Hi all
The CV 90-40C is the upgraded version of the CV 90 in service with the Swedish army. It has been developed to improve the vehicle protection for overseas deployment. The most obvious feature is the add-on armor package designed by a German company which covers the front and the sides of the hull and the turret.
Hobby Boss has depicted the add-on armor quite well. However some features have been omitted like the new remote controlled MG on the turret roof and the additional lights on both sides of the front armor block. The lights seem to be present on the vehicles deployed to Liberia only though.
The tracks are those of their AAV-7 series so they come as individual clickable links. I didn’t manage to keep the tracks from falling apart while handling them. So I ended up by gluing them. The instructions call for 82 links per track which could be the actual number. However if you intend to depict the sagging of the tracks you’d better use 83 or even 84 links.
The kit comes with a PE plate. Most of it is used. I decided not to use the flat tie-downs for 2 reasons. First they are flat, second they are not enough for the whole turret. In fact HB made a weird choice by molding solid half of the tie-downs and giving PE ones for the other half. I simply removed the molded tie-downs and made a complete set of tie-downs from metal wire. It was a bit time consuming but it looks better.
For the painting I opted for the UN white painted on the vehicles in the UNMIL operation. The running gear is painted in a mix of white and green as seen on various pictures shared by members in this topic.
I applied a brown filter on the running gear even if it is not obvious on the pictures.
More to come later.
That is indeed, nice work Olivier; I always thought that given the British MOD’s propensity to mess up every last deal they make, that perhaps we should have purchased this (assuming they might not mess it up) to replace Warrior, given that British defence industry is all but defunct.
On for the What-If file I think; anyway, not to detract, but that is a very nice looking model.
The CV 90 has two settings for track tension, normal and high.
Normal is used when driving on roads and solid terrain, the high tension setting is used
on soft soil where the high tension helps to spread the load.
A loose track will also slap up and down which can damage the suspension.
I think you can use this photo as reference for the high tension.
At normal tension the track would rest on top of roadwheel nr 3 and 4 counting from the front.
On the other hand: the track tension is not visible behind those armoured skirts anyway
The HB CV-90’s do have another issue though.
The roadwheels are attached to transversal torsion bars which means that the roadwheels on one side are not directly opposite the roadwheels on the other side.
HB made the same mistake on one of their Merkava models.
Academy got that detail right.
I noticed that too. I really don’t know how manufacturers still can make such a mistake.
HB didn’t bother fixing this with the antiaircraft variant released 9 years later.
I applied all the markings with some artistic licence because HB instructions are not user friendly. You get a good deal of UN and Swedish registration plates but with no matching table. It’s up to you to find which UN plate matches with the Swedish one.
To get the things even more complicated, the first vehicles deployed did not have UN plates but only the digits painted on the vehicles and of course HB do not help find the correct ones.
Some markings are unclear where they have to be applied. For instance you get 3 “diesel” stencils but it seems there is only one fuel tank cap.
So I did my best. All the missing details have been painted and added. I decided not to use the rear view mirrors as I haven’t seen them on the reference pictures.
I need to spray a coat of gloss varnish prior to applying a pinwash and beginning the weathering.
The CV90 has one or more rear view cameras so I think those rearview mirrors are only used to comply with rules for vehicles driving on public roads.
It is possible that the mirrors served a real purpose on the first variants and the prototypes.
About those rear view cameras:
The steering yoke “reverses” itself when driving backwards. The driver looks at his screen and sees the area behind the vehicle in front of himself.
Scenario: The CV90 has driven forwards through a left hand turn and now it needs to reverse. The rear facing camera in front of the drivers eyes makes him see the movement as driving forward through a right hand turn.
If the steering yoke wasn’t “reversed” the driver would need to steer left when the road on his screen turns right …
I have a question about the insertion of pictures. Since a couple of days, when I insert pictures with the picture icon, the system has a default setting creating a grid. So instead of having the pictures one under each other they come in a grid. Is there a way to change the setting ?
@staff_Jim
Hi Jim,
I think this is a question for you.
@Bison126
Olivier, which icon do you mean when you write ‘picture icon’?
I drag and drop pictures one at a time and then they get inserted in a row.
My most common picture is a screen capture when I try to explain something and the screen capture tool dumps the image in the paste buffer so I just do the ‘and paste’ part.
