I’m late on parade with this one but very interesting John; all grist to my mill and although I don’t have a Striker in my stash I do have a Spartan.
I always used to chuckle at the juxtaposition of HCR soldiers - normally quite strapping chaps - squeezed into nearly the smallest AFV ever!
'Looking very forward to following this one.
Brian
LOL … but we packed a formidable punch 
… And of course @BootsDMS , I will throw a cam net on, either in the top basket or strapped to the sponson plate !!
Great to have you here as well.
Hi John,
Looking forward to this build, I’m a great fan of the CVR(T) family as a relation of mine worked for Alvis in Coventry when I was still in short school trousers…not a nice image, 
.
He gave me a practice clip of 30mm Rarden cannon ammunition which I still have somewhere, 
.
I also have both the Scimitar and Scorpion in my stash, so will be following with interest.
Cheers, 
,
G
Please @G-man69 , feel free to pile more pressure on lol. Glad your’e interested …
and every kids dream to get a real clip of ammo … (I hope it was practice lol )
I wish there were more plastic CVR(T) kits available. Even more so as things like the running gears are all the same, the hulls on Sultan and Samaritan are the same, Scim and Scorp are the same and Spartan and Samson hulls are close enough. Oh well - wishful thinking on my part.
Hi John,
I’ll try not to be too pressuring, .
Yes, definitely practice, the three shells on each clip were machined in one piece, round and case as one. I also had two 76mm practice rounds from a scorpion, painted blue, .
Looking forward to your build, .
Cheers, ,
G
HI John,
It would seem we crewed many of the same vehicles at some stage. Although I never crewed Challenger 1 I did my Gunner Mech on one at the Gunnery Wing in Hohne. 15/19H had Chieftains at the time in Detmold. On amalgamation with 13/18H we switched to recce and I started my recce career as 34b, moved to 34a and finished my years at RD before posting as 34. Did quite a few operational tours re-roled onto Scimitar before doing Telic 2 as GW Tp Ldr in 2003.
I remember a HCR Sqn took over from us in Maglaj in December '94 and again in the Metal Factory in Banja Luka in '98. Any chance you were part of the Sqn’s? I look forward to seeing your build progress and bring back memories of the missile farting as it left the bin!
Hey @Maximus8425, great to have another Tankie here… And a fellow GW guru to boot 
, now the pressure really is on !!!
When were you in Detmold or Paderborn? I went out there in late 83 …and 4/7th DG were in Hobart Bks. You must of been in Lothian barracks as well if you were in Detmold ??
So you ended up a LD…we took over from them in Glamoc…the Sqn who lost a wagon when it hit a mine. We went up there and laid a wreath.
We had a really good week with them as they showed us around the AOR before the rear party left.
Being Recce as well there is a very good chance our paths may of crossed someplace with all the courses/trg we did for that role.
I think that the first HCR lot must of been D Sqn as they went out in late 94, B Sqn were already out there attached to an Inf AOR further south of Maglaj.
I did my main whole tour out there from July 96 to Jan 97, then a big Ex Bright Star multi national exercise in Egypt in Oct 97. I went back out with D Sqn for manning replacement in Nov 97 for a month and a bit. Not sure who took over from D after that. Will have to look back at some old journals.
I was chatting with @AKirchhoff a few days ago and telling him about a GW range we built near Glamoc so we could fire our Swingfires over there. We had the Swingfire Improved Guidance system wagons then, and got special permission from Lulworth to fire live missiles… Very interesting firing camp lol !! I had forgotten all about the missile fart as it left the bin …what a noise that was lol
Anyhow, great that your here and you can keep me on my toes lol…
John
I was in Detmold when we took over from the Blues and Royals, after having spent my first two years in Cyprus as part of the scout car squadron in Episkopi. Stayed in Lothian Barracks until amalgamation in '92 and moved to Hohne. They closed Detmold down entirely and moved everyone to Paderborn.
I did an exchange with our C Sqn in Glamoc early in '96 from the Wood Factory in the centre of Banja Luka. Compared to C Sqn’s accommodation ours was a holiday camp, we actually preferred being out living off the wagons than being in camp!!
I knew the three guys who were lost in the Spartan, a TMRP 6 fired under the track and flipped it onto it’s side where a 2nd one detonated and triggered all of the fuel and ammunition. Visited the memorial stone in '98 and then it was brought back and is now in Newcastle. http://www.lostancestors.eu/memwar/N/Newcastle03.htm
My instructor when I did my GW course in Lulworth was Lifeguards I think, Marty Elliot and I’m still friends with Sid Freeman from days at the Gunnery Wing in Hohne, he lives in Canada now.
The world is not such a large place when you think about it, especially for those who have served as paths do cross now and then.
OMG !!! I’m actually a bit lost for words !!
It seems the world is even smaller ! I was in B Sqn in Detmold when we handed over to you guys. When we handed over I was flicking back and forth between Det and Sennelager while we took over the RSGDs chieftains. They had one Sqn left and the rest were Chally 1s which we then got issued when we handed our last Sennelager Chieftains to the 14/20th. I can tell you some nightmares about the Scots grots, they were shite ! And that’s being polite !! I was also in the UN Scout car Sqn, but that was in 91 and we were up in the UN compound in Nicosia then. I was gutted when I started chatting to Andreas … He lives around that area and knows all our old stomping grounds and told me how much it changed when Det closed down.
