My French Infantry Get a Ride

A few weeks back, I finally got some QRF VABs for my Peter Pig FFL.   Originally, I had intended to make a master and cast them in resin, but after looking at the pic on the QRF site,  I just decided to buy one and move the process along a little faster.

I picked up four castings and they come with that funny shaped hatch/gunshield with the mg that pokes through the "trap door" in the shield for the commander.  Not sure of the proper name for it, but it is a unique design.  Most of the pics that I have of VAB infantry carriers (probably from the late 1980s and early 1990's) show them with a different hatch arrangement (actually, several different hatch arrangements). 

I decided to modify mine with a split hatch that opens up into the gun shield and mounting an M2 .50cal MG.  I don't know if this is particularly proper, but there seemed to be a lot of pics with this arrangement, and they will mostly be used in a fictional African campaign.  Two will be buttoned up, and two will be with hatch open.  I finished the first VAB with the buttoned up hatch tonight, and thought I'd post a couple of pics.

The model is pretty nicely detailed, as is the hatch that comes with the model.  My replacement hatch is made from styrene strip and tube from Evergreen, solvent welded together with Tenax7R applied with the syringe.  The MG is a resin casting that I made many years ago for my WWII M3 half-tracks.  It took about 20 minutes to make the first one, but the others will go faster now that the details are worked out.  Now my French can ride around Africa in style (well, at least a few of them can).