Takom 1/35th FV 432 Completed

Nice! I will definitely watch this one! Certainly one that I need for my collection. 

Funny that they tell you to install the tillers (in US Army lingo “laterals”) in such a manner. 

Thanks Stik. Ye, i know what you mean. It seems as though they replicated what they saw perfectly but have little understanding in how an AFV works. Of course, as i am sure you know, when its somthing you worked with, you tend to notice the smaller things.

Ye, we called them tillers or steering levers. I will have to remember laterals, i'll know what people are reffering to now.

 Very nice work so far! The interior looks more cramped in the troop compartment than that of a 113

Hi Bish, I will be following your project too.

Harold

Thanks guys.

Stik, they felt quite roomy but then we only had 4 guys in the back with our MILAN kit. With a 10 man section, i imagine it would have been quite cosy.

Have you ever seen insid a BMP. Looked in one in Iraq, makes our wagons look roomy.

Thanks Tojo, i am sure its not a vehicle many will be familiar with.

Bish

Thanks guys.

Stik, they felt quite roomy but then we only had 4 guys in the back with our MILAN kit. With a 10 man section, i imagine it would have been quite cosy.

Have you ever seen insid a BMP. Looked in one in Iraq, makes our wagons look roomy.

 

Yeah, a four man team would not be bad in there. But a full squad.... 

Ive been on a BMP looking in, but never inside. And yes, that is one cramped vehicle. Like in a Bradley, when you add those outboard facing centerline seats and turret stuff inside. The Marder was a bit roomier. I got to to ride in one of those once upon a time. That was a machine that I really liked.

This is an impressive build and a good conversation.

Carlos and Mike, thank you for your service.

APC's never get enough attention.

Thanks GM.

Before closeing up the hull, i finished off the weathering by adding a raw umber wash to the sides. This is still understated, i could have spent a week just weathering and it would not have matched how bad our wagons were.

As i am doing a vehicles of our MILAN Plt, i figured i should add a MILAN. I am useing the resin one from Accurate Armour. This is a really nice little kit. In fact, after compareing it to the Hobby Boss one in thier Land Rover kit, i have decided to get another one for that. As well as the detail, the AA kit coems with 6 missiles with end caps and decals. The HB kit gives one with no markings.

With the inside of the vehicles complete, time to add the roof and front. The roof did need some clamping but it got there. I lost one of the handles to the front engine hatch so replaced it with some rod. Also, the kit does not includ blanking plates for the antenna postions your not useing. So i took the antenna bases and sanding them down and added the bolt heads.

After priming i added the exhaust and side bin and then painted. Everything was done with Tamiya Acrylics.

The MILAN post was also painted and put together.

Now to put the decals together and some weathering.

Thanks Clint. It is a nice kit, been fun to work on.

Time to wrap up the 432. The kit decals went on nicely but the issue i had was the callsign's and bridgeing plate. In the British army, each company user's a different symbol for its callsign indicator. As i was doing a vehilce of the MILAN Platoon i need the marking for Support Company. While Accurate Armour has a set of yellow callsign markings, they include all the companies apart from Support. So after looking at what i had and woundering if i could modify some thing, i decided to try and print my own.

After figuring out how to draw straight and curved line son paint, i made some i was happy with and printer them out, great. But went i went to place them, the yellow vanished. So then i turned to the forum and got some great advice which boiled down to me having to print on white decal paper. That also meant i had to colour the background to get a close match to the vehicle, one would be on black and on on green.

The decals did come out roug, but for this that was perfect. The callsigns on our vehciles were made useing stencils we did our shelves and then paint was applied with a sponge. So being ham fisted GRUNT's they were never going to be works of art. The decals were a litle thick, what with the decal film and painting to get a closer match, but i was happy with what i had. I hoped the weathering would decal with the slight difference in colour.

The bridge plate was less of an issue as there was no white showing.

After sealing, i did some pin washes useing oil paints. The decals for the rear bins were added after this and they were applied to some styrene sheet, painted steel on the back, before fitting.

After this wet pigments were applied followed by some dry dusting and the final bits fitted. The tracks had been painted and weathered off the vehicle. This master tracks are nice but very fiddly. Some one on Brit Modeller suggested useing wire and i can see why. Each link needs 2 resin pins, one each side, and these are a real pain. I am glad there are spares, i must have lost a dozen. Fit was tight but once together the sag was spot on.

Weathering was restrained some what, apart from anything else, i didn't want to cover the callsign decals after all the hassle, i am really pleased with how they look.

With the base ready, the vehicle was attached and final items fitted. The MILAN is a great little kit and i am deffinetly getting anotehr to replace the one in the Hobby Bose Lanny kit. There are 3 more missles inside. There are also 2 bergans and 2 roll mats inside and the 3 helmits on the roof, all from Accurate Armour.

This build does not represent one certain vehicle, unfortunatly i didn't have any pics to work from. But it does represent the vehcile we had to work with. I am really pleased with how its turned out. This is the first time i have built a subject that i was actually trained to operate, in fact its 2 as i was also a MILAN operator firing 5 missiles during 4 years in the MILAN Platoon.

A huge thank you to the guys who helped pout with the decal issue, it really would not have been the same without those little yellow callsigns.

Bish that came out great! Excellent work on the build and on the base. 

Was there no mount on the top deck for the Milan? Did the kit come with the Milan? 

Thanks Stik.

No, the kit didn't come with the MILAN, that was my own addition. And no, these were not fitted with any type of mount, this was somthing improvised by the unit. We never fired live like this, to many saftey restrictions, but we did use them this way on excersise. Had we gone to war, i would like to think we would have got Warriors, we were issued with them in Canada and on other big excersises, and many guys in the Platoon were trained on the Warrior, i was a gunner. The 432's were issued in lieu of getting decent kit if war came.

This really came out looking great Bish. I think it came out even better with your first hand knowledge of her.

Thanks Clint. I think that does help. I know there are a few things wrong, but i can live with that.