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AMX-13 D.C.A French Army 1969 - into the bin of doom


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For my second build I’m going very ancient and out of my comfort zone with an AFV. I have a frightening track record with completely these (among other things) so am hoping to do better this time.

 

I found this beast in a secondhand store and sort of couldn’t help myself, it was cheap and unusual, this one is now quite hard to find.

 

There were only 60 of these vehicles built for the French army and entered service in 1969 and remained in service until the end of the cold war.

 

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Ok there’s nothing really exciting in the box, it’s a pretty basic model, typical for what you’d get in the 70’s when it was made. It even comes with a couple of dudes, not sure if they’ll join the party or not yet.

 

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The instructions are sooooo 70’s, back when long detailed worded instructions were the go and none or few pretty pictures were present. And being a Heller model they’re in French! (My wife can sort of read/speak French, so she reckons......though her speaking French on our honeymoon nearly ended up with her in jail!  :rofl2: ).

 

IMG_1358-L.jpg

 

That weird looking brown blob on the cover of the instructions in the original container of glue they use to supply with the models......I won’t be using that as it’s a wee bit out of date!

 

The only extra will be a set of Friulmodel tracks! A bit of an over kill for a model like this, but I love them (this is my 4thset) and the original ones are horrible and gone quite hard.

 

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Well I’m hoping this will break my AFV curse and I’ll finally complete one. A nice simple build....now what can go wrong!

 

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9 hours ago, Rob G said:

I'm part way (surprise surprise) through a Heller AMX-13/75. It's been a mission...

 

Have fun with this'un!

I've had a good look at mine, it looks interesting.

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On 7/24/2018 at 8:39 AM, Rob G said:

I'm part way (surprise surprise) through a Heller AMX-13/75. It's been a mission...

 

Have fun with this'un!

I should have sensed inpending doom from that comment!

 

First up I have to say what a pile of :poop:  this model is!! :rant:

 

On Friday I decided that this would be the build I start off first, it seemed simple enough though I had my first (or second) omen of doom shortly after as I started looking over the model properly. Where's the hull?? After a few minutes looking through all the parts and instructions I found it was a “Ikea flat pack hull” you had to assemble........oh dear! :unsure:  I remembered building Tamiya AFV’s of that era and even they had one piece hulls (this has 9 pieces).

 

So yesterday with lots of trepidation I dove into it....and what I found......oh dear........

 

But first I made up one set of tracks, I did this because the desire to turf the whole model was so great at one stage that I decided I need a break! These are such a breeze to build and look awesome.

 

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Now back to the bench of doom...

 

Ok this is what’s required to build the chassis....can you spot the issues yet?

 

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This may help...

 

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..ever bit of it is warped to some degree. Even the camera didn't want to be part of this!

 

For a brief instant I thought or re-building the hull or binning it. Anyway I glued the ends and side together in a make shift jig and let them dry. It’s still all skew and took brut force to get the rest of the bits on.

 

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Gosh the majority of yesterdays work is here...

 

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... and it’s still a wee bit skew and of course the top doesn’t fit, it’s warped as well!

 

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In between all these fun and games I looked at other bits on the build. At first glance the bottom of the turret looks like it will nicely fit into the grooved section of the upper turret....

 

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NUP! It actually fits like this!

 

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That join is going to be a bugger to fix/fill, there is a bead that runs around the turret in that position but nothing like this!

 

I played with some other bits and they’re equally as horrible and fit is really poor.

 

So for now she’s going in the naughty corner (or bin as it only cost me the price of a can of nice beer) and I’ll play with some nice simple resin models. It doesn’t help that I have a head cold either at the moment! The tracks won’t be wasted, his build may yet mysteriously turn into a Takom AMX-13/75 yet!

 

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At least mine wasn't warped... that kit has all the hallmarks of having been kept in a hot storage area for far too long.

 

The Takom version may be slightly less difficult. :D

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well it was from a secondhand goods store.....

 

I was looking at Takom's AMX-13's and saw their ZSU-57-2, now that has grabbed my attention! :D

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at the moment I get very annoyed at just thinking about that.......

 

I haven't completely decided to chuck it in the bin.......I take pity on it and just consign it into the box of doom.

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On 7/29/2018 at 2:13 AM, trickyrich said:

well it was from a secondhand goods store.....

 

I was looking at Takom's AMX-13's and saw their ZSU-57-2, now that has grabbed my attention! :D

I would buy both. 😉:coolio: You know you want to.:whistle:

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3 hours ago, Arniec said:

I would buy both. 😉:coolio: You know you want to.:whistle:

I have a new baby!! :wub: She's ugly and evil but I love her.......thread is coming up!

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it keeps looking at me with those puppy dog eyes as it lays abandoned in the naughty corner. It's not the sort of build I'm wanting do at the moment now as there is a lots to sort out on her and I've had enough of those builds at the moment and still have a couple to go. She could be something that I drag out for KUTA.

 

It does have those lovely Friul tracks thou....... :wub: Maybe I could get a Takom AMX-13 and just have interchangeable turrets??? 

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  • 3 months later...

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