ASLAV-PC & Lanchester Updates

The ASLAV is coming on well although I have hit a couple of snags. The most annoying is the lack of headlights on the sprues. As I was assembling the tricky front headlight unit I searched in vain for the light units, could I find them on the sprues, could I bugger! Turns out they were missing, funny that as the kit had all the parts sealed in plastic bags. I can only assume that they were never molded in the first place.

So a major rummage through the spares stash resulted in a couple of replacements. Next the turn indicator that trumpeter supplies is way over scale and has no detail for the lenses, again the spares helped out luckily and I found  some that have better detail. Back to the question of wheels now and the kit wheels I thought would work are in fact meant for the older thinner tyres, not the XL tyres fitted to this version. The kit does supply the correct width hubs but the detail is bloody awful.

They are much too deep in the hub surround and have really poor bolt detail. I experimented with adding punched plastic bolts but to be honest the wheels and tyres have bothered me and I was just not happy with them. So after a bit of digging around I found that there where a few replacement sets out there. First was a set from maple leaf models, just the job but no longer in production or available. Second, mouse house & armour corps used to do sets, again not available. 

Finally I found that hobby fan do a set and managed to track a set down so they are on the plane from Hong Kong. This means I can still crack on with the build, which I'm really enjoying. 

No such problems with the Lanchester which has now had it's matt coat sprayed on. Again I've used the VMS matt varnish and it's performed flawlessly. I will leave this for a few days as the longer you leave it the stronger it gets. Final weathering will be pretty light so as not to lose the lovely colour scheme or swamp all those smashing rivets!