Big_Bad_Bill

Mark, sorry, I've not been on here in a while so didn't see your post. You've got the same idea I had. The Meng is a lot better in most areas but the Academy will be needed for the likes of the turret basket and bins. The Eduard etch would be of use for some details. For instance the basket lining as the mesh supplied by Academy is naff and the etch looks better.

Only our American cousins could go - see that railway gun? I want to turn it into a truck. I wonder if it is where Gerry Anderson got the inspiration for Thunderbirds. Seriously impressed with the deployment times though. 15 minutes from parking to firing and 17 minutes to on the road again after firing. I honestly thought you would have needed a calendar to time it. Good work on the model. The weathering looks spot on. I hope you have a massive display case to put it in.

Ta. You're not wrong. Put the CS95 MTP against PCS and it looks almost white.

Cheers. Either way the green handguard and SUSAT wold be wrong. I was out there early '11 (H13?) with 16X as the lead. As it happens I found a happy snap of the one I had a cabby in. I'm not sure if the rest of them are still serving so thought best to obscure their faces. Note the bright blue winch cable and bright yellow hook that Hobby Boss didn't notice.

Cheers Neil, somehow I knew you would know spotter. Now I have to decide whether to leave them off or try and buy some with quad rails and ACOG. I think I may just leave them off as they wouldn't be in the rack without the crew and I'm not attempting MTP on my first figures.

This kit is a slog. Every step just seems to awkward and takes three times longer than it should. Front bottom done. I've still to turn the indicators orange and maskol the lights ready for spraying. I had to use thread for the winch rope and make a hook from plastic card. Pinging pin marks! Nothing is glued in yet, but on a trial fit of the rear doors they don't open fully like the real thing which can be locked open. At least the rifle racks fit a rifle (left over from the Academy Warrior. I'm trying to remember when the new front guard and ACOG came out and whether it is actually wrong to use this one. They weren't standard issue back then and we received them for pre-deployment training and hand to hand back after deployment so I'm not sure when they started being issued. I'm certain that on the one I drove the racks were the standard spring loaded ones mounted vertically as I remember thinking it was odd that the barrel stuck out over the top of the door. I've not got around to grinding off and replacing the seatbelts yet

Thanks - all are welcome.

Yer, not exactly weekend run around material.

No, not.glued in yet. Good suggestion, I'll have a ponder. Incredible fun to drive. Admittedly we weren't fully loaded with arms and ammo as we were on a benign area (or was at the time). So much power and will go anywhere. I thought a Landrover Defender was good cross country but this left it in the shade To prove its ability we approached a 70% ish bank and just climbed it from a standing start. Autocar did a review which I'm using for reference photos: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/supacat-hmt400-jackal-driven

Neil, not an option but you probably could alter it to suit.

Thanks. Once I got the hang of the tracks they were solid but those pins were a pain. A couple of times I had to just use wire instead.

I know - completely barking. Maybe one day they'll quietly swop them to even more confusion.

Hi, everyone, now Tim has forced me to confront my slight phobia of desert vehicles (see my Warrior build), caused in not a small part my serving in Afghanistan, I've taken the plunge and got the Hobby Boss Jackal 1 as a birthday present to myself. I actually have driven one of these for a cabby around the back of the airfield in Bastion. They say it is a 1 but is is actually 2 - to confuse matters even more they have released a Jackal 2 which is actually a 1! Now, I'm starting this WIP on day two. I hadn't intended to do a WIP but Tim is missing his daily fix of britmodeller so I said I'll start one. On first look the moulding is crisp with little flash. It comes with six PE frets, clear parts and vinyl tyres. The tyres are OKish. No real detail and not a great fit. I did look for the DEF sagged resin wheels but they are like rocking horse poo and the one place I could find them wanted £20, which is a bit rich for me. Some things a wrong however. They have the front winch but haven't even moulded a cable for it and the spare tyre doesn't have a cover, which it does on the actual vehicle. I'll probably find more as I go along and scratch my way around them. I must admit I'm not enjoying the build. It's nicely details but every part with a hole needs drilling out as the holes taper through the part so the pin that is meant to go through them doesn't fit. This was an utter pain doing the suspension as I didn't realise until the first parts were glued in. My only other Hobby Boss build was their Boxer and I don't remember it being this much of a pain, and I was expecting better as this is a new tool. Note the parts 10 The suspension was designed by a sadist. It was one of those build where you actually need about five pairs of hands but I managed it in the end. Once I enlarged the holes! End of day 2 None of the interior nor the front is glued in so I can remove to paint, but plenty of detail although our old nemesis visible pin marks has raised it's head again. That's it for today. Bill

I've been told it looks a lot better in the flesh so I did some more photos in the office

Their website says it is water based so I would just use water.