it as the too long 52 caliber Bravehaert export version? It looks too long to me. Figures are totally off as well. they should have British two-tone sand desert uniforms on, not OD Green. The figures are really just wrong. They look like the Academy IDF Tank Crew guys. The helmets are close to Brit helmets, but the uniforms are all wrong. AA has some nice modern Brit figures that would work well.

Gino, The kit comes with both caliber barrels. You don't have to shorten the long one, just pick the short one.
Shaun

/Working on this very kit for the "A Guard" group build.
//One kit where you can probably get away with the massive paint chipping that has really become all the rage.

Shaun, actually you do. The Trumpeter barrel is too long for either caliber. Check here, about half-way down at step 18.

Crap...

Thanks Gino. I have a PE set for the screens and turret basket so I guess I might as well go full bore, so to speak, and correct the barrel length as well. I am using Davidson's FSM article in the April 2005 issue as a reference and he cut the barrel too. Just had not gotten that far yet.

Thanks for the link.

Shaun

/Sorry for the thread jack everyone

Glad to help. Good luck on yours.

Hi Shaun,

How did you get on with cutting the barrel to the correct size?

Sorry, more hijacking...

Murdo,

Not that far yet. I'll let you know. Should be too bad though.

Shaun