Italeri M109 Paladin - lockdown build

[wasdale32]

Hi,

Picked up cheap at the model show at Bovington and built out of the box (with a few scratch built additions).

Originally intended to do it in British service but couldn't be bothered to do enough research to do it justice.

Not a bad kit to assemble but no idea how accurate it is. I'll probably botch together a base for it at some point.

Comments welcome.

Mark

[Lee W]

Looks good to me Mark, I didn't realise that we used them but a quick history check confirmed the British army used them from the 60's up until '93 then sold them on to Austria in '94.
Learn something new everyday :nerd:

Lee

[Road of Bones]

That’s a really nice build Mark, and looks very convincing. I have the Tamiya re-boxing of this kit, and have been thinking of bumping it up the “to build” queue:thinking:

[PaulTRose]

i do like that

very nice

[Jack L]

Love the camo netting!

[wasdale32]

Thanks Guys,

the camo netting on the front is made from a scrap piece of garden weed-block which is a rubbery material with very small perforations - but when stretched it forms holes more to scale.

The "foliage" patches are just punched from a sheet of scrap material.


Mark

[Guest]

Originally intended to do it in British service but couldn't be bothered to do enough research to do it justice.

This is an M109A6 “Paladin”, which is only used by the USA and Saudi-Arabia. The UK used the M109 and M109A2/A3 (the only difference between the two is that the A2 was newly built while the A3 was the same vehicle, upgraded from an M109A1) but as Lee mentioned, they’re all long out of service, replaced by the AS 90.

no idea how accurate it is.

The old Italeri M109 was pretty accurate, certainly of fairly high standard for when it was released ca. the early 1980s. Nowadays, of course, the AFV Club offering is likely to be more accurate, but I doubt there’s much really wrong with the Italeri kit.

Anyway, I like your model

[scottie3158]

Mark,
That is a cracking build.

[wasdale32]

Jakko - I did do a bit of research on the M109 in British service but quickly realised that butchering the kit would be too big a job (I'll have to source an A2/A3 if one)- I remember seeing a M109 at Larkhill in the mid-late 70's around the time the FH70 was being introduced so it was well before the AS90.

The thing that stood out was the sheer size of the gun next to an Abbot.

[Steve Jones]

Nice work Mark. A very impressive build