M48A5 AVLB

1
March 18, 2020
Planning out the hydraulic lines under the bridge decking.
2
March 28, 2020
Planning out the bridge section arrangement and hydraulic lines at the end section.
3
March 28, 2020
Templates to cut the kits styrene sheets
4
March 28, 2020
Templates next to the kits parts. Rather bland aren't they?
5
March 18, 2020
Templates and the revised kit parts
6
March 18, 2020
placing the revised braces, leaving the second side of the bridge off for painting.
7
March 18, 2020
placing the revised braces, leaving the second side of the bridge off for painting.
8
March 18, 2020
placing the revised braces, leaving the second side of the bridge off for painting.
9
March 18, 2020
Bridge sections with corrected panels and hydraulic lines installed.
10
March 18, 2020
Bridge sections with corrected panels and hydraulic lines installed.
11
March 28, 2020
Bridge hydraulic assembly completed and waiting for install in bridge substructure.
12
March 18, 2020
Bridge sections with corrected panels and hydraulic lines installed.
13
March 18, 2020
Bridge section nearly completed and labeled. Sub structure to be painted before final assembly.
14
March 18, 2020
Bridge section nearly completed and labeled. Sub structure to be painted before final assembly.
15
March 18, 2020
Bridge hydraulic assembly completed and waiting for install in bridge substructure.
16
March 18, 2020
Bridge hydraulic assembly completed and waiting for install in bridge substructure.
17
March 28, 2020
Close up of the hydraulic line & fittings
18
March 28, 2020
Close up of the hydraulic line & fittings
19
March 28, 2020
Close up of the hydraulic line & fittings
20
March 28, 2020
Close up of the hydraulic line & fittings
21
March 28, 2020
Close up of the hydraulic line & fittings
22
March 28, 2020
Close up of the flange
23
March 28, 2020
Thinking through the camouflage layout and scale
24
March 28, 2020
base coat done along with the brown. Some splatter that will disappear later.
25
March 28, 2020
base coat done along with the brown. Some splatter that will disappear later.
26
March 28, 2020
base coat done along with the brown. Some splatter that will disappear later.
27
March 28, 2020
Panzer Putty is a great masking tool. Time for the faded NATO Black.
28
March 28, 2020
Replacing the kits rubber track with workable T142 link from LO Models. Found them on eBay for $6. Never heard of LO Models before.
29
March 28, 2020
Simple instructions.
30
March 28, 2020
Decent detail on the individual links. Pin holes needs addressing.
31
March 28, 2020
Decent detail on the individual links. Pin holes needs addressing.
32
March 28, 2020
Pin holes are significant - must fill them in
33
March 28, 2020
Pad and connectors are acceptable
34
March 28, 2020
Mr. Surfacer 500 to the rescue
35
March 28, 2020
Mr. Surfacer 500 to the rescue - all filled in to dry and sand
36
March 28, 2020
all done.
37
March 28, 2020
Bridge camouflage base coat done. Time to add a filter
38
March 28, 2020
Bridge camouflage base coat done. Time to add a filter
39
March 28, 2020
Bridge camouflage base coat done. Time to add a filter
40
March 28, 2020
Launcher painted, weather and detail to follow
41
March 28, 2020
Launcher hydraulic lines need accent painting to bring them out
42
March 28, 2020
Launcher hydraulic lines need accent painting to bring them out
43
March 28, 2020
Launcher needs grease and hinge pivot wear marks from constant use
44
March 28, 2020
Filter applied - compare before and after
45
April 15, 2020
46
April 15, 2020
47
April 15, 2020
48
April 15, 2020
49
April 15, 2020
50
April 15, 2020
51
April 15, 2020
52
April 15, 2020
A ground view, looking up from under the bridge in the "A" position.
53
April 15, 2020
54
May 3, 2020
weighting down the hull with lead.
55
May 3, 2020
an early concept look before finishing the hull
56
May 3, 2020
connecting the upper and lower hull together
57
May 3, 2020
smoothing out the mold seam lines
58
May 3, 2020
road wheels completed. weathering to follow
59
May 3, 2020
weighting down the bridge sections while the glue dries with a bean filled stocking.
60
May 3, 2020
initial weather on the upper hull
61
May 3, 2020
initial weather on the upper hull
62
May 3, 2020
weathering the hull underside
63
May 3, 2020
test fitting the track and drive sprocket
64
May 3, 2020
tracks installed
65
May 8, 2020
Bridge and Launcher assembly test fitted to hull.
66
May 14, 2020
AVLB mounted to the base
67
May 14, 2020
AVLB sitting aside a desert road
68
May 14, 2020
Figures placed for concept
69
May 14, 2020
Driver taking a break
70
May 14, 2020
figures test fit
71
May 14, 2020
I think he sees a hydraulic leak.
72
May 14, 2020
AVLB fixed to base, waiting on figures, stowage and tools.
73
May 27, 2020
74
May 27, 2020
75
May 27, 2020
76
May 27, 2020
77
May 27, 2020
78
May 27, 2020
79
May 27, 2020
I found the hydraulic leak!
80
May 27, 2020

Comments

14 18 March 2020, 20:35

Marcus J
Awesome project and nice build, mate. 👍 Where did you get the detailed info for the inside parts of the Bridge from?

19 March 2020, 17:05

Brian Eberle
I found some walk around photographs as a starting point, then I went the technical manual for both the bridge and the launcher & chassis. Very good resources. I also have some first hand experience with combat engineer vehicles that helped to know what wasn't correct. Research gave me the missing details.

19 March 2020, 18:42

Brian Eberle
TM 5-5420-202-10 LAUNCHER, M48A5 TANK CHASSIS
NSN 5420-01-076-6096 (EIC: ARE)

19 March 2020, 18:45

Brian Eberle
TM 5-5420-203-14 BRIDGE, ARMORED-VEHICLE LAUNCHED:
SCISSORING TYPE CLASS 60 & CLASS 70, ALUMINUM, 60 FOOT SPAN

19 March 2020, 18:46

Brian Eberle
Prime Portal has been a great resource for many of my builds. There are multiple AVLB walk-around photo essays of AVLBs and many other vehicles found here. primeportal.net/the_battlefield_armor.htm

19 March 2020, 18:49

Marcus J
Thank you Brian. 👍

20 March 2020, 09:34

Black Baron
Following

28 March 2020, 13:57

Neuling
Me too.

16 April 2020, 09:49

Tim Heimer
Wow!

15 May 2020, 05:17

Treehugger
Impressive diorama 🙂 "70" km/h is that the speed limit? 😄

15 May 2020, 08:56

Brian Eberle
70 is the military load class (MLC) of the bridge. How much weight it can support. Measured in short tons (2,000lbs per ton). 140,000lbs. This bridge was recently upgraded (reinforced bracing) from MLC 60 - thus the newer color on the 70.

15 May 2020, 11:05

Brian Eberle
The latest set of pictures are now up. Finished the figures and stowage. A few final items to do and then a little light dusting. Building a custom acrylic case top for this. An unusual set of dimensions. The figures were challenging - faces in 1/35 scale is not a strength of mine. Scratchbuilt the camouflage system net and pole bags. After market lifts don't make these correctly.

27 May 2020, 20:48

Rui S
Impressive work, Very Well done 👍

27 May 2020, 21:45

Neuling
I agree with Rui. 👍

17 December 2020, 09:36

Tierra del Fuego Alejandro
tremendous

15 March 2023, 01:13

Michael Kohl
There are too little bridge layers around here! Great to see yours. Good tank, great bridge.

15 March 2023, 09:50

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work. Beautiful presentation.

16 March 2023, 07:21

bossy122
That's Sgt. Hynemann telling Pvt. Savage, "Well, there's your problem". Nice!

16 March 2023, 08:30

Zoltan Grotz
👍👍👍

16 March 2023, 09:18

Album info

This build is an M48A5 chassis AVLB during the 1991 Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) with the M48A5 chassis painted in U.S. Army San, and the bridge painted in Woodland camouflage (or an earlier green camouflage pattern).

Update- the bridge and launcher are done. Moving forward on the M48A5 chassis.

The build starts with the launcher and then the bridge sections. Each of these sections is almost a kit in itself. Since I want to display the bridge in the "A" position (almost vertical), I am spending significant time working on scratch building the hydraulics for launcher and the bridge sub structure, plus correcting the solid support panels under the bridge. The kits part are solid sheets of styrene whereas the real thing has either triangular cut outs or "L" shaped cross plating to reduce weight and retain strength.

M48 AVLB

80 images

1:35

Completed

1:32 Couplings and Connectors (True Details 32519)

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