For those who are considering upgrading the new PTE IFV...

There are 8 screws holding the upper body half to the lower half. Four of these screws (fore and aft) are easily accessible...the other four are not so much so, as they are hidden in the wheel wells of the four front wheels. At least, I thought that they would be tough to get to at first. Without having a lot of time to look at it in-between trips home, it appeared that either I would have to attept to remove the front four wheels or that I would have to break the axle joints and rebuild them after I had disassembled the vehicle. However, there is apparently just enough flexibility to the wheel joints that the wheels can be held out of the way to access the hidden screws.

I used a #0 Craftsman phillips head screwdriver (standard for ARAH back screw removal), which was thin enough to squeeze by the wheels and access these four screws hidden in the wheel wells. My IFV upper and lower halves are now totally separated without any additional work! Nice thing is, the rear of the vehicle is a completely separate panel, which will make that molded-in rear access hatch much eaiser to work on, too.

Now to get to work with the interior modding!

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Some pics from the decon and survey process...

Bending the wheel out of the way to access the screws in the wheel well.



The rear face of the IFV, which slips out once you get the main body halves apart. As you can see, making an access door in this plate would be a pretty straightforwad undertaking.



View of the underside of the top half. All those "pockets" will be coming off once I get the heavy work underway.



A view of the inside of the lower body half. lots of room to work with, despite the intrusive wheel wells.



A brief study of potential seating arrnagements. There isn't enough overhead room to make the rear wheel wells into seats, so seats (or benches) will have to be added. Leg room between the wells is limited...so this "staggered" arrangement seems to be the only feasible one at the moment.



Standing headroom inside the vehicle. The IG's helmet barely hits the ceiling.


Another shot showing available standing headroom. Note the four slots around the circumference of the turret opening. No clue as to what purpose they serve, because the turret has a separate ring screwed on to keep it in place. I guess PTE may have had thoughts of making it a twist-and-lock type design, but changed their minds later.



Driver's positions and current access. Yeah, it sucks bigtime. Obviously, some major changes will be needed to access the driver's compartment from the outside...



Once inside, though, there is plenty of side-by-side room for a driver and navigator.



Just an idea for what to do with the IFV turret, in case you decide not to keep it on yours.

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Congrats on scoring one of the IFVs. I'm still looking for one.

1) Did you get this one Big Lots?
2) If so, do you have the SKU? (It should start with a '5190022...')

I have a contact at Big Lots that is trying to help me locate these, but I need a SKU...

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Yep, scored this one at Big Lots. Have only seen them at 2 or 3 BLs...usually at ones that got a LOT of PTE stuff this season.

As for the SKU...which number are you looking for? The UPC code is 18859 77039. The price tag ($20, BTW) has two numbers on it along with the barcode: 510 16 001 and 145 510022148 5 109.

If you manage to find the new Main Battle Tank and SU27, please let me know...I'm after both of them something fierce.

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Great write up AutobotC5! i have been staring at th box every time i go to Big Lots but still haven't made that move. I was thinking about making one into a mini Turbo Tank type vehiclel for my Clone Troopers.
Dark Jedi at one of my local Big Lots teh IFV is with the other PTE stuff but at another location they were stacked way up high where the overflow stuff was where no average person, or ven a child fro teh matter, would notice or see it. Try looking up high unless you source finds out something.
Now AutobotC5, what's the "new" main battle tank you mentioned. I have the Abrams, is there another one?

Given the height and the lack of room for seating, maybe going with a "subway" style holding bar and foot pegs would be a better way to go for the figures inside. Then you can have them ready to barge ot of the hinged back door and ready to fight!

You can get 25th compatible foot pegs here.

http://www.ultarama.com/

You drill a hole in the floor about the size of the peg, jam them in with a little glue to hold them there.

For the hold bar I would recommend the outside potion of model sprue. Cut it off after the bend on both