david

G’day Mick, I’m currently doing a VBCI and have been advised that the French do not use NATO colours. I found the best colour options are Humbol’s green 80 (which is bright but correct) brown 186 & black 33 the following link shows the bright colours. http://www.primeportal.net/apc/jean_thomas_rembert/vbci/index.php?Page=1 The other option (which I am going with is Tamiya XF 5 green & 10 brown and foe the black I am mixing Humbrol 33 and 160 in a 50/50 mix. The link below shows the muted colours. http://maquettegarden.free.fr/Vehicules/VBCI/index.xml Hope this helps. David

Ivan The Arms Corp set is worth getting as there are some distinctive features to our M1a such as the Blue force tracker and they supply a new rear upper hull plate. You need to purchase the M1A1 SEP as Jason from Arms Corps reckons that this is the closes to The Oz vehicle. I have attached some photos of the kit I built a couple of years back. David , http://photos.kitmak...00&ppuser=34310

I got one about 2 weeks ago while I was finishing a Polish PT-76 and arrived with the latest Broncos Humber Mk IV it was a toss-up on which one to start; the Vickers won and have started building. So far the only grip is the drivers hatch. I recommend that you decide on an open or closed hatch before starting step two and if doing a closed hatch do all of step three but do not attaché C33 as I had some difficulty in lining everything up. The interior is just a seat so a few add on would be needed if you want to have the hatch open. I have just commenced the road wheels and while the instruction look complicated they are quite straight forward. Overall I feel that the technology used in the moulding is a little dated, (some injector pin marks need cleaning) other areas are great (such as the turret). I mainly construct modern armour but this is one excellent little kit.

Australian vehicles from the Vietnam era to present are painted Lustreless Olive Drab White Ensign make a paint in this colour and you can get it from http://www.mheaust.com.au/MHE/Catalogue.htm scroll down towards the bottom of the page or FS34082 may be a good comprimise

I recently finished an STRV122 a marriage between the Tamiya Leo 2 and the Hobby Boss kit and was having difficulty with the colours. I ended up using for the dark green Tamyia XF 26 Deep Green but if you want to make it a bit darker add some Tam XF 11, light green Humbrol 131 2mls and Xrtacolour willow green .5ml but I am at present buliding a Finnish T 72 and BMP 2 and found that the light green I mixed is very close to Model Masters 1713, the brown Tamiya XF 68 NATO Brown and the black Vallejo Black-Grey mixed with black at about 70/30 ratio. Sitting in my pile of to do kits is a 103C and I will be painting it with the above colours.