Takom FV432 Peak Turret

I've now started work on this project and have begun with the conversion set from accurate armour. Firstly I'll give you a bit of a heads up regarding the takom kit. Straight from the box you can build a very good replica of a vehicle that had undergone an overhaul from 1998 to 2001 and covers the period up to the reworking of the engine & gearbox under the bulldog program. For vehicles before 1998 a few changes need to be made. These are pretty minor and I'll point them out during my build. 

On to the conversion and my first task was to remove the new hull roof from the pour runner and fill a few pin holes. Placed next to the takom kit you can see straight away that there are no brackets for the camo pole tubes and the rear roof hatch is bigger to accommodate the roof adaptor plate. The adaptor plate needs a bit of clean up and mine is warped slightly but once glued in place it should be fine.

The peak turret needs lots of clean up and defining of details as it's quite soft. I had to fill a couple of areas to replace missing areas of the turret as well. The turret hatch in mine was a total cluster fuck, the top of the hatch was rounded and too short so again I had to fill with putty and superglue to try and get the correct profile.
 It now actually fills the turret opening correctly but doesn't quite sit flush, not a good start. The interior of the hatch is also not good so I'm thinking a closed hatch later on.

The turret periscopes are bloody atrocious and need some major work to look half decent. The main scope, No4, is particularly bad so I'll try re working it or scratching a new one. Surely it would be easy to make masters with recesses for the glass instead of casting them as solid lumps? 
I have not shown it here but likewise the GPMG barrel for the turret is a waste of resin. It's just a miss shaped blob with bugger all definition. Luckily I can use a spare barrel from the stash.

Finally the last major part is a revised exhaust pipe, nice idea but the end cap is cast closed and the part is warped in the middle. better to use the takom one I think and chuck this bugger in the bin.

As you can tell I'm not overly impressed with this conversion set, OK it only cost me £20 but if you bought it from accurate armour it would set you back £32 & that's before postage. I think the only really new parts in this are the hull top and the decals. Although looking at the hull top it looks a lot like a re worked takom item. Everything else has probably come from their 432 kits & the saxon apc with peak turret. This really shows due to the mold degradation and the age of those kits. 

BUT again this is the only game in town so if you want a peak turret 432 be prepared for less than perfect fit and some filling & sanding. I just hope that the hull roof fits the takom hull now!