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Academy M981 FISTV W.I.P.


Stikpusher

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So this weekend I finally was able to attend a Phoenix AMPS meeting. During the meetings, the club also encourages working on a model to pass the time, so I started this one that I’ve had in my stash for awhile. Academy’s 1/35 M981 Fire Support Team Vehicle, aka FISTV. These things are extremely similar to the M901 ITVs that I served on once upon a time, although instead of TOW missiles, they are full of radios, a laser designator, observation gear, and other tools for the trade for artillery forward observers.

Anyways, here is the kit box

570-DB62-C-FD03-4-B5-E-9140-F892-A0-D152

A photo of the real thing during Desert Shield/Desert Storm that I’ll be using for reference. Not many photos to be found of these things there.

046-B20-CB-CA67-4-C3-B-B485-BA10-BE51-BE

and how much I assembled during the meeting

4463-A398-85-AE-44-D9-B100-2-B428-B77-B4

I’ll be taking this one slow for now, as I have several other higher priority projects to wrap up first.

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8 hours ago, GeneralModel said:

I can’t see the pics. 

Hmmmm, they show up just fine on my end. 

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  • 4 months later...

After a few months of sitting on the sidelines, I pulled this one back out and resumed construction. During the So.Cal. AMPS monthly Zoom meeting I was able to get a LOT more built on this track. I’m going to build this with the hammerhead in the stowed position.

06-C2-D561-F42-C-453-A-965-A-B617-AE5-C2

203-EF675-688-A-4-E2-C-B973-F984-D54-EA1

I was able to get most of the basic construction completed, although the engine deck is not glued down, only fitted in p,ace for the moment. I want to build some sort of support base for a driver’s bust/torso since that’s the easiest way to place one in there. I have trimmed down the forward hammerhead support pads a bit too much since I took the photo, so I’ll need to go back and adjust those to get the proper stowed angle. Before I trimmed them, the front sat way too high. More to come soon…

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  • 1 year later...

Over the past year, I’ve done a little bit of work on this here and there, but no major progress until today.

Recently I had completed the hammerhead turret by using the flexible portion of a bendable straw for the cover on the optical duct

IMG-9361.jpg

Then during the past few session when I had been working on this I had been working on the tracks, which I finally completed today…

IMG-9359.jpg

IMG-9360.jpg

So now this is ready for final assembly then painting… my big decision will be to have the trim vane down as a cargo shelf or have it retracted like normal. Plus I need to improvise some antenna base guards…

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks JM! Im waiting on some antennas to come in the mail, and working on some crew figures for this, so no progress to post for awhile...

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