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Takom FV432 converted to a FV436 Command Post


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Cheers chaps, 

 

Not a lot of work done since last Tuesday, as they say on the Soap Operas " Family Business " 

We had to drive down to Cornwall last week for a few days, we left yesterday to avoid the bad weather coming in which was the right idea.

We are almost snowed in at the moment. 

 

 I've started on detailing up the drivers seat, Takom did a good job on this indeed but left out a few bits

so I decided to add them. 

 

Some of the cross bars under the seat are missing, a really easy fix if you are as anal as myself, I'm also going to add the bar that drops the seat back rest down, 

you can see the brass rod and bracket in the phot. 

 

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Also noticed the dip switch for the main headlight beam is on the footplate, nice one Takom, some further cleaning up is required to the seat and the 4 point harness 

adding from lead foil.

 

 

Regards

 

Dan 

 

 

 

 

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A fraction more work done on the 43, Working on the lower and upper hulls,

 

Kev, totally right about the drivers seat, it was not comfy at all, a five hour road move was not the best experience as a driver, we never fitted the commanders seat 

at all as they got in the way of our radio sets so the commander usually sat on the nice warm louvers on long road moves, I fitted a Land Rover seat back cushion

onto the stowage cage when I was commanding, just made things a little more comfortable.

 

NBC pack has been done, some very small ejector pins to sort out with this on the insides of some 

of the joining surfaces, they need to be removed to get a good fit.

 

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Bumpstop mounts going on to the hull sides, I've also fitted the final drive housings and the return roller mounts, these are very nicely done.

 

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Louvers have had the hinges fitted and more upper hull details slowly being added.

 

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Front steering box access hatch being fitted.

 

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More later folks 

 

 

Dan 

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4 hours ago, Dads203 said:

 

Should I be using the instructions? :o

Rule of life number 117 in a very long list: "Read the instructions, even if you choose not to follow them."

 

Rule of life number 118 in a very long list: "Real world experience is normally a suitable alternative to the instructions."

 

:)

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Hi Dan,

Just catching up with all the builds since returning from Blighty. From one Scaley to another........Gordon Bennett....you had some luxuries! Microwaves, heaters. The best we had sitting in the back of the Comcen wagon (24BR20, Bedford RL), was a brew stick to make tea (with condensed milk...yuk). I used to love the exercises where our location was a farm. It meant that we got to sleep in the hay loft. Many a time I've slept with the pigs (no not my fellow Scaleys). Our radio relay used Austin K9s. I wish someone would do that in 1/35th. As for the SA80.....no idea. They'd only just got rid of the Lee Enfield when I joined. I did like the LMG, even though it had a tendency to drag you down the range as you fired it.

Anyway, back to the model. Again, it's alien to me, but I will follow this with interest. Nice going so far.

 

Signalman Bullbasket (Comcen Op. Retd).

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2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Hi Dan,

Just catching up with all the builds since returning from Blighty. From one Scaley to another........Gordon Bennett....you had some luxuries! Microwaves, heaters. The best we had sitting in the back of the Comcen wagon (24BR20, Bedford RL), was a brew stick to make tea (with condensed milk...yuk). I used to love the exercises where our location was a farm. It meant that we got to sleep in the hay loft. Many a time I've slept with the pigs (no not my fellow Scaleys). Our radio relay used Austin K9s. I wish someone would do that in 1/35th. As for the SA80.....no idea. They'd only just got rid of the Lee Enfield when I joined. I did like the LMG, even though it had a tendency to drag you down the range as you fired it.

Anyway, back to the model. Again, it's alien to me, but I will follow this with interest. Nice going so far.

 

Signalman Bullbasket (Comcen Op. Retd).

 

The Corps has changed since both of us have served indeed, I was catching up with a good friend who has just finished a 28 year stint. It’s all computers and cyber security now with very little old fashion Radio and Data coms that was all the rage during my time, I’m sure the newbies of the Corps have no idea what JMH is :o

 

As for the LMG I do remember having to dig your toes into the ground when firing from the prone position to stop it from dragging you down the range, a proper nice bit of kit, it was missed until we got the GPMG’s 

On our Radio Dets we never had the luxury of microwaves or the likes of, it was only the System and Radio Relay dets that had 240v power, they really hated being co located with Diamond 1  (main headquarters complex) as they had to toe the line and keep the music down :o

 

More work on the build over the weekend chaps 

 

Dan 

 

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Slow progress today, had to fix the washing machine and sort out a few other things,

 

So the road wheels are now done, nothing to note with these apart from a tad of flash.

Great copy of the real deal.

 

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Started on the mortar hatches, the bump stops will have to come off, 436's didn't have them as they had SRBB and CRBB armoured batten boxes in the same places

for all the radio remote configurations.

 

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And the headlight mounts 

 

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I also found a few bits that will be useful, some Racal PU 8m Masts from Accurate Armour, I got these as I have the AA 432 kit in the stash, I was going to convert to a 6 

 

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Some AA BV's to replace the kit parts 

 

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And some castoff Thomas bins, I had these on 09EA90 fixed to the SRBB armoured batten boxes for track split kit and oil, OM15, XG279 and Antifreeze.

 

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Real shame that Terry from Castoff has packed in the business as he did some really nice bits n bobs that nobody else did, I wish him the best and a speedy recovery, hopefully he will get back up

and running again soon.

 

 

Regards

 

Dan  

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More work done on the hull, it's only had the sides tacked in place with CA glue at the moment to aid in painting later.

