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Project Salamander

Thank you gents :bang head - just trying new smilies here :love:

Right, now with what the Aussies call "Iso" - these people have a natural tendency to abbreviate everything that can be abbreviated - there is more time that I can spend building stuff. Not to forget about the ton of stuff that still awaits putting away following our relocation to the new rental, an imbecile real estate agent that I cannot wait to forget and much more.

Well, on the bright side of things, there is more room for the hobby in the house - huuge bonus, of course. Speaking of more room for modeling, look who popped out of a big box, awaiting some much needed attention and love ...

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On the wall, our friend Ian Hill's painting - can't think of a more appropriate place for that piece of art.

More about the B later. Now it's a small update on the Salamander - most things there are dry fitted, with some hatches waiting to be painted and weathered still, but getting closer to the finish line.

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More images soon, I hope to get this one done as soon as I possibly can, so I could resume working on the Bismarck.

Thanks for watching,

Laurence
 
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That looks so very cool. I saw a pic a while back of a tethered drone on a tank I think. That might be an interesting addition or maybe even a table on top with one or two drones used to see hotspots or hidden fires where your salamander is fighting?
James
 
Thanks James, that is a great point. The part with the drones is part of the Salamander Command Vehicle, which is on the drawing board at the moment. The SCV comes complete with many features, such as water tanks to refill the moving vehicles, fuel tanks, small medical facility, complete and complex comms features and much more. The body is a heavily modified BTR-80 (old Zvezda kit, nearly unusable for its' original purpose in my experience) and a ton of scratched stuff. We shall see what it ends up looking like.

Laurence
 
White_Wolf said:
Thanks James, that is a great point. The part with the drones is part of the Salamander Command Vehicle, which is on the drawing board at the moment. The SCV comes complete with many features, such as water tanks to refill the moving vehicles, fuel tanks, small medical facility, complete and complex comms features and much more. The body is a heavily modified BTR-80 (old Zvezda kit, nearly unusable for its' original purpose in my experience) and a ton of scratched stuff. We shall see what it ends up looking like.

Laurence
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Looking forward to seeing it. This sounds very cool. And just to be a trouble maker now you're going to need a BV 206 or two to bring in the fire crew lol ;)
James
 
One more WIP report, hopefully one more week worth of work before I can call this done.

Still a few parts to paint and put in place, but things are getting closer and closer to the finish line.

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Some explanations provided :good:

Looking forward to finishing this one next week, then it's back to Bismarck, even though some minor work might still be needed on the Salamander. The command vehicle might take a while to complete, but that's further down the track.

Thanks for looking, stay well and safe folks.


Laurence
 
Thanks Mike - I wrote the story and created the logo too - well, still WIP, but getting there ....

Following the devastating fires during the summer of 2019-2020, a decision was made to convert some of the army's ASLAV APCs into heavy firefighting vehicles. Capable of speeds around 100km/h on road, having amphibious capabilities, also capable of being air lifted using heavy helicopters, these vehicles can be available where needed within the shortest amount of time. They are also virtually immune to fire, due to their armor, air filtering and water curtain generators. They can quickly get out of trouble, while protecting the crew of three, plus the eventual up to 5 rescued individuals. The vehicles are fitted with a 8 ton water tank, two water cannons, 8 wheel protecting water blocks with 3 nozzles each, plus 7 water sprinklers that generate a water curtain when needed. Video cameras are also fitted, leaving virtually no blind spots around the vehicle.
Following the successful first stage of the conversion program, these vehicles now form the First Heavy Fire Protection Regiment - The Salamanders.
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Swords to plow shears if ever I've seen one.

Great imagination, who knows, send it to the fire service, they may be interested. (y)
 
I was about to prepare a submission on this topic a while ago, but events took another turn and that didn't go through. I will have a chat with a few folks once I finish it, although most of them might see this as a "toy" ... who knows, all I need is one person with enough sway to put this idea forward. The Aust Army is indeed replacing all the ASLAVs (Canadian LAV with the NATO AS in front, for Australia) with other vehicles, not too sure which ones, but I think they might come from Europe. Rather than sending these to rust away somewhere, they might as well be used to combat the fires that happen here every summer.
 
Calling this done, there will be a base for it sometime soon - need to think of something interesting.

I added some 360 degrees cameras at the front, mounted on steel folding arms, with two antennae for streaming remotely to base if needed.

Other than that, not much else, just a general tidying up and fixing very minor issues.

Thank you all for watching - the focus is back on the Bismarck.


Laurence
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Excellent from inception to finish!

I can relate to the woes of moving. We are packing up and moving. This something like the 6th for the wife, and 57th change of address for me (32 years in the service and several deployments later...).
 
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