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Surprise surprise I have decided to do a second build for this GB….as if the first one won’t be big enough! This is sort of going to be an out of the box build….maybe, so I wanted something simple and fun and quick to build. Well it’s simple if you call 300+ bit simple, but I have just been dying to build this one ever since I got it. So today while busy on my now enormous list of projects the idea for this build just hit and of cause I couldn’t resist. So the story basically…. In 2020 the Australian government issued a defence department white paper on the future of the Australian Defence Forces and their future defence role in South East Asia and the South Pacific. This paper outlines the forces new structures and future procurements for all three services. This paper also took into account the disastrous Air Force procurement of the F-35 Lightning II of which only 5 were delivered before the whole project collapsed nearly taking with it the US defence Industry! Along with the introduction and delivery of the first of the new Sorya class submarines, which were a joint venture between Australia and Japanese companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation. With the F-35 program now in freefall the first Squadron of the interim Eurofighter Typhoon’s was about to enter service, these being loan aircraft for the RAF & Luftwaffe until production aircraft arrived. The big success story for the government was the submarine joint venture that produced a revolutionary Diesel Electric submarine that was on time and budget. With the success of this venture new military joint projects were looked into with these Japanese partners for the army and air force as well. One of these was for the replacement of the army’s fleet of Recon/Cavalry ASLAV’s, which were coming to the end of their life spans. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries proposed another revolutionary design, which was just about to go into service with the Japanese Defence Forces. This vehicle was the first of a series of Hybrid AVF designs that combined Typical AFV design with advanced Robotics, resulting in an AFV that was half tank and half robot! This new vehicle, the MTU3804 – Gunhed was a completely unique design with state or the art components, a Hydrogen Fuel Cell engine, Nano Crystal Ceramic armour, Electro Pulse 20mm Case-less cannon just to name a few. Contracts were signed for the MTU3804 late 2022 with production starting in Australia under license the following year. With the success and completion of trails in October 2024, full production was entered into with an initial run of 100 Gunheds planned. This was all to change with the fall of the Indonesian Government late 2024 to radical ethnic groups within the archipelago which was bring the whole region to the brink of war. To help secure its northern boarders the Australia government rushed advanced units of the Army and Navy to Papua New Guinea and Timor. With these advance units was 2 Cavalry which was the first unit in the Australia Army to be out fitted with the new MTU3804 Gunheds. So I have the model, I have the story (plenty of room to add so many more Whiff’s…if only I had the time), let the fun begin!