Hi guys

Nearly finished Hobbyfan`s FAV in 135 scale.
It is a beatuifull kit, with many challengeing repairs to fix.

My goodness it looks difficult to put together. How many flash did you have to remove?

Nice touch replacing the fenders with (lead) foil...

There was "plenty" of flash to remove "eller for å si det riktig"mycket"
and the fenders was beyond repair, and had to be replaced with leadfoil

ROy

As stated over at M-L, Hobby Fan called it the wrong thing. It is a DPV (Desert Patrol Vehicle), not a FAV. From all my research and eyewitness accounts, the DPV was only used by 7ID (Light) in tests. It was not bought nor used in ODS in favor of the bigger, 3-man SEAL FAV (Fast Attack Vehicle).

Here is the FAV.

In ODS:



In A'stan:


The HF kit is also out of proportion and not very accurate. Looks like you made it look pretty good though.

Oki.
It had to be another veichle I saw. some time ago
Thanks for the comments though

Roy

Hi guys

First let me say thats some great work. I can't wait to see this one done . Is this for a diorama or a single piece ? Heres an off topic thought for you guys. I wonder what the first members of the SAS who drove those uparmed Willys around North Africa would think of these things? Like I said just a thought.
Harry

Roy,

Didn't you say on M-L you have a "source" that saw these DPVs deployed in Desert Storm? What exactly did they say about them?

As Gino stated here and on Missing Lynx...the DPV was only used by 7ID (Light) for tests...which I believe were conducted in both Ft. Lewis and South Korea.

These vehicles are generally seen as a "failure" in the military. Well, OK, that's not quite correct, but where they're sent to makes them a failure waiting to happen. Or rather, user reviews have been a "mixed bag."

The DPV and FAV use a Volkswagon *air cooled* engine, which means in the heat of Iraq or Afghanistan, they have a tendency to overheat since there's no radiator. This is why the Land Rover, IFAV, and GMV, vehicles with a radiator, replaced the DPV.

Of course no one really knew this at the time since Chenowth Racing builds dune buggies for the Baja 1000, which BTW is by the Pacific Coast and its nice sea breezes, as is SEAL Team 3 (Coronado, CA = Pacific) which at ODS-time was the only SEAL T to use the DPV. So the VW engine overheat wasn't too much of a problem in the Baja 1000 compared to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The DPV does have its uses. It can be transported inside a CH-53 and is nearly twice as fast as the GMW over the same types of terrain.

I kind of agree with Gino's assessment too. I never saw photos of the two-seater FAV in ODS. Chenowth has some pics and AFAIK, they're the three-seater variety. The Marines and SEALs name them differently too. I think the SEALs call it the DPV whereas the Marines call it the LSV = Light Strike Vehicle since the USMC FAV was the M151 FAV.

MAIL CALL did a brief on the Polaris ATV, which has a radiator BTW and 4X4 drive, and is often used by the Army and USAF PJs.

HobbyBoss is supposed to come out with a DPV...no word on that yet. "Failure" or not, if the HobbyBoss kit gets favorable reviews, I'll definitely buy one!

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Nice job, BTW! The Hobby Fan DPV figures themselves are highly valued.


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The Hobby Fan one is accurate to the 9th Division Testbed as Gino said. I've the Concord "Light Forces" book, C 1990, and even in 1990, the Concord book says the 9th was deactivated.

Gino is probaly right. he knows quite a lot of this vehicles and other

Mine sources saw an veichle finished in an Pink/desert color parked in an camp in The border zone between Kuwait and Irak. There was at least 10 such veihcles they said. They belived that there was som DF forces around and in them. togheter with some civilian personell.
This sources are higly trained military personell(not US though)

But They could of course be wrong, Maybe SAS has some veichles similary to those that SEALS are using:
Gino? What do you think they saw?

Roy

I think Jordan Special Forces use this two-seater Chenowth FAV.

No way to really tell. They could have been the Jordanian DPVs as Pete mentioned. They could have been FAVs as well. They look similar from a distance. There are quite a few types of dune-buggy vehicles over in the Middle East used by Spec Ops types.

Ooops, my mistake. The Concord SOJ #11 showed the Jordanian "Black Iris," which I mistook for the Chenowth FAV.

The Chenowth FAV Hobby Fan made is used by Portugal. Jan-Willem de Boer sent me photos in 1999-2000. I'll post them here under his name, but if he tells me to remove them, they're gone.

I don't know anything about these photos: where they were taken, what year, what unit, ecetera. Looks like the U.S. sold most FAVs to foreign armies.





That tan one kind of looks like it's in Jacque Littlefield's Collection. I don't know...never been to Littlefield's,

This below photo shows the FAV in Portugal Service with MK-19. I don't know "when," "who," or "where" though. Must be 1990s since the photo was emailed to me back in 1999.

Great pics. I wish I saw them berfore Ive start building it....
Well, thats Modlling its all about.

Thanks
Roy