LAV300 90mm Cockerill Gun Full Build Review

To see a First Look review of this model kit along with some basic information about the LAV300 click the following link

https://www.amps-armor.org/SiteReviews/ShowReview.aspx?id=15328

The build begins with the usual assembly of the lower hull, suspension, and drive train. The steps are fairly easy to follow and the parts assemble as they should for the most part. There are a few issues that I will point out during the build process. Steps 1-15 complete the underside of the vehicle and propeller assemblies. Lets take a look....

Steps 1 and 2 begin with the assembly of the front axle and suspension. The parts fit together well however require a lot of clean up. Count on spending most of your time cleaning the parts before being able to assemble them. 

Step 3 Assembles the rear axles, water propulsion system drive axle, and drive train. The same amount of clean up is needed on these parts. Moving on to step 4 brings us to mounting the drive train to the lower hull along with the coils springs, shock absorbers, and transfer case. The coil springs benefitted from the removal of the seam lines, however the molds were misaligned on a couple of them. Those areas of the springs are mostly hidden in the lower hull. 

The water propulsion drive axle had a hole on the back side of the differential housing with some flashing covering a portion of the hole. I removed the flashing assuming the hole was supposed to be there. Come to find out the hole is not supposed to be there and it had to be filled after assembly.

Steps 5-9 assembles the water propulsion system jets. The jets assemble nicely and have great detail. I assembled the covers at the rear of the jets in the open position so the detail inside can be seen. 

Step 10 had a few issues to make note of. Care must be taken when mounting the jets to the hull. Pay attention to their alignment. The brackets they attach to do not automatically line them up parallel to the hull. The mounting brackets will need to be filled down as needed so the jets mount properly and all 4 corners of the brackets attach to the jet housings. The rear suspension control arms are attached along with the front shock absorbers at this time. I found it beneficial to attach part B19 to the rear axle control arms (part B52) in step 10 instead of attaching them to the wheels in steps 13 and 14 like the directions show. Attaching parts B19 in step 10 also made sure the control arms and springs will be lined up so the vehicles sits level. If you plan on using the model in a diorama plan on making a flat surface because the suspension and steering is fixed in one position.

Red arrow points out part B19 attached to the chassis.

Step 15 attaches the wheels. I had to enlarge the inside of the wheels to fit the hubs. The inside diameter of parts B5 are too small to fit around B19 and B49. Enlarging the inside diameter of B5 by a very small amount (about 0.05 mm-0.10 mm) is enough to allow them to fit the hubs.

Inside of the wheel enlarged slightly to fit around rear hub B19 and front knuckles B48 and B49. 

 Finishing up step 15 ads a couple nice photoetch guards to protect the drive shafts for the propeller drives. The front steering linkage and bow plane is also added in this step.

Step 16 starts the assembly of the rear hatch. The hatch has good detail inside and out. The clear vision blocks have nice detail in the cross hatching molded in to the glass.

Step 17 attaches the rear hatch to the lower hull and begins the assembly of a very basic interior. The interior consists of a drivers compartment and controls, seating in the rear, and a 3rd seat behind the driver that has no description but assume a radio operator position. Not much of the interior will be visible with hatches left open. For the purpose to display for the review I painted the interior in a basic way. All the hatches will be set closed when the upper hull is attached.

A base coat of Tamiya XF71 Cockpit Green was used.

The decals for the driver's instrument panel do add a little something extra if you decide to leave the hatch open. A good amount of setting solution and time helps the larger decal settle into place. 

Working through steps 19-23 finishes off the interior. The upper hull is started and attached to the lower half in step 23. It is pretty much standard procedure assembling the engine compartment access panels. Following this we assemble a couple fuel cans, attach the engine compartment access panels and their latches along with a few other details. Step 28 assembles the tow cable. I was very impressed with the copper cable flexibility and how nicely the cable ends fit the cable. The whole cable wrapped perfectly around the 4 photoetch mounting points. The rest of the assembly of the hull and turret went pretty smoothly although much time will be needed cleaning certain parts. The rear light guards and water jet guards needs quite a bit of clean up. The photoetch exhaust heat shields fit well once they were rolled to the correct radius and no warping. I had an issue with the largest heat shield popping off because it was slightly warped.

Lastly the turret is started in step 40 with the assembly of the spotlight. The photoetch part PE-A15 that is attached over the light lens is very delicate and pretty much fell apart in my hands when I was trying to bend and fold into shape. In the end I had to leave the part off.  The rest of the turret goes together smoothly in a few more steps. The 90mm gun barrel elevation is fixed when it is glued on. If you plan to have the barrel resting in its support mount glue the barrel to the turret while the turret is mounted to the hull.  

I made sure to prime the exhaust with Mr. Surfacer Mahogany before attaching the photoetch heat shields to get good paint coverage and prevent any unpainted areas under the shields once painting was completed. As you can see in these pictures there is a large gap between the upper and lower hulls. The two halves are not glued at this point. A good amount of sanding, pressure, and clamping was needed to get all areas of the upper and lower halves to make contact. In the end I still needed to fill a few small areas with super glue and file/sand flat. 

On to the painting. 

I decided to go with one of the paint options that comes with the kit. Mr. Mahogany Surfacer 1000 was thinned with leveling thinner and air brushed as a primer. The camouflage pattern was airbrushed using Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green, XF-82 Ocean Gray 2, and XF-69 Nato Black. The decals are excellent to work with. Very little time in water was needed to loosen them and apply to the model. They are very thin and laid down nice and flat over a semi gloss coat of clear. A little decal softener and a second layer of glossy clear made them look almost painted on. 

In conclusion I have mixed feelings about this kit. The quality of the parts could have been much better considering it is supposed to be a new tooling. For the price of the kit I expected more from it. Quite a bit of time was needed cleaning most of the parts. Plan on having a variety of sanding tools, a good set of modeling files, and all your razor knives on hand. To assemble the model as clean as possible you will need those tools to shape the parts into the shape they are intended to be and fit together well. The kit has a lot of potential however. There are some areas of the kit that were very impressive like the water propulsion jets and machine gun. The tires and wheels are also highly detailed and fit together perfect if you look past the fit issue with the hubs and wheels. I can say this kit would make a good base it that could benefit from after market details and a nice interior if desired.  

Thank you for the opportunity to review this model.

Highly Recommended for Beginner to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to Model Rectifier Corporation for this review kit.

Reviewed by Russ Clark 

Minuteman AMPS

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