Joe G Model Hobby: Canadian LAV III Afghanistan

Photo Etch - daunting yes, working OK so far? Yeah, but let's not jinx it!

If I thought there was going to be one huge challenge to this build, it would be the turret baskets. I have no idea how to go about it, the conversion kit did not have any instructions, but I did see a lot of reference photos of other builds and Prime Portal has an excellent Walk Around.

I figured I would try to tackle it now, instead of get further down the road and abandon it after I put a lot of work into it.

So looking at finished products, I worked backwards. I started with the rear basket, it looked the easiest, relatively speaking. After a lot of tweaking, cutting, filing, bending (Thanks to the Etch Mate!), ripping apart and rebuilding (CA Glue and Photo Etch CAN be unbuilt without too much damage).

All I had was no reference to what should be some photo etch (200 pieces on 5 sprues) for the frame supports and mesh sides and bottoms, and some lengths of 1 mm brass wire. And a resin template for the wire bends. So looking at the pictures, and looking and dry fitting a hundred times, and 4 hours, I got the rear basket completed and attached. Not perfect, but looks good to me. I have lots of accessories to fill that basket.

Today was a vacation day, so with me feeling pretty good about myself and the new rear basket, I attempted the side baskets. Using the same methodology and building both at the same time, again, I amazed myself and did what I thought was an acceptable job. Again, lots of things to put in those baskets to cover up any glaring flubs.

Taking a break... If you are keeping track, I never glued my fingers together yet.

Here are some progress pics.
Yes, some tie downs from the other night... SMALL...patience! Those squares on the cutting mat are 1/2 inch (12 cm).

Foreground left, Resin template for basket tube frames.. Thanks Miroslav!

I set up the top rail first with the photo etch supports as a guide. The rest had to fit that to remain square. The bottom of the basket has Photo etch mesh as the floor and lower sides so the rations and water didn't fall out. Spare photo etch sprue frames acted as basket supports and mesh reinforcement. Its on the real thing!