after spending 4 years doing a conversion of the LAVIII kit into the NZLAVIII i can tell you there is a lot wrong with the Trumpeter Kit (even for the Canadian version) mainly because the bottom half of the hull started as a Stryker kit and they carried over parts that are different on the LAV but also some of their details were so wrong also. the steering arms for instance are too long and pivot in the wrong place.
AFV Club Stryker underneath is well detailed.
compared to the Trumpeter kit. because the arms are the wrong length and pivot in the wrong place if you try to realign them to have the wheels turned it all just looks wrong. you can see the pivot points are to far in to the center but everything just lacks detail.
the front plates on the glacis has 2plates left and 4 plates right as on a Stryker but a LAV only had 4 plates total. you can see where i had removed the bolt points and started filling the seam between the plates.
can see the differences here. also the lashing points at the side are a different orientation and on the kit they have it how they are on the Stryker
another big problem is the top rear of the hull is the wrong shape on the angled parts you can see on this markup how much needs removing
i bolstered inside and carved the sides out then replated to make it more correct. i should have added some flat plates inside before the rods to help with it
i started by scoring some lines into it where the inner part should angle to then carved into the sides allowing for the thickness of the plating i would add back in
you can see i just started going all the way through
then added plating back on to tidy it up
wasn’t till later i remembered to get a pic of how i trimmed the back plate
were lots of other problems and minor errors also.
if anyone wants a read of my guide i can post a link to my google drive. over 13,300 words and 400 odd pictures.
still got a few small bits to do on it to finish it off. sitting on my old tank helmet cover at a model display. most mods were made from scrap plastic packaging and some spare kits parts.