W.I.P : french modern warfare, special forces vehicles (20mm)

[sundayhero]

Hi,

In this topic I'll show you the work in progress for one of my future 20mm french special forces vehicle, called VLRA SAS,  from ACMAT company.

This heavy weight 4x4 truck design is old, but sturdy, reliable, and so it 's still used by french special forces. Some new vehicles should replace it in the future, but the VLRA SAS should be on battlefields to 2015 at least.


I bought for a fair price a seconds short wheel base resin VLRA, and prepared it roughly  :





The goal is to make something like this :

http://i22.servimg.com/u/f22/11/22/36/28/vehicu11.jpg

This heavy weight vehicule is long wheel based, have a 12.7mm HMG (can be replaced by an automatic grenade launcher) and 2 or 3  7.62 LMGs. I've got all the weapons, bits, and crew members needed.


So I started by chopping the truck :





Then, I found some kind of fibrous plastic (PVC ? ), easy to cut. I used it to make the vehicle longer :





Then, observing the VLRA sas pics, I thought that extra lenght was also needed at the rear of the vehicle :





I finally sanded off most of the defects, reinforce the glued parts with liquid superglue. Now there is a bit more room for the crew :






I'll finish tommorow with the dremel, and resculpt truck body details with green stuff. I'll also fix defects (worst defects will be hidden with camo mesh... ).

Once it will be done, I'll add the wheels, and start the detailling.

[Sendak]

Very serious work when a lad gets out the razor saw.

This build should be great.

Do carry on!

[von Lucky]

Looking good - you're powering through this.

[sundayhero]

Thanks for the comments !


Today I glued the wheels, and also made a few modifications. Tonight I'll work on detailling, with rollcage, weapons and all

[Westfalia Chris]

Trust the French to do commando actions in style - a stretch pickup.

Great work. The ACMAT's design is quite an acquired taste, IMHO, but it looks rugged and no-nonsense, pretty fitting for the purpose. I'm quite looking forward to see what you'll end up with.

[sandsmodels]

looks a great conversion already
shaun

[sundayhero]

Thanks for your interest !  

When I started historical modern miniatures, I wanted to show the underrepresented (wargames minis speaking) french army, and so some of our vehicles like the VBL, VAB, P4, VLRA...To make the modelling project interesting, I wanted to make conversions of most of the vehicles I have. So the P4 and VLRa will be SAS versions. When I made my preliminary researchs, I found pics like this one :

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc239/writchie_2007/VLRA/Stuck_in_our_truck_again.jpg


For me, it's the quintessence of the special forces action vehicle. 




Back to the  model :

I added the main rollcage bar, and some mesh (car air filter metal mesh) on the bed floor. It will be flooded in PVA glue to look like (I hope) these embossed anti skidding metal plates we see in the real truck (and allready hiding a big part of the modifications I made )

Next work ;

finish the rollcage and weapon systems
create a rear bench for operators
add the side details and accessories (wich will be mostly here to hide the conversion additions)
correct some defects
create the crew (probably some conversions here too).


I hope to finish this week end.

[sundayhero]

Here's the last progress for the day. It took me the evening, even if I didn't progressed that much.


I finished the rollcage (althought I simplified it a bit, due to scale and skills/material available  ), and started to work on the HMG turret.

Tommorow, once it will be dried and sturdy, I'll correct the defects on the mesh, and add triangles on each side of it to maintain the turret half circle (on the real thing, it's steel, on my model it will be plasticard), and then I'll finish the turret adding the 12.7mm weapon system.

[Sendak]

Your master plan is coming together quickly.

Tip of the hat to you.

[sundayhero]

Thanks !


I finally finished the rollcage, adding a mesh behind the cockpit, and an extra greenstuff wheel, like the real thing :

http://www.jwdeboer.nl/pics/ml/vlra3.jpg


 I still need to add the heavy weapon, but the difficult work is done. The only thing I still have questions is the truck bed just behind the turret. I know how to make the rear operators benchs, but I didn't find good pics of the inner turret, I don't know how it is. I will probably have to guess and invent.


Then, I'll add accessories, and work on my crew. On the pics, the "dirty" aspect is that I painted in flat black some aeras before glueing, because they would be too difficult to reach once the model finished.

[former user]

I wanted to show the underrepresented (wargames minis speaking) french army,

absolutely with You here
very inspiring project, keep going

[von Lucky]

Very nice progress.

I assumed you've searched www.militaryphotos.net?

There's a lot their on Mali operations.

[sundayhero]

Thanks,


No  I didn't know this website. I'm new in military wargaming, and I'm not very good in google searching 

[von Lucky]

As dangerous as LAF. We'll see you again in a few days

[sundayhero]

I didn't found anything on military photos for now, but I found some tiny pics on a miniature blog :

http://milinfo.over-blog.com/categorie-1180729.html

As I can see, the front bench is similar to some kind of olympic podium, with 2 side seat and a car seat on the highest stair.

The assembly is larger than the rear benches, wich is something I was also thinking.

I'll search a bit more, but if I don't find anything more, it should be suficient to finish the model, especially since my work is already not 100% accurate.