Cheers Johnny, I picked this up for £20 at a model fair quite a while ago. I’ve got an AFV Club barrel and trough from my UN Scimitar build as I used an SMM update set. The Friul tracks were the most expensive part of the build at £40 delivered. The Eduard etch was cheap from E-Bay at about a tenner. I’ll be doing it in early Batus colours so green and sand.
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Aren’t they still?
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No mate, they are all sand now. Not sure when that happened but I have seen posts on other sites saying around 2010.
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Good info, cheers
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A quick update, added the welds to the final drive housings. There is a further one to add which I will do once the lower and upper hulls are joined.
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Took some time last night to work on the headlights. The brushguards need cutting down as the bottom is completely wrong as you can see in the pics. Added a through armour block for the wiring and drilled the lights and added the wiring itself. Need to scratch a horn as the kit doesn’t come with one. Added some brass strip to the rear bins as the molded on catches were in the wrong place
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I don’t think there is any more armour left at BATUS, at least for a couple of years now. Last photos I took in 2012 they were overall sand.
Jim
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No armour left in BATUS? That was the whole point of BATUS wasn’t it?
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In my view it certainly was. You can’t practice the all arms battlegroup training we used to do there anywhere else as nowhere has the required space or the templates needed for the various weapon systems that were used.
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As far as I know and have been told about, most vehicles have left BATUS from around 2020/21.
Still a small footprint there of UK troops, but no major All Arms Battle Group training for years, and before 2020, it was operating on a reduced amount of Med Man exercises for various reasons.
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According to Wikipedia:
In October 2021, 29 (BATUS) Flight AAC, which provided range reconnaissance, CASEVAC (casualty evacuation) and limited lift of passengers and equipment to BATUS with Gazelle helicopters, was placed in suspended animation, leaving BATUS with no UK aviation support.[9]
In 2023, all British military assets were removed from Suffield after the UK MOD announced reduction of training areas for the next two years.[10]
As of December 2024, the British Army was not using the base.
Ken
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Yeah the government is good at that. Build outstanding facilities and infrastructure and then hand them over to someone else. We did it in Germany, Lothian Barracks in Detmold had been finished a year when it was decided to start closing it down. All of the accommodation was modernised, the hangers were all climate controlled with a new workshop for REME. washdowns, POL point, servicing bays, brand new cookhouse the works. The hangers now house the Stadt vehicles, bin wagons, snowploughs and the like. They even filled in the swimming pool!!! I imagine it won’t be long before CFB Suffield expands across the road into Camp Crowfoot. @Johnnych01 you will recognise it even from the air. Main gate running in between the first and second blocks at the bottom right of the picture.
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Yeah, had some great times in Lothian and Detmold. Definitely my favourite out there over Sennelager, but even that was nice down in Paderborn…
I imagine they will just hand back crowfoot and the UK parts of CFB Suffield and it will all just morph into a huge Canadian base.
Everything is about money at the moment and has been for many years…
MOD is hemorrhaging money across all 3 services so they have to cut back something…
Now with huge Trg areas in Poland, Latvia, Estonia etc opening up for us to use, they are just a cheaper, easier option. I also wouldn’t put it out of the realms of possibility to have permanent similar setups to BATUS out in one of those 3 countries in the future.
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Very interesting build, I have the same kit in the stash and I’ll build it some day. Could I ask suggestions for the appropriate paint for British Warriors, overall sand and camouflaged?
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BATUS = Sand or Sand and NATO Green
UK OPFOR = Can be NATO Green or Sand and NATO Green
Issued at unit level = NATO Green or NATO Black & Green
Deployed Afghan - Sand
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Thank you. Is sand the same of BS381C.361 Light Stone or another color?
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Tricky one as it can be a bit subjective down to taste etc … I usually go with are Tamiya xf59 on its own or mixed with a bit of buff or buff mixed with dark yellow (xf60) also works … then theres weathering to tone it all back etc. Also lots of other sand/warm yellow colours to look at …
I am sure Max has his own preferences on this as well.
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British sand colour is quite orange compared to other nations variants. I use Mission Models British Sand Yellow Modern.MMP-039. It’s a near perfect match to my eye. Here on my Husky TSV.
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I think etch is taking over from indy links as the bane of my life, It really tests the eyesight. Fitted the tools to the front of the wagon. The kit tools are woeful and only the sledge hammer was saved. The pickaxe handles are just styrene rod shaped and the axe is from an AFV Club Centurion. Used the etch set and brass tube for the cam pole brackets as I think they look better than the solid kit part.
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That is a really nice colour match … what do you thin that with mate ?
The cam pole holders are terrific. Perfect look 
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