Silverwind's LAV-150

[silverwindblade]

Continuing with my forays into building ground-based things, I'm back with a Hobbyboss LAV-150 I got for Christmas last year.

A friend of mine got the same kit, and loved it so much he wanted me to have a go at the same thing, as he knows I'm more of a Whiffer than he, and wanted to see what I came up with. Naturally, I didn't want to disappoint, so I had a go at it almost as soon as I'd received the kit.

I had a few ideas - I wanted to stick with the desert theme established with my modified and upgraded Challenger 1 build, with the LAV viewed as a sister vehicle. I might even try a diorama later down the line, when I have more space, that features both vehicles and some more.

That in mind, I had to work out what I wanted to do with the LAV.
After opening the box and having a rummage, I knew I didn't want to change too much - the kit is lovely, and I didn't want to make it too much of a hassle for myself. Neither did I want to spend oodles on aftermarket bits and bobs (not that I think there are many for this vehicle).
I settled on building a two-tube launcher for the turret for TOW or similar missiles to give it a bit more bite, and similarly adding a .50 to the roof in place of one of the 7.62 machineguns. I also decided I would add in some updated comms antennas, and a bit of stowage (because I love stowage).
The kit was boxed as the 90mm Mecar gun version, but features the parts for a twin MG turret, as well as the 20mm autocannon, which was the option I chose, as it seemed most 'modern' and relevant to my build.

On with the show:


Scratch-built TOW launched from plasticard and some other bits and pieces I had about, primed before I airbrushed it.


Hull assembled and coated with the first layer of desert colour. Apologies for the blurry pic, it's the best I could do.
Also, not many build pics - I didn't think to start documenting this until most of the way through the build.


Turret, also assembled and painted with the first layer. I nicked the .50 mount off of a HUMMVEE I have that will be receiving some serious surgery and won't need a fifty cal or it's mount.


Numerous parts and subassemblies ready for painting and/or mounting onto the rest of the vehicle.
The leaf springs had such a tolerance on fit, that I needed to sand the paint off of the attachment points to get it to fit.
The suspension was actually pretty complicated, and was one of the bits I struggled with, as this was only my second vehicle. It went together okay, I just misunderstood some instructions, and had trouble with fitting a few bits due to tolerances and my own impatience.









And the finished article. Apologies for the lighting; it was kind of hard to get the right amount. I tried it with the flash, and it obscured all the weathering. Due to the lighting in the room, it was hard to get it without too much glare, either. Still, I'm here for modelling, not photography. And the model itself came out great. I reallty enjoyed the kit and I recommend it massively. I'm really pleased with the results, too, and I'm really enjoying getting into building more armour and vehicle kits!

[Old Wombat]

Looks great!


... but maybe it needs to transfer to the Imperial Ethiopian Army?

LAV-150 Mecar gunned version;


LAV-150 Cockerill gunned version;


M-60;

[kerick]

You are right, that does look like a nice kit to build. I like how yours is coming together. I remember seeing a vehicle much like this in Iraq but with the one man turret like the one on the Marines tuna boats.

[Old Wombat]

You are right, that does look like a nice kit to build. I like how yours is coming together. I remember seeing a vehicle much like this in Iraq but with the one man turret like the one on the Marines tuna boats.

That would be the M1117 Guardian - developed from the LAV-150 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1117_Armored_Security_Vehicle)

By Spc. Micah E. Clare, U.S. Army - http://www.defenseimagery.mil; VIRIN: 070930-A-2013C-254, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4556991

[Captain Canada]

What a cool looking machine ! Love the way the gun looks and excellent work on your mods. Now I want to build one 

[silverwindblade]

I really want to build an M117 as well and do something different with the weapon options for that as well. I love the look of the M117, and I think it'd be a good complement to the LAV-150 as well.

Glad you like the model, I had a lot of fun building and painting it, was definitely one of the nicer kits I've built lately, and wonderfully headache-free.

[kerick]

Trumpeter has one.
http://www.amazon.com/Trumpeter-Guardian-Armored-Security-Vehicle/dp/B002FNQ19O?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0



Looks interesting

[Old Wombat]

I have 3 of them in the stash.