January 14, 2015 by dignity
John and Justin get to grips with the 6x6 Rapid Assault Vehicle Complete Kit from Secret Weapon Miniatures, or as they like to call it 'The RAV'.
Though the company are usually better known for terrain, after casting your eyes on this six wheeled behemoth you'll start to wish there was more like it!
Would you like to see more like this from Secret Weapon?
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Let me not be late to this unboxing episode like I was with the Churchill. 🙂 Awesome show. Indeed that “sci-fi” vehicle seems to borrow a lot of influence from modern vehicles. I’m reminded heavily of the Brazilian EE-9 or the USMC LAV-25 (okay, minus one set of road wheels). Americans (or at least the Marine Corps) have been using these things since the 80s. I especially liked John’s “Ace Ventura” monologue, and how much fun he and Justin seemed to have making up names and classifications for the weapons. “Plasmawerfer” I think remains my favorite, although “Giant Inferno Napalm… Read more »
I’m reminded of the French gun-on-a-rollerskate design philosophy… more of a Cold War vibe than the current iterations of those vehicles.
Gun on a roller skate? Never heard that comparison before. 🙂 The French indeed seemed to like putting incredibly large weapons on some very small vehicles in the Cold War.
My favorite example: probably the Panhard AML-90
http://www.smallscaleafv.com/inspiration/cache/roman-vasko/panhard-aml-90/p2_700.jpg
Fire this gun on an angle . . . and it looks like it would tip the vehicle over.
That’s probably the worst of the lot 🙂 . I believe the French philosophy at the time was that their recce should also function as their vanguard, and should therefore be able to fight almost as effectively as the heavier formations of the army. They were just faster, and therefore more lightly armoured. This sci-fi vehicle also reminds me of the Mowag Cougar we got saddled with back in the 80’s… a total piece of crap. It was supposed to be a tank trainer but we took it with us on ops in the years where the government wouldn’t buy… Read more »
I’m mildly surprised to hear that these vehicles performed poorly in Canadian service, because those Cougar / Grizzly / Piranhas seem very similar to the LAV-25 I remember from the USMC . . . (pause for Wiki check . . . sure enough, the LAV-25 is evolved from the Cougar) . . . but the LAV-25s were pretty popular with guys I used to know “back in the day.” It seems the Cougar was used as a substitute tank or APC in Canadian service (instead of Leopard Is or M113s)? Maybe that’s why they didn’t perform well? We never tried… Read more »
We had two vehicles: the Cougar was the fire support vehicle, which mounted that popgun 76mm with, believe it or not, basic iron sights. The Grizzly was the APC, which only mounted a ma deuce in the turret. They were both piss poor in terms of cross country mobility. In addition to the six wheels you needed twenty shovels to get it anywhere. LAV-25: different story. Great piece of kit, good mobility (much bigger tires, and therefore clearance, lower ground pressure, etc.), protection, and good punch with the 25mm cannon. Not even in the same league. The grizzly was originally… Read more »
The AML-90 was produced in South Africa as the Eland. The gun was a low velocity one, and no, it just rocked the vehicle if fired at 90 degrees.
It was known as the ‘Noddy’ Car because the crew looked like Noddy and his passengers if they were out of the hatch when driving.
I was looking at getting one of these to serve as the transport for my IG Kill Team list but when you consider the weapon options and the overall design it seems like it would make a good alternative to the Chimera (or a John noted, a futuristic Stryker MGS) but in the end I decided to go for a Taurox.. and the RAV is clearly too awesome to ever stand in as one of those 😀
Grab this and some Anvil Industry Afterlife miniatures and you’re looking pretty awesome.
BoW Ben
Yikes. Beautiful model but a bit too rich for my blood… at least right now. I never buy or build less than a troop of anything, so this will have to wait till some of my other projects are out of the way (half a dozen Kitech M-1’s and an equal number of T-90’s, which are going to be ‘futurized’).
More models like this one? Yes, please 🙂
Guys ! The tube at the back of the turret is clearly a snorkel !
These are my TAUROX for my Imperial Navy Guys 🙂
I was thinking it would look good as a Taurox. Can’t wait to see what you have done with them paint wise.
Clearly the Imperial Navy gets all the good kit 😉
My Taurox ended up being.. a Taurox. Although it will get the wheel kit from Victoria Miniatures.
Tee hee hee…”RAV” sounds like “Ræv” which is rude Norwegian for “Arse”.
…which makes that tube a loo roll.
sorry.
I was surprised John didn’t use the term MICV at any stage but that might be before his time 🙂
As for Justine, here’s a new weapon that does not involve rocks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Weapon_System
As for the mini, the LAV and Stryker families were the first thing that came to mind, though it alos hearkens back to the Saladin vehicle (I think the last time I saw those in action was when a few Kuwaiti vehicles were caught on camera firing at Iraqi forces during the invasion back in 1990).
MICV is something I’ve never encountered. It’s always been APC/IFV/LAV for me.
Good looking bit of kit, only the fist quad gun seem odd, as all 4 have a little bent before the barrel – maybe it is a Laserweapon of some kind as bullets don’t kind the bent
That is a million times better than that TAUROX thing plenty of variations as well just love it.
So john what did you think of the Taurox when it came out(keep it clean now)?
The Taurox…… s’alright, I guess.
Seen some first class conversions of it though.
it reminds me to much of the polar bear tour bus thingy’s. The vents and guns at the door are just wrong as well make a good artillery towing vehicle I suppose but.
Looks very good – I like it a lot.
It’s quite pricy, but a bit cheaper if you you buy it with just a single weapon option.
I would love to see a picture of one sitting next to a mini. I want to see just how chunky and big it is. The mfg has the dimensions listed but a mini next to it would remove the need to have to imagine it.
Funny though, the first thing I noticed about the one that was put together was that there was no room for the suspension to travel lol
@johnlyons I’m not sure on your definition of IFV always having ports for infantry to shoot out of as the British warrior is an IFV and that has no firing ports,
Also MICV is just another name for IFV, there isnt actually any difference
IFV’s by definition should allow the infantry to fight from the vehicle. But yes the modern IFV’s tend to look away from that and focus on the vehicle itself having the fire-power.
The original “IFV” which in my mind, is the Russian BMP-1 had both access ports for the infantry to shoot from and a turret mounted weapon.
Remember the whole concept of an IFV was a cold war invention to help soldiers fight in the Nuclear and Chemical environment. Today that isn’t such an issue to designers.