( Academy Pic)

Maker : Academy

Kit # : 1389

Availablity: In Hobby Shops

Retail Price: Around $35

My Build Up Of It

First Impression:

Opening the box revealed alot of sprues containing the parts to make various versions includeing U.S. ACAV , Republic of Korea, Royal Austrailian Army and Flamethrower. There was very little if any flash present on any of the sprues as well. The kit also includes the option for useing individual links or one piece and a full interior including engine.

The Build:

Overall fit was great. No problems with anything and no large gaps to use a tube of putty in and notihng had to be sanded alot. There are some pin marks, some rather deep especially on the insides of hatches which are a pain to fix if leaveing the hatces open. There are also some on the backs of the shields for the .
I found out to late that the vision blocks on the TC coupla need to be painted prior to final assembly as they are basically covered up by the armor if doing the ACAV version.
The engine assembly was a bit of hassle to get into place correctly and have the drive shafts and exhaust lined up correctly. It was not overly impressive so I closed the hatch over it.
The biggest problem I had was the tracks. The one piece look pretty good in deatil, about the same as the indis, but the ones I had were about 1/4" from even haveing the ends touching, much less getting the proper overlap to glue them. After counting up the indis, I found out that there were not enough of them either. So I emailed Academy about the problem. They claimed I was the first one to have the problem and that the wrong tracks were most likely put into the box and they would send replacements. About 2 months later I recieved them and they are the exact same ones I had in the first place. I solved the problem by combining the one pice and indis.

Decals:

The decal sheet has a wide variety of decals to choose from. They also seemed to work great with no problems.

Extras:

The extras are a highlight of the kit. Lots of stuff to throw onto the body like bags, weapons, helmets, knives and even coke bottles. There is on duffle bag that is molded in a shape that I have yet to figure out to get it to work any where though.

Figures:

Four military figures are included as well as a vietmanese woman one. I'm not to keen on figures so I will not say how good they are or not.

Final Words:

Overall it is a great kit and makes a good looking build. With the selection of variants possible with it there are lots of posibilities as well. I would say pick it up if you are wanting to build something from the Vietnam era.