French AUF1

Ron Garcia
I didn't really want to build this kit. I don't care for the way it looks. It looks like a proper lower hull with a giant cube on top of it. I remember buying this a long time ago from Squadron. It seemed it was on sale cheap for a long time, so one day I added it to an order of some other stuff that I really wanted. Being the last French vehicle in my stash, I bit the bullet and finally built it.

The kit has a complete turret interior with poseable hatches so you can see the inside in it's full glory. You could also probably get away with not gluing the top of the turret so it could be popped off for a full view of interior. Since I was just building this to get it over with, I didn't bother with the building any of it and closed up all the hatches. Saved me a lot of time because of all the painting required.

With one exception, the build itself is pretty straightforward. The PE is reasonable, there are choices for optional parts, and everything fits together with no putty required.

The exception is the tracks. They were very time consuming! Cutting them all out and gluing them one by one took a lot of patience. Yes, gluing them. They are designed to be workable, but in reality, that won't happen. They will pull apart pretty easily as the pins are tiny and weak. There is a jig to help put them together, but if you decide to glue them - and almost certainly you will - you can't use the jig since it's made of styrene and you'll end up with a big mess. I used a slow setting cement (Testors) and was able to drape the tracks nicely around the wheel assembly with no issues. After the glue set, I was able to pop off the tracks, thanks to the polycaps, and paint them separately. Since the real tracks are taut, I would have been totally okay with a set of vinyl tracks. Heresy, I know, but the individual tracks added nothing to the enjoyment of the build. Yes, the suspension is workable, so if you were building a diorama it might be worth it (you'd still have to put a screw through the bottom or some hefty weight in the lower hull to pull it off). Anyway, I just wanted to warn you ahead of time before you decide to build this kit.

So, in the end I have a boxlike vehicle in my collection, and one less kit in my stash. It's not a bad kid by any means, it's just not something I would normally build. Note to self, don't get sucked in by kits on sale you don't really have any desire to have!