Hello folks, this is my last build, Heller AMX-30 1/35.

What can I say, the kit was awful! Bended parts, awful fit, detail not the best....don´t know if was just my kit, but with previous experiences with this brand, well, not really a fan of them. But it´s the only one in town, so gotta build it to get another Chilean Army vehicle for my colection.

Got quiet a few incidents during the build (broken wheels among others), but finally could finish it, tried to do my best to represent one of this vehicles serving in early 80´s in the chilean Patagonia.

Was painted with Vallejo Acrylics, weathering with artist oils, Mig pigments and Tamiya Weathering Stick

Now the pics, and comments most welcome as usual















Cheers and thanks for looking

Hi Klaus,
I agree with you, this kit is not the best I know but you can't make another choice unfortunately.
Nice build with some personal touches. But I can't see any differences with the original French AMX30B. What did the Chileans modify ?

BTW, do you know Eduard have a quite good set for this tank ?

Olivier

Thanks Olivier, I did know about the Eduard set, but this was kind of an abandoned project (I wasn´t using PE in any of my models at the time I started this one), the difficulties derived from the quality of the kit really discouraged me to keep on building. That was about six months ago. But a cuople of weeks ago decided to finish it and work from the step I abandoned it and just finish it . F

About mods, the Chilean Army didn´t do any alteration to the original 21 tanks received before the embargo (early 80´s) until it recieved 40 more units in mid 90´s (embargo lifted).

The original ones were of the B model (new), and the last batch acquired were B2´s (second hand). When those were recieved, the originals were brought to that standard.

All AMX-30 series were withdrawn from active service last year, in preparation to send those crews to Germany for training and reception of new Leopard 2A4 from german stocks. A few are kept for museum porpouses though. After new Leo 2s arrives, all the Chilean Army tank park will be of the Leopard series (models Leo 1-V ex-dutch and Leo 2A4 ex german).

Best Regards

Klaus

Thanks Karl,just another question regarding the secondary armament. Did the Chileans keep the coax 20mm aotmatic gun as well as the TC cupola AANF1 MG ? My bet is that at least the MG would have been replaced by some German MG3. Just a bet.

Olivier

Klaus,

I have never been a fan of Heller kits for just the reasons you stated. You have done a great job on this dog of a kit! Well done!

Thanks Thomas

Olivier, I was checking some references and the Army replaced the 20mm cannon for a .50 cal M2, sometimes wasn´t carried, maybe cause of maintenance reasons. About the MG, wasn´t replaced, they kept the orinal french MG.

Cheers

PS: My name still is Klaus, according with my ID at least

Yes, why the heck did I wrote Karl ?? You can beat my head, man. Not to harsh though I still have some models to build :-)

Don´t worry buddy, I´ll not hurt you THAT bad :-) :-) :-) I´ll leave you with enough brain to build A LOT of models :-) :-) :-) :-)

Best Regards

Klaus (still )

I love the detail you put on it, great job

Thanks Christopher

Hi Klaus aka Karl :-) :-)

Good job on that kit. Very interesting information on the Chilean armed forces. Gives a nice background to the kit.

The bands used for holding the camo netting and stowage in place seems very wide. Are they based on a reference or did you go for what looked right?

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Jesper, unfortunately not many reference pics of this particular vehicle, the only good (and big) enough ones are from museum vehicles, so little can be guess about the straps

Cheers