Foghorn Leghorn Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Well, this kit was an experience. The number of parts! The size of some of the parts! The front light guards are a nightmare to build, the turret basket is ... erm ... delicate and I screwed up the etch for it so i added stowage to hide the problems. The side skirts supports are a poor butt joint, I snapped them off multiple times. I also bodged the tow cables, no way could I get them to curve and fit without breaking the pioneer tools off. The dozer blade is well designed and moveable, if you want it to be so. The cradle is a bit daunting and needs a lot of fettling but once you figure out a build/tweak sequence, it goes together quite well. The hush puppy tracks have caused some discussion on the interweb. Generally speaking they weren't used in combat (AFAICT) but it's a grey area. I stapled the track joins because there's no way the supplied metal pins will work. I used Tamiya Nato black and my own green mix, I was happy with the clean finish so I kept weathering to a minimum. And to be honest, there's so much detail in the kit, that a proper weathering job would take me months. At £70 it's expensive by my standards (I managed to get it for £56), I bit the bullet because I've always to do a Centurion AVRE with cradle. But I have to say the kit's level of detail goes some way to explain the price. If you're building an AVRE checkout the BM walk around. Rich Ellis posted pics of the Duxford gulf war scheme and Julien has a walkaround of the AVRE with the marking of one of the kit options. Alas, my old camera doesn't do the kit justice, there's loads of detail that doesn't pop out. Also the lens distorts the turret basket, the pics makes it look like it's leaning back but it does sit properly. 32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Looks good! Something a bit different. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartH Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Very smart. Looks great with the dozer blade and well worth the money. Beautifully weathered 👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yg Models Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 clean and nice build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Robin Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Looks great! Just the right amount of dust to make it authentic. Regards Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanfrandragon Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Really nice. I particularly like the canvas turret mantle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autle Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 Amazing bit of work especially the realistic weathering 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter2 Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 There's a professional finish to this model. Can I ask what is the frame-like shape perched above the dozer blade? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted December 5, 2022 Author Share Posted December 5, 2022 5 hours ago, Peter2 said: Can I ask what is the frame-like shape perched above the dozer blade? It's the cradle to hold a facine bundle, a bunch of hollow pipes that is used to fill ditches. It used to be logs in WWII but they've moved onto plastic pipes now. https://www.hlj.com/1-35-scale-royal-engineers-modern-pipe-fascine-for-anti-tank-ditches-for-fv35395-centurion-mk-5-avre-only-afvac35025 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan-o Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Nicely done and brings back memories of Munsterlager and Soltou training area 👍 Personally I didn’t see any 165s with the hush puppies but the 105s we got from the RA had them,mush to the Tech QMs disgust as he said how are they going to dig with them on😄 Ivan 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robgizlu Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 What a cracking model Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertie McBoatface Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 It is a smashing model and a vehicle I knew nothing about until just now. It stayed in service right up to the first Gulf war! Here's a link to a full and lucid description of the thing: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar-uk-fv4003-centurion-avre/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted December 5, 2022 Author Share Posted December 5, 2022 54 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said: It stayed in service right up to the first Gulf war! Here's a bit more about the massive explosion of 2 of them in the gulf war, amazingly there were no deaths https://www.sappers.co.uk/photos/avre-explodes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIK122 Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Despite all the listed problems I think you've done a cracking job on this. Really nice 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 I agree with all that's been said. You've done an excellent job on this, especially the paint job. Nice work. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScaleModeller_54 Posted December 5, 2022 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Looks Amazing . you done a brilliant job of it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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