You were right about that accomm in Glamoc at the spud warehouse. It was like living in the trenches. When we rocked up to take over, we walked in and everyone’s jaw dropped. Saying that, it lasted about 2 weeks as we got hold of loads of the corrimec accommodation panels (the white ones that all the normal camps had lol) and split that whole sleeping area up nicely with those so each troop had a nice bit of privacy and an actual door instead of part of a tank sheet lol.
We did the same as you, an exchange up to Ban Luk with I think it was our A Sqn at the time … That accomm up there was like the Ritz compared to our dive back in Glamoc lol. It was a nice drive up from ours to BL though. And the town was alot more normal than Glamoc. I wonder what it’s all like now.
Good old Marty E, I know him and bloody Sid Freeman… No way ! I know Sid well, his first wife Anne and my first wife were besties out in Sennelager as we lived in the block next to theirs, and beers did flow lol. Last time I saw Sid was out at BATUS, must of been 2003 Oct to Nov, we had to send 25 Snacks out to act as Redtop veh commanders as there was a massive shortfall. He was the Gunnery Redtop WO1, so on each MedMan debrief we would chat up at Excon on the area. Is he still with the same Canadian girl can’t remember her name, I know they had a farm there.
I think it’s fair to say at least from Detmold our paths did cross at some point…
I always love chatting with people who have been in the same places I have… Then I start to reminisce…then I have to get the JD out lol…
So, a little update, nothing overly exciting. It’s just a plan of action now the balls rolling.
Tomorrow after work I’m going to take all the resin from the mounts and tidy each piece up and give them all a check over. Then I will be cross referencing my photos with other pics to decide what parts I need to change/add or remove and scratch.
I will then get the donor parts I know I need from the spare Scimitar kit and finally begin the process of deciding how to adapt the running gear to allow me to use the AFV running gear with the Accurate hull and drop arms… If it’s even possible.
As a resin newbie, is it recommend to thoroughly wash the pieces at the start ?
And @petbat, you mentioned the cyno gel, do you know a decent one ?
Newbie also but yes easier to clean now then later. Releasing agent can impact painting later.
Thanks Ryan
As obvious as that Frank… Cheers
Yeah, what the man said… or pictured.
Now, first update. Although I did take a few pics of various bits, I will do these in sections so it doesn’t bore people silly and also as there is quite a bit to explain.
Started trimming some flash away from various parts but for the moment I have left the majority on their resin mounts until the weekend when I can get the mini sander out and do the chunky parts at the same time. I was also dry fitting a few bits, namely the launch bins to the hull.
I then found that if you have the bins lowered, they will not fit flush due to the moulding of the cabling and raised hydraulic system parts for raising the bins. I am doing mine lowered so all the arrowed areas below are coming off to give it a flush fit. The bits marked 1 & 2 are the launch bin pivot brackets. Both sides had bits broken, so they may need looking at, however for some reason, AA include 2 as separate items on a sprue (2nd pic), so that can be an easy fix.
When I was checking the actual launch bin, I noticed the left hand Sight Alignment Gauge (SAG) mount (both arrowed) was broken off, then happily found AA had once again provided 2 more on sprues so again, another easy fix.
I then had a closer look at the hull upper and lower sections. The upper I am happy to say is very well detailed. You have to drill out the lifting eyes but that’s about it really. There are no sink or casting marks so that was one worry over with. I have done a side by side shot of the AFV Club Scimitar I did for a comparison. The Striker is sitting roughly at the correct height.
There were a few casting issues with the lower hull as you can see in the next pic. The tow brackets both had some damage which will stand out so they will be coming off, and I will replace them with the ones from the donor CVRT kit I have. One is on show for comparison again.
Now I have looked in more detail at the AA kit, I have decided a fair amount of items will be getting replaced with parts from the donor kit which I will go into more detail on when I do the next update. Comments always welcome.
I will put a very quick thank you in here again to Jim @staff_Jim This new site a dream if you are doing a build thread like this. Just the way you can upload pics in an instant makes so much difference.
Trying to use the AA swing arms with the AFV Club roadwheels and you end up with the wheels rubbing the swing arm and the space between the wheels won’t line up with the corresponding Drive sprockets. AFV Club arms are straight whilst AA’s are a flattened ‘s’ shape. I think AFV Club got it right based on the pics of the CVR(T) arms I have been able to find:
However, fitting the AFV Club ones to the AA lower hull will require some work… which is where I stopped having interest. I should have looked to see if the AA Upper hull could be mated to the lower hull and gone with that, but I have already glued the hulls together and I do not want to destroy it trying to part them… just yet…
Any chance you can try the fit for me? Pretty Please!
I will do it tonight when I have another look at the bits and pieces Peter. I did think of that option, but when I looked briefly before, the position of the arm locations on the AFV hull are off from what they are on the AA hull. It is an option I will think hard on though, as if I can, I do want to use the AFV running gear complete. But will update on this later. Another reason I am not overly found of the AA hull is that you cannot lock the arms in a uniform position without making some sort of jig up by the looks of it - hmmmmm !
Two ways to do this.
The above works fine if the axle stubs are uniformly positioned. If not you have to use shims so that the hull rests on the axle stubs and not the outside of the swing arm casting.
The next issue could be axle holes in wheels not being centered.
If swing arms and wheels are unreliable you need to assemble wheels and swing arms and then do the alignment process using these assemblies.
The other method is to put the hull on “jack blocks” or two flat strips of a suitably thick or wide material. I think AA suggests this in one of their kits.
Get the hull leveled side- and lengthwise. Add some weight to keep it still and start adding swing arms. The same issues with non-uniform swing arms and occ-centered axle holes. The two shims replaces levelling of the four corner wheel stations.
Attempts to eye-ball it are doomed …
