Hey folks,

After a bit of a break, i got hit with a big wave of inspiration and ended up building the Academy MCV Warrior kit. Its a damn good kit IMHO. It does have some faults like the wrong markings (O8 should be OB) but nothing significant.

I tried to put a bit more flat yellow into the base coat as i did notice from the reference photos that the Brits didnt exactly use the same light sand colour as their US counterparts. This seemed to be the case with both the challengers and warriors.

Weathering was done in this order:
- Clear gloss coat applied after the base colour was applied
- Decals applied when the gloss coat was dry.
- Pin wash performed using raw umber diluted with turpentine.
- A filter was applied to tone down the contrast of the pin wash.
- Used childrens' face paint pigment powder to "dust up" the kit and apply some dust on the tracks.
- Final matt clear coat applied on the entire kit.

Here is the final product.











I really really wanted to add the british tank crew by Blast Model on this kit but the cost of the figures alone was more than the kit itself. Damn the kiwi dollar.

Comments / Suggestions welcome as i would be using these for the up coming challenger project.

Thanks in advance!

so this is what it looks like. i was thinkin of doing 1 for fun. its a nice kit.
how's the interior? i always believe that academy has the best interior OOTB.

hmm..i like the pepsi, coke and gulfa boxes. how u make them?

Hi Danial,

This kit didnt come with an interior although the interior of the driver hatch and the rear door are detailed so that you could leave the hatch and door open. You would have to kit bash in order to get the full interior. Not entirely sure where you could get that from. Didnt recall seeing it in the old Academy kit although i may be wrong.

The boxes were printed out and folded. I think they were created by Gino but again, i may be wrong. Gino, if you are reading this, can you clarify?

Nice work Jeremy, good call on the color I think it looks really good. I'm in the process of painting an Op Telic Challenger 2 and I did something very similiar...I added flat yellow to Tamiya desert yellow and I'm very pleased with the results. The two things that jump out at me that you might want to do differently in the future, dust up the rubber sidewalls on the roadwheels to match the lower skirts, and attach some straps to the tarp on the side. Right now it appears as if it is just hanging there defying gravity . (unless there is a handle or something under it that isn't visible in the pics, I'm not that familiar with the Warrior.)

Cheers,
Mike

is there a link to any of the miniature printout it in Armorama?

Good match on the color and not too much weathering. Looks like a nice clean build.

2 minor nitpicks. The stowage probably shouldn't block the intake/exhaust grills. I'm not sure where Academy got the idea for this on the box art. And the hole for mounting the side skirts should be filled in on the right front.

Paul

Looking good ----------
dah!!---Coke cans will go bang soon ......exhaust ?----and then the engine----chairs are in intakes ?...oops!!!! ..
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

Yup, the Coke, Pepsi, and water boxes look like mine. Check here for more on them.


The placement of your gear is off. As mentioned, the Coke and Pepsi are blocking the exhaust outlet. The chairs are blocking the intake grills too. Also, the right side rear combat chevron (>) on the storage box is floating at the tip. It is off the edge of the box. Other than that, it looks pretty good. The paint color looks pretty much spot on. Good job.


As for the basic kit, Academy got the decals all wrong. You already mentioned the 08 vs. 0B mistake. Also, the chevrons are wrong too. All of them should point to the left when viewed from any side. They have you put the sides ones on both pointing to the front. Lastly, they have the version wrong as well. The 0B vehicle they modeled it after is an ICV (Infantry Command Vehicle), not an ISV (Infantry Section Vehicle, what Academy calls an MCV - Mechinized Combat Vehicle). The rear hull is totally different with a different hatch/door design and long range antennas as well. Lastly, it does not come with an interior. AA does a resin interior and a few resin and PE upgrade and conversion sets for it too.

I built this exact vehicle for the Brit Captain who commanded it in Op Telic. He was my neighbor at the NTC. Here is mine. I built it using the Accurate Armour ICV conversion and correct Bison ICV/ISV decal sheet.

whats a pin wash and were did u get the coke boxes?

thanks gino

Wow.. A nice built. Make me want to make the Warrior that I still have in the stash..
:-)--<

BTW, in the photo of the back of the warrior. The mud flap seems a bit too thick. Like it was made from a wooden board or something. Any P/E update for this kit yet?

One other thing, do you forget the wheather the top part of the tracks? because it looks too black if compared to the bottom one.

Well, the stowage securing issues and stowage locations have been mentioned. Remember that kit on a real AFV has got to placed or secured where is won't get damaged, fall off, or interfere with the actual combat operations of the vehicle.

I have seen the metal ammo boxes attached to the rear hull bins of a Warrior like that so you are OK. They are likely bolted through the bottom to the top of the vehicle bins.

For future projects make the antennas thinner. British antennas are much thinner than what you have put on your Warrior.

You should also drill out the barrel of the coaxial mounted chain gun.

British water cans are made of black plastic...the only tan ones I have seen are hand painted and they chip heavily very quickly.

The paint colour you chose looks very good.

Good luck with your Challenger project.

Hey thanks very much for the suggestions guys.

I guess i shouldnt have followed the box art in terms of mounting the chairs to the exhaust. The coke and pepsi box were loosely fitted there and not glued on so they are easily removed.




Doh how could i have missed that. Good point, will fix that straight away!




They are somewhat thick but can be easily sand down to become thinner. I contemplated bending them by heating the plastic a bit but decided against it as it was risky.




Thanks for the tip. Incidentally, how are the tarps secured to the side skirts in actual deployment? Tried looking through several reference photos and it seemed as if the straps are secured to those bolts on the side skirt itself.

The straps very well may be attached under the bolts. It wouldn't be hard for a crew member to remove the bolts, drill holes in the straps, and re-attach the bolts.

There is also the metal mesh stowage bin that is covered by the right side add-on armour. Straps may be attached through the metal mesh.

I'm not really up with modern armour, but your Warrior looks good to me. Ditto comments on the Pepsi & Coke boxes - either they'll spontaneously combust, or the Pepsi & Coke corporations will sue you for showing their products in close proximity.


Hope this might be useful.

Jeff W.

A pinwash is one where spots of a well diluted colour (in this case raw umber) are applied around bolts, wheel hubs, opening panels etc with a fine brush; the mixture if it's diluted enough will use capillery action to work it's way around (say) the base of a bolthead. You can see the effects on the side of Jeremy's MCV, where all the bolts show up.

Well done Jeremy, perhaps you would like to apply a darker washes in the recess area to create a 3D effect.

Hey Coca, thanks for the tip. Based on your observation, were there more areas around the kit that should have had more washes applied? I tried applying a pin wash in areas that were obvious but got worried about applying too much.

Jeremy you can apply the darkes wash in area like the intake/exhaust area, anywhere that fall under the 12 o'clock shadow. Remember do it layer after layer to built up the depth.
Thank you

Nice looking tank, and well detailed, looks pretty close to the pic of the real one posted by Kiwi Jeff

Thanks for the kind words Erin.




Ah i think the wash i did wasnt enough. I was really careful on the points where i applied it. Perhaps i should have done a heavier wash similar to the one i did on the challenger 1. I will be sure to keep this in mind for my challenger 2.

Very good finished build Jeremy, really like it. Glad to seemore modern armor builders venturing into MOM.

Congrats on a job well done

Cheers

Nice model Jazza.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Im definitely a strong advocate of modern armour.