Introduction

The CV9040B is a tracked infantry fighting vehicle developed by Sweden starting from 1983. The chassis was designed by Hägglunds while Bofors developed the turret. The first vehicles were ordered in 1993. As soon as 1994, the first CV9040B, an improved version with firing on the move capability, were ordered. Compared with the basic version, the CV9040B is fitted with a new 40mm automatic cannon, an improved fire control system and a CCD camera also used as a back-up sight.
The production of CV90 for the Swedish army ended in 2002. In total 354 IFVs, 30 ADA vehicles, 42 FIST-Vs, 56 Command vehicles, 26 ARVs and 1 electronic warfare vehicle were issued to the army.
The CV9040B has been deployed to Liberia in small quantities along with the C version featuring an enhanced protection.
The CV9040B has a crew of three and can carry 7 soldiers.

Contents

The kit is released by Academy and comprises 5 sand plastic sprues, 2 hull halves, 2 black plastic sprues for the track links, 1 black plastic sprue for the track pads, 1 clear plastic sprue, 1 pair of vinyl tracks, 1 sheet of photo etched parts, 1 sheet of decals, 1 turned aluminium barrel and poly caps.
The carving and the level of detail are pretty good. The fit is quite satisfactory. Academy gives the option of showing all the hatches open but the inner faces have numerous ejection marks that will require a lot of work to remedy.
The instruction booklet comprises 12 pages. The first one gives a paint chart in several brands. Pages 2 to 10 deal with the assembly. Page 11 covers the camouflage scheme and the decals placement instructions. Unfortunately it is black and white. The last page shows the various sprues.

Build Review

Construction traditionally starts with the chassis and the running gear. The road wheels arms fit well. You just need to check their correct alignment. The road wheels and the sprockets are assembled with poly caps which avoid the need of glue. The outer road wheel comes in two parts because of its particular shape. This will ease the painting process. In fact, on many pictures of actual CV90s, we can notice that the rim often appears in bare aluminium. The inner face of the inner road wheel is detailed.
At step 4, the black-out lights E7 do not fit well with the headlight blocks E5 and E6. You need to sand them a bit.

The rear panel is an easy job. Academy gives the option of building the door open or closed. The hinge parts are different according your choice. As stated above, the door inner face has ejection marks to fill. However, as there is no interior, fixing the door won't be enough.
The lower part of the ski rack is given as either a single plastic part or a plastic frame with a PE mesh part to glue on. The photo etched option is more realistic.
It is advised not to glue the antenna E53 as this stage to avoid breaking it.

The upper hull is nicely molded and has anti-slip detailed surfaces. All the hatches come as separate parts. The driver’s one as 3 vision blocks which can be put aside waiting for the painting.
The driver’s hatch is designed to be moveable but the hinge shape prevents it from fully opening.
On the roof behind the turret, Academy omitted to represent the towing cable and its brackets. The troop compartment hatches can be shown open. In this case, you must not glue the hatch halves as a single large hatch but have them folded.
The turret comes in two parts, a ring with lugs to fix it to the hull and the turret. As with the driver’s hatch, the 10 vision blocks are not glued at this stage. The antennas bases look too thin and could be replaced by others. The 6 Galix tubes have an ejection mark that you need to fill.

The vehicle commander’s hatch has a mobile hinge system. Unfortunately, to keep it working you have to sand the hinges D21 and D22. The lock D47 should be glued offset too.
The gunner’s sight comes as a clear part and It is protected by an armored housing. It is necessary to paint the sight and the inside of the housing prior to gluing the parts. The shutter of the housing can be shown open or closed.
The 40mm cannon comes as either a single plastic part or an aluminium tube on which are glued a plastic collar and a recoil sleeve. The cannon assembly allows 3 possible elevations. However the dust cover D16 is designed for a gun in the horizontal position. The simple design of the gun allows the average model builder to depict it in the desired elevation.
The CV9040 is fitted with a 7.62mm coaxial MG which is not issued by Academy.

The build ends with the assembly of the both hull halves and the tracks. The bravest will choose the separate links tracks. A lot of work will be involved as it requires you to glue each track pad and the need to fill both of the ejection marks on the inner track link faces. Even if you do it for the visible track links only it will be time consuming. Moreover, the detail is not really better than on the vinyl tracks. For example, the track pins retaining bolts are not present. But these tracks will help representing the sagging due to the absence of return rollers.
The vinyl tracks can't be glued. You need to melt them like the old tracks in the 70-80s. They are a bit too long by two links. So you need to cut them and use the old staple trick to join the both ends again. Anyway the vehicles side skirts will hide the upper length of the tracks.
For those who like filling the turret hatches with figures, Academy provides two crew members. The detail is a bit soft. The vest is not the correct design, as the tanker vest is shorter than the Academy one. The way the trousers bottoms are tied above the boots is not correct but this will be invisible.

Finishing

A single scheme is proposed by Academy. It is the 3-tone black, dark green and light green splinter scheme. The decal sheet gives two registration numbers without any unit indication.

Conclusion

This kit builds easily into a Sweden-based vehicle only with a minimum of effort.

I would like to thank Sven Harjacek for his help with this review.