AK Land Rover 88 Series IIA

Looking very much forward to this one.

YEAH!!!!!!

Yep

Can't wait, Pete! This is such an iconic vehicle!

Made a start on the model with the chassis and suspension parts getting sorted. The chassis has some seam lines that need removing which I did but not too neatly as it really won't be seen on the finished model. The leaf springs are next and for some reason these are in two parts which need to be glued together leaving a seam line down the middle that needs sanding. A lot of work for no visible benefit. The location points for the springs on the chassis are not the best so make sure that the springs are all level.




The front and rear axles are next to go on followed by the wheels brake assemblies. the rears are straightforward but the fronts are made up of three parts that don't fit that well. Test fitting before glue is a must. Again this is over complicated especially when there is no option to pose the wheels in anything apart from straight on and you won't see it on the finished piece. The wheels hubs look good but annoyingly have a ejector pin right in the recess on the rear that gets fitted to the axles. Careful clean up here again so that the wheels will actually fit. The rubber tyres look good and have a nice pattern but I expect some nice resin aftermarket wheels will be available very soon.




I'm probably going to glue the wheel hubs to the axles minus the tyres just so I can get a good solid and level chassis before paint. To get to this stage has taken some time mostly due to over complication of parts that will not be seen. Very bronco so far this kit.

 

Looks too complicated for my taste!

Now that the chassis is built up things are moving slightly faster. The final fiddly and tricky bits have been added here in the form of the steering assembly and the exhaust pipe. As you can see I've partially built up the engine and transmission as I won't be having the bonnet open on this build. What I have assembled looks very nice with lovely detail though.

The front and rear bumpers went on next with the front needing some clean up of seam lines. They both look good once attached to the chassis. The body of the vehicle is made up of multiple parts so some test fitting was required to check for a good fit before gluing.

Everything lines up pretty well with only the bulkhead, B9, needing some trimming for a good fit. I still have to add the inner wings but so far it looks good. The canvas top fits well and the doors seem to line up correctly too.

That looks rather grand Pete

Looking very good, Pete.