Takom 1/35th FV 432

[Phil Evans]

That looks really good, I reckon I'll see about getting one. The interior should have been silver paint rather than bare metal. It was that stupid stuff that would rub off on your boots really easily and then be a sod to get off your boots.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

[Bish]

Cheers Phil, it is a really nice kit. And thanks for that info, the memory is not what it was.

 

Now i have a question. The kit comes with the most important piece of equipment in any British AFV, the BV's. But i can't for the life of me remember where in the vehcile the lead plugs into and can't find any pics. Can any one remember where it goes or have a pic of it.

[Dads203]

Bish ,

 

BV sockets are on the drivers distribution board up front by the master switch but you had two long  BV leads and a mounting bracket for the sockets that fitted by the rear left fuel tank. The BV tray was on the back door which you know with the two small leads jumper leads  ... does that make sense ? 

 

i has  a second tray mounted up on the front of the cage so I could brew up on the move, my driver never went without a warm brew on a long cold night move 

 

Regards

 

Dan 

[Bish]

Cheers Dan, i had totally forgot about them running from there. Was thinking the sockets were around the fuel tank.

 

Driving a Warrior, i perfected a neat trick of dropping the seat back while the gunner passed the brew down the tunnel. Lucky i have long arms. I did consider rigging up my own personel one in the drivers compartment but there was no where to out it.

[Dads203]

Here you go , you can see the two sockets on the left, underneath the TUAAM and ARFAT 

 

 

[Bish]

Perfect, thank you. The roof is on but i can stiull fit one in there through the roof hatch, should not be to hard to scratch. Might try and knock up those otehr bits of kit as well. Al the pic i found were facing front, that one is spot on. Cheers.

[Dads203]

This might help you with some details Bish,

 

I really must get back to this at some point 

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235035014-takom-fv432-converted-to-a-fv436-command-post/

 

 

 

Regards

 

Dan 

[scottie3158]

This is looking really nice and brings back some memories. Like the silver paint that never seems to dry properly.

[Bish]

Thanks guys.

 

Dan, thank you for that link. Will do some catching up on that build.

[Bish]

Before closeing up the hull, i finished off the weathering by adding a raw umber wash to the sides. This is still understated, i could have spent a week just weathering and it would not have matched how bad our wagons were.

 

 

 

 

As i am doing a vehicles of our MILAN Plt, i figured i should add a MILAN. I am useing the resin one from Accurate Armour. This is a really nice little kit. In fact, after compareing it to the Hobby Boss one in thier Land Rover kit, i have decided to get another one for that. As well as the detail, the AA kit coems with 6 missiles with end caps and decals. The HB kit gives one with no markings.

 

 

With the inside of the vehicles complete, time to add the roof and front. The roof did need some clamping but it got there. I lost one of the handles to the front engine hatch so replaced it with some rod. Also, the kit does not includ blanking plates for the antenna postions your not useing. So i took the antenna bases and sanding them down and added the bolt heads.

 

 

 

 

 

After priming i added the exhaust and side bin and then painted. Everything was done with Tamiya Acrylics.

 

 

 

 

 

The MILAN post was also painted and put together.

 

 

 

Now to put the decals together and some weathering.

[Rogue705]

Looks great so far, bringing back memories 🙂

[Bish]

Thanks. yep, same here.

[phildagreek]

Looks good!

[Bish]

Thanks Phil

[Bish]

Time to wrap this up. The kit decals went on nicely but the issue i had was the callsign's and bridgeing plate. In the British army, each company user's a different symbol for its callsign indicator. As i was doing a vehilce of the MILAN Platoon i need the marking for Support Company. While Accurate Armour has a set of yellow callsign markings, they include all the companies apart from Support. So after looking at what i had and woundering if i could modify some thing, i decided to try and print my own.

 

After figuring out how to draw straight and curved line son paint, i made some i was happy with and printer them out, great. But went i went to place them, the yellow vanished. So asked over on FSM and got some great advice which boiled down to me having to print on white decal paper. That also meant i had to colour the background to get a close match to the vehicle, one would be on black and on on green.

 

The decals did come out roug, but for this that was perfect. The callsigns on our vehciles were made useing stencils we did our shelves and then paint was applied with a sponge. So being ham fisted GRUNT's they were never going to be works of art. The decals were a litle thick, what with the decal film and painting to get a closer match, but i was happy with what i had. I hoped the weathering would decal with the slight difference in colour.

 

 

 

The bridge plate was less of an issue as there was no white showing.

 

 

After sealing, i did some pin washes useing oil paints. The decals for the rear bins were added after this and they were applied to some styrene sheet, painted steel on the back, before fitting.

 

 

 

 

After this wet pigments were applied followed by some dry dusting and the final bits fitted. The tracks had been painted and weathered off the vehicle. This master tracks are nice but very fiddly. Some one did suggest useing wire and i can see why. Each link needs 2 resin pins, one each side, and these are a real pain. I am glad there are spares, i must have lost a dozen. Fit was tight but once together the sag was spot on.

 

 

 

 

 

Weathering was restrained some what, apart from anything else, i didn't want to cover the callsign decals after all the hassle, i am really pleased with how they look.

 

With the base ready, the vehicle was attached and final items fitted. The MILAN is a great little kit and i am deffinetly getting another to replace the one in the Hobby Bose Lanny kit. There are 3 more missles inside. There are also 2 bergans and 2 roll mats inside and the 3 helmits on the roof, all from Accurate Armour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This build does not represent one certain vehicle, unfortunatly i didn't have any pics to work from. But it does represent the vehcile we had to work with. I am really pleased with how its turned out. This is the first time i have built a subject that i was actually trained to operate, in fact its 2 as i was also a MILAN operator firing 5 missiles during 4 years in the MILAN Platoon.

 

Thanks all for following along and for the input. Much appreciated.

 

 

[ivan-o]

That Sir has turned out rather well! 👍

Still painting the old Berlin scheme on mine but will get there in the end. 😀

Edited May 20, 2019 by ivan-o

[Bish]

Cheers ivan, i am rather pleased. Though its just dawned on me that i forgot the slave leads. Won't take much to get those added.

 

Look forward to seeing the Berlin scheme, that one i don't want to try lol.

[Hamden]

 

A superb build with an outstanding finish.

In the right setting could be mistaken for a 1:1 scale

 

  Roger

[Bish]

Thanks Roger, and thanks for the compliment. I keep loking at it and thinking its just as i remember them.

[Yeoman1942]

Top job Bish. Many hours in the wash down to get that one sorted😀👍

[Bish]

Thanks Yeoman. Yep, and they still never come out clean.

[ancientmariner]

Hi,

       I am about to start building the Takom FV432. I have ordered the masterclub tracks for the model rather than use the link and length type, which I don’t particularly like. I have used Fruil tracks in the past on models,but first time using masterclub.

Martin

[Bish]

Good luck with your Martin. I did like the master tracks. The resin pins were fiddly but over all better than Fruils.

[ancientmariner]

Hi,

           Thanks. I did find somewhere else regarding the sprocket teeth having to be trimmed a little for the masterclub tracks. Cannot see that being a problem though.

Martin

[Bish]

I didn't have any issues with the sprockets, they fitted just fine. A bit of testing would not hurt though.