The HSTV-L... or the LAV-75... or the RDF/LT... who knows...

The High Survivability Test Vehicle - Lightweight or HSTV-L was a light tank testbed developed under the US Army's Armoured Combat Vehicle Technology program in the late 1970s.  Only one of these vehicles was ever produced and it while it was originally made to test the concept of speed instead of armour, it was also used to test a number of other concepts, including its 75mm Automatic main gun.

Who doesn't approve of the idea of a 75mm Panther type gun, firing modern ammunition in something like full auto mode!

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about this vehicle here - mainly because there are some excellent websites out there with all that information so if you what to find more - here is a good place to start - that's a link to the Tank Encyclopedia article on the HSTV-L.

I came across this vehicle sometime around 1986 when I purchased this book:

Which has a number of illustrated plates of various vehicles including this one:

In TW:2000 it was always known as the LAV-75 - so that's my preferred nomenclature.  In that setting the LAV-75 equipped the divisional light tank battalions in the US Army's Light Divisions, as well as the assault gun battalions in the US 9th ID (Motorised) and replaced the Sheridan in the 82nd Airborne Div.

In Battlefront's Team Yankee game I believe they call this the RDF/LT.  I understand that was one of the many programs undertaken to replace the Sheridan, but beyond that I'm not really sure.

In my Cold War setting for Battlegroup, so far the LAV-75 is a Speculative Weapon that is one of the Light Tank/Assault Gun options useable by the US 9th ID (Motorised).  I intend to expand that at some stage to also cover the Light Divisions and the 82nd.  Maybe more...  Here's the AFV Data Card for the LAV-75

Anyway - a while back I bought an STL for the HSTV-L from Wargaming3D.  It's a lovely little model which I scaled up to 1/72 and it printed very nicely.  It comes with a large turret stowage rack which I now understand was used for instrumentation during some of its testing.  It's not shown in photo or TW:2000 drawing above.  I decided to leave it on as I like stowage, and I bet most tank crews like having a place to stow things as well.  The rack is quite light - so if you don't want it, it wouldn't be any drama to cut it off - or if you're more skilful than me - simply don't print it.  I printed 4 tanks to make up a platoon and here they are:

 

This will be my Platoon Commander's vehicle, with a Friendship Models commander.

 This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Commander's section of the platoon.

This is the Platoon Sergeant's vehicle, again with a Friendship Models commander.

This is the second vehicle in the Platoon Sergeant's section of the platoon.

Here's the platoon together

One thing I had a hard time with while I was making them was just how big I thought they were.  So once I had finished them I thought it might be worthwhile to put them besides a M1 to check out whether or not they really were that big.  I thought the result was quite interesting:

So they really were much, much smaller - just with a really long main gun barrel!

So that's my LAV-75 platoon.  I have more US Light Tank options in the pipeline, but before they get finished, I've got some Canadian vehicles coming up next.

So let me know if you like these crazy speculative vehicles and would like to see more and/or include them is some 1980's Cold War action.  You never know, if I can sort it out you may get to see a couple of LAV-75 derivative vehicles as well!

Thanks

Richard

Some West German vehicles

So like I said in the previous post a mate had sent me a few West German bits and bobs to paint for him - for which I got some very nice goodies in return - and due to a range of circumstances which I won't bore you with I was, strangely enough, able to knock them over fairly quickly.  The photos were quickly taken before the vehicles were packaged up and stuffed into my suitcase!

I was also able to try out a couple of things, including using my airbrush, so was generally pretty happy with the finished product.  Over a black spray undercoat I used Vallejo Air Colour NATO Green for the base coat and Tamiya NATO Black and NATO Brown for the cam colours.  I then did a black pin wash, used the Vallejo Air NATO Green as a dry brush, and then Vallejo MC Black Grey and VMC Flat Brown as the drybrush colours for the Tamiya cam colours.  Hope that all makes sense.

These first two are BobMack 3D prints of the Jaguar 1 with HOT ATGM fired under armour.  I was super impressed with these prints which were incredibly crisp and detailed.  Both designer and printer ought to be congratulated.  I added cam netting to one of them - all the other detail is simply an excellent model.

These next two are BobMack 3D prints of the Jaguar 2 with TOW ATGM.  Again - quite lovely printed, full of character and detail.  Again I added cam netting to one of them.  The TOW system shows excellent detail.

The last two are Hobbyden M113G with the MG mounts and the Milan mounts not added, due the likelihood of them breaking during travel.  Again I added netting too each of these and I think they came out looking great.

So that's it for now.  I'm slowly getting back into the swing of life and I hope to make a big dent into the unpainted and unbuilt stash of shame this year.

Thanks

Richard 

M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Platoon

 After completing the M1 Platoon, the next logical step was to complete an M2 Platoon.  A bit of armoured infantry can never go astray and in 1/72 I can use these vehicles as either M2 BFVs or M3 Cavalry Fighting Vehicles - so two platoon options for the price of 4 models - not bad.

Like the M1's I've owned these vehicles for quite some time and only just now felt confident enough to stow and paint them.  Pretty sure this lot includes 2 Dragon diecasts, 1 Trumpeter kit and 1 Revell kit.  I have a feeling the Trumpeter kit is the only one you can show with the commanders hatch open.  Could be wrong...

So here the platoon as a whole:

Now broken two to two sections.  The Platoon Commander's element:

And now the Platoon Sergeant's element:

And now some individual vehicle shots:

So that's this lot of M2's done.  Like the M1's there's plenty more left to do, but I think I'll be moving onto to more infantry of a new platoon of M113's in MERDC next.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

M1 Tank Platoon

 OK - so in the end I haven't made any changes to these models.  I decided that I wouldn't weather them for now as I don't have the right decals and getting them seems more expensive than it's worth, as once I put them on, they'll get covered by mud & dirt etc anyway.  So I don't really know what to do there.

Regarding turret markings, after asking the question on a few different facebook groups, the markings I really like seem to have been exercise or road-march only.  They were to be whipped off the moment hostilities started.  I still like them, so one day I might add them anyway.  Not for now though...

So here's the finished platoon:

Now the Platoon Commander's Section:

Now the Platoon Sergeant's Section:

And some shots of individual tanks:

Guess which one I stuffed up!

Anyway - that's enough for now.  M2 Bradley's up next.

Thanks

Richard