It's a good kit but the work is slowed down by having to clean up almost every part to get a good fit.

 

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Drive shaft tunnelling added to front drivers compartment, the real thing was a nightmare to remove and one of the more poo-poo jobs on the wagon,

 

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More later 

 

 

Dan 

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A bit more done today, Mortar hatches are in place now and I've also cut down the exhaust, the kit has the extension pipe moulded 

to the main exhaust unit, we rarely fitted these as they got in way of the BFOT (Big F O Tent ) they were actually part of the ampib kit that's was removed 

from the 43 series a long time ago but the extension pipe remained on the CES for some strange reason.  The pipe has been clean up and drilled out with a round dental bur.

 

 

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The one back bin that the 436 had, the other side was an armoured bin with the Ptarmigan remote kit inside, that will be scratch built.

 

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More later 

 

 

Dan 

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So to give you an idea on the wiring in the 436 this is a picture I took 

of the operators position. Twin 353 radio fit with a 321 on the top shelf, next to it is a 25w TURF unit to tune in the 321 set, the SURF again used for tuning in the 321 

was in the back on the left hand side. It was a bit or an ergonomic nightmare when it came to frequency changes on the HF radio set.  You are looking from the fighting compartment up into the commanders position 

and the drivers compartment, you can just make out the four point harness in this picture.

 

Black cables are power and non secure harness leads, the red ones are secure cables, all of the secure kit was in the back on the left hand side, and on the table, the frame for this 

is in the foreground and you can just make out a Cossor teleprinter keyboard on the bottom left hand side, not sure why as I never carried a Cossor unit ?  

 

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The back of the wagon with yours truly having a brew. You can see the map boards behind and the Ptarmigan subset mounting tray over my shoulder, above that is VHF tuning kit the ARFAT and TUAAM 

Behind me is a big black box which was the DC power filter going out to the gene socket which is totally different to a standard 432, I have a few more photo's not many though showing the back of the 6.

We were frowned upon taking photo's of the business end of the wagon for obvious reasons, most of the kit was classified secret and above so at some point I'll scan them in and post them up during the build

making sure that nothing sensitive is in the pictures :huh:

 

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More later 

 

Dan 

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3 hours ago, Dads203 said:

I've also cut down the exhaust

Judging by the size of that exhaust box the 43 was able to operate in stealth mode ........

 

1 hour ago, Dads203 said:

to give you an idea on the wiring in the 436

 

:hmmm: Time to take up crochet ?

 

1 hour ago, Dads203 said:

The back of the wagon with yours truly having a brew

 

You were never that young omg

 

 

Kev

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Cheeky Boy Kev :P  I think I was 18 or 19 in that picture, a very fine example of a young soldier indeed.

stealth mode on a 43 .... that would be a broken down wagon waiting for REME recovery ! We used to test run the Pack out side of the hull 

as part of the packlift without any exhaust, that was loud ;) I'm sure the locals used to love us for this reason. 

 

So back to the build, running gear is almost complete now, bumpstops need to be added and the rear idler, this will go on last as I'm planning to use

the fantastic Masterclub tracks which look great. The kit tracks look off to me being a bit too chunky for my liking.  Leaving the rear idler arm and mount off allows me to adjust the tension

just like the real deal, spent many a time "pumping up the tracks " to get the correct tension. 1 fist from the top of the track to the bottom of the sponson hull plate in between the return rollers.

 

You'll notice that I have removed the three mounting brackets for the side stowage bin, these must be a new addition to the 43 fleet as we had to liberate Chieftain tank bins for our stowage. Also the kit gives you 

Bowman antenna bases, nice but shame that they don't give you any Bowman radios. Understandable really as I reckon they are classified bits of kit and something that is not suitable for general release.

 

Kit supplied Radios are Clansman VRC 353 sets and shouldn't be used with the Bowman bases BTW so the kit is a bit of mix or early and late features, its not the latest version

as it doesn't have the split steering box hatch or late exhaust. 

 

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Smoke grenade discharges are fitted now 

 

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Lots of small detailing yet to follow on the externals of the hull, the details are good but Takom have missed a few areas that I'll work on during my build.

 

 

Cheers for looking 

 

Dan 

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9 minutes ago, ivan-o said:

Hi,

l have toyed with the idea of the Masterclub tracks,any chance of a comparison when you do a track run?

The kit itself goes together well though doesn’t it.

 

Once I get my mits on them then I’ll post up some pictures :D

 

The kit isn’t bad in terms of fit but I’m having to clean up most of the parts to get a good fit , not the worse kit and certainly not the best which surprises me as it’s quite a new tool.  Some of the smaller parts have a fair amount of flash on them :o

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Cheers chaps,

 

Slow progress on the running gear, the bump stops have been popped into place on the mounts 

I'm impressed with the detail on this area, its as good as it can be.

 

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Rear mud flaps added with the reflectors.

 

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More later 

 

 

Dan 

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Cheers Sam :yes: go for it mate.

 

A bit of work on the hatches, the main parts are assembled, a few missing items that require attention.

GPMG mount locking pin and chain, on the cupola, also the gun locking strut and mount is missing, a small detail but I'll add these later. 

The locking mech for the commanders hatch is missing totally, the drivers hatch release is also missing the long bar ( from memory its just a long bolt welded onto the release catch) so these will get added again later.

 

There are two nasty ejector pins on the inside of the drivers hatch, I've removed these and will start adding the missing wiper arm to the inside 

of the hatch.

 

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More later 

 

Dan 

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