trickyrich Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 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! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Oocha! You took this out of nowhere Rich but it looks promising Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Ok no waiting around with this build, in between chores I managed to get quite a bit done. To tell the truth if I hadn’t been gluing it together as I go I reckoned I could have finished almost in one sitting!!! Everything with this type of model just fits together perfectly without glue, with outer panels disguising major joins, plus you can convert it from robot to tank and back when finished. But I want this to be a tank and not fall apart so everything was glued together as I went. This was not easy as the instructions are for the robot build with details right at the end telling you how to convert the finished model to a tank. So not so easy if you’re trying to build the tank first. Plus it is impossible to build this model without the instructions as there are well over 400 pieces, and many of them have complex moving parts. That said I’ve managed to loose the instructions!!!! Luck for me the Japanese website HobbyLink, in their model review section also included pictures of the entire instruction manual!! As mentioned it goes together super quick and is so much fun…everything just fits…though you do have to read the instructions very carefully (or look at them as they’re all in Japanese), as it is very easy to get things back to front….even worse when you are gluing them together!!!!! So I basically built one side of the model to get an idea of what to glue and not to glue and made note on the instructions. Because I want this to be a model and not a toy I’m filling in any exposed gaps or uneven surfaces, just to give it a better look. I don’t know what half these parts are but here they are, there are some weapons, a turret and rotary cannon, some wheelie bits, and the main body, which has lots of sections that move! The plan is as I get further along some bit will probably get removed or replaced with more authentic bits. I don’t like the wheels at all, so have plans to replace them, may even fit track if I feel adventurous! But at the end of the day I just want to have fun with this build, have paint and decals on the way for an 2nd Cav Aust Army ASLAV, may even fit some Live Resin goodies! There is a whole top section which I haven't done yet, about 150+ parts in that section! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raptormodeller Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Looks just like the mechas in Avatar, which simply look beautiful, hopefully you can pull it of... , you have me hypnotised chomp chomp -raptor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 Looks just like the mechas in Avatar, which simply look beautiful, hopefully you can pull it of... , you have me hypnotised chomp chomp -raptor I've actually been pretty lazy with this one and keep forgetting to take photos or the build, and actually it is all pretty much but together!! I'll spend more time on her once I get either the "Tropic Moon" or Arado build out of the way.....which probably won't be too long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 That may be an OOB build but the thinking is anything but. Should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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