Academy 1/35th Warrior FV511

[BlackSheep214]

I enjoyed reading your history and what a way to pay tribute to what you drove. Bravo! Thank you for your service!

[Stikpusher]

Bish that was a great backstory for this build. I know exactly where you’re coming from about driving an officers track and having to much of the maintenance on your own. You did a super job on this build!!!! And I love how you posed this one with you FV 432 track at the end.

[Bish]

Thanks guys, it has really brought back memories building this.

Other than the suspension issue, which you can't really see with the wheels and mud over it, this is a nice kit and goes together really well. I am looking forward to seeing how the Meng kit is viewed and if they will back date the kit because as it is, it can only be built as a vehicle in Afghanistan.

[Medicman71]

Man Bish, these are awesome and the story is great! I never got to serve in the military (bad heart according to them ) so I have to live vicariously through you guys! The builds are really awesome!

[Bish]

Thanks Mike.

[Stuart]

All I can do is agree with what the others have said, awesome builds but an even more awesome back story - great stuff. I've always liked the Warrior (and agree it looks better without all the extra bits fitted) and I think you've captured the look of it exceptionally well.

Man Bish, these are awesome and the story is great! I never got to serve in the military (bad heart according to them ) so I have to live vicariously through you guys!

You and me both Mike - 4 times I tried to get in the Army (and once with the RAF) between the ages of 16 and 21 and although I passed all the fitness tests and aced all of the entrance exams (I was trying to get in the REME), I kept getting kicked off the selection for stupid reasons. I gave up in the end, which was a shame as growing up it was all I ever really wanted to do.

[Bish]

Thanks Stuart.

When i first applied for the army at 15 i was going to go for the REME but only because my dad talked me into going into somthing that would give me a traide. But i failed on medical grounds. When i tried again 5 years later, i opted for what i really wanted, the Infantry.

Not sure when you tried to get in, but it seems a lt more complicated and long winded now that it was then. I handed my papers into the careers office on the 2nd August 1990, the Day Saddam invaded Iraq. I arrived at depot to start trainig on the 13th Oct. Now i hear stories of people waiting a year or more.

[Stuart]

I think the first time I applied, it was for 16 year old entry into the then 'Junior Leaders' into the Royal Armoured Corps (or it might have been the Artillery for JL - it was a long time ago ) - I think it was 1992, so not long after you. The last time I applied (I actually got as far as the selection weekend) it was 98. By then it was taking up to 6 months to process an application, and if you failed, you had to wait 12 months before you could re-apply. I tried for the REME as I'd already spent 3 years in collage doing a BTEC in Aerospace Engineering.

[Stikpusher]

So it sounds like you guys don’t just walk into the recruiters office and sign up....

[Bish]

O no, deffinetly not. You have to take a test, have a mdeical and if you pass everything, wait for the date to start your training. A friend of mine who joined up a couple of years before me had to go away for a 2 day selection process. But they had stopped that when i applied. They did bring it back after, the selection weekend Stuart made referance to. I think i must have been lucky, they must have been desperate by the time i signed up.

As i mentioned, took me 2 and a half months, thats pretty fast.