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Jason Vukovich
12 articles

1/35th M973 SUSV (Small Unit Support Vehicle)

April 3, 2019 · in Armor · · 13 · 2.9K

Living in Alaska, I guess the snow kind of gets in your blood. People own lots of toys for snow fun up here including the US Army. So when I found Firing Line's resin/white metal/photo-etch BV-206 I ordered it right away from David J Parkins's Store. And when came out with their 1/35th BV-205S, I ordered two of their kits-one to build, one as a parts donor. I'll admit, I did not look forward to building Firing Line's photo-etch tracks (the kit sat on my shelf for a couple years as a result) so I shortened Takom's rubber-bands and made it work. I haven't really seen this kit built so while my rendition isn't perfect I think it looks the part. I couldn't resist adding Mantis's moose to set the scene either. This is my first post here as well, having lurked on the site for a while enjoying everyone else's stuff-all I can say is "wow"! There are some really talented modelers here that inspire me.

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

4 additional images. Click to enlarge.


13 responses

  1. Good-lookin' build, Jason...and a fine choice for your first post. Bullwinkle's a nice touch, too. 🙂

  2. Great to see a Hägglunds in a winter setting. Looks like you did a good job. The skis and poles should be tied up so they don´t fall off as the driving can be pretty tough in rough terrain. Hägglunds BV 206 is something we use at the Arsenalen armour museum to take visitors around for a spin so I know what terrain they can take.

    • Yep, should have tied them down-originally this was a more static build with the doors & hatches open but after gluing down the skis/poles I changed course. Next time!

  3. Jason, what a brilliant entry into the brotherhood. This is marvellous on several levels; the subject, the setting, the moose (wait, the MOOSE?.. has ANYONE ever made a dio with a moose?).

    Excellent work, and if this is an indication of your work to come, then not only are you in the right place, but I’m looking forward to more.

    ‘Liked’ - a lot!

  4. great looking vehicle...love the way you got around your problems...excellent as mr burns would say

  5. Nice build and good idea!

  6. Looks great! I too enjoyed the moose, and welcome aboard.

  7. Looks great, and unusual. What did you use for the snow?

    • The base is white gesso with Woodland Scenics snow sprinkled on while still wet. On the SUSV, I used the same Woodland Scenic snow but mixed it with PVA/white glue making it into a paste.

  8. Congrats on a lovely build.

  9. Love the subject. Drove one for a couple of years up there and I loved it! A more accurate dio would be mostly submerged in an icy lake/stream/river with the top hatches open and some overwhite-garbed soldiers standing on the top... Seemed to happen a few times early in the season and several more right around breakup. They are supposed to "swim", but they don't do so well when the ice breaks beneath them.

    Having said that, awesome job! I'm just poking a little fun at a few first winter drivers.

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