GMK

Good interview with the boss of Kotare, Mark Robson & a look at the sprues from a test shot by Sam Dwyer.

Looking forward to this one! Hoping that the LFD Mk VC conversion proves popular enough for LFD to consider it in 1/24 scale.

After a week away, it’s back to work. Until the VCSU ducting is finalised & installed on the lower turret assembly, the lower turret can’t be bolted to the upper hull. Time to use some of the self-adhesive location templates for drilling. Thanks for looking in.

Last update for a bit. Have tweaked the “grass skirts” that are on the hull rear. Still some cleaning up to do, but not too bad. Here’s one fitted to the tank. Not bad. Tweaking the front lifting eyes is progressing. Still some work to go! Thanks for looking in.

The upper & lower hull integration is now the highest priority. As such, I’ve reconnected them both. Test printed new iterations of the front lift points & the power outlet for plows & rollers adjacent the driver’s hatch are back on the kit. More to come. Thanks for looking in.

Thanks John, kind of you to say. Using a bit of deductive reasoning, I’ll answer your question in two parts: 1. As our almost-retired M1A1 fleet was shown with elements from the Tank Urban Survivability Kit (TUSK), including inert M19 Abrams Reactive Armor Tiles (ARAT), I’d say that these systems in both training & operational configurations are available if required for the SEPv3 fleet. 2. As the “A” kit* for Trophy is fitted as standard to our SEPv3s, there certainly seems to be an intent to fit the B kit as needed. Whether they’ve been procured is a another question, ofc. *A kit is more or less “fitted for but not worn”. All of the bosses needed to bolt on the brackets, boxes, & modules of the Trophy B kit are present, so fitment becomes a crew task.

Thanks Ray! I was aiming to enter this conversion into the local annual model show (Scale ACT) that starts today, but some unexpected work travel put paid to that. Still have some work to do across the glacis, hence the paint free areas. Also need to finalise the camouflage pattern. Thanks for looking in.

Just out of impatience & curiosity, drop fot of the turret. Thanks for looking in.

Managed to finish the back end of the hull & have started painting. Happy with the biggest hull mod - the UAAPU. Thanks for looking in.

Offical pics of the arrival & first live firing of the new SEPv3 have been released!

So good, Jay. An absolute masterpiece of conception, design, & finish.

I keep coming back to look at this. Amazing work.

Looks good enough under primer. Made a bit of a hash of one of the grills, but the turret bustle will make it difficult to see. Started on mapping the anti-slip on the hull glacis. Once that’s in place, the rest of the details will be added. Thanks for looking in.

Always love the look of the South East Asian scheme - you’ve nailed both the paint & the aircraft. Thanks for sharing.

Once the screens are on the engine deck, it’ll be done. Pretty happy with the UAAPU. Thanks for looking in.

With all the work done on the turret, the upper hull has lagged, somewhat. To finish off the under armour auxiliary power unit (UAAPU) on the rear left corner, I returned to the self-adhesive brown paper to print a template for drilling & applied it to the hull. Once the location holes were drilled, the printed components were test fit. I’m tweaking the design of the door surrounds, but I’m very happy with how this is progressing. Thanks for looking in.

A new-to-me technique is the use of self-adhesive paper to transfer designs to physical kits, in this case locating the fridge to the turret rear. With the fridge & VCSU dry fitted. Will use the same technique to locate the VCSU ducting. Glued the CROWS conduit & Gunner’s Primary Sight to the hull. Pretty happy with it & getting closer. Thanks for looking in.

Tic-tacking between the loader’s gun shield & the VCSU ducting across the back of the turret. Here’s a first-principles fit check of the VCSU ducting. The VCSU ducting is the biggest hurdle to screwing the turret base & race to the hull top; a major milestone. I’m keen to figure it out. In the meantime, roughing out the gun shield & machine gun mount has kicked off. Talk about a complicated shape! Will probably have to do the machine gun itself, which will slow things down, considerably. Thanks for looking in.

Thanks Tom. I think the turret is on the home stretch. Speaking of anti-slip, there’s a narrow strip between the conduit & turret edge. After mapping it out with some painter’s tape, Tamiya sand texture paint was used. The base for the loader’s machine gun was drawn up for the skate ring. I’m kicking the gun mount & shield into the long grass while I complete the big muscle movements in CAD. Thanks for looking in.

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

Well, back from the US & time to get after this conversion. I’ve redone the patch panel adjacent the wind sensor. Test fit on the kit. The conduit from the CROWS is a tricky piece. Third iteration of the conduit on the printer! Thanks for looking in.

Thanks Matt, I appreciate your comment. Well, the work-imposed hiatus for real modelling has commenced. Here’s where we are with the turret as at this morning. Always takes longer than you think! Front view: Rear view - some items are dry/test fit only. The bustle rack & bustle rack extension. This is being reworked to correct the mesh. As always, thanks for looking in.

An incipient work trip will slow progress, so trying to close off as much as possible before I leave. First cab off the rank is the patch panel adjacent the cross wind sensor. Of course the Australian one differs from the USian one. Pics mine: In addition to this widget, I had a go at the conduit that connects the CROWS-LP to the BFT conduit. Also had another look at the VCSU (aircon) & the fridge. Here’s them during a height check, noting that the fridge will be mounted on the RHS. The VCSU & patch panel: Thanks for looking in.

Final test fit of the GPS mount for the CITV ballistic shield before paint. The conduit for the BFT needed anti-slip texture added. Test fitted on the turret. All looks good. Should be able to add it to the turret roof & paint. Thanks for looking in.

The more I look at the A-kit for Trophy, the more differences I see! Here’s the same part on a plain Jane green US Army SEPv3 I was climbing on in April compared to the Australian APS-ready version I was all over last month. Moving onto the Commander’s Independent Thermal Viewer (CTIV). The CITV ballistic shroud located at the 4 o’clock position has been tweaked on the 1:1 to mount the GPS puck/antenna, including some conduit to connect to the power distribution system. As can be seen, the rebate on the CITV base means that the ballistic shroud/GPS puck mount has a wider surface area to attach to. That’s about it, for now. Thanks for looking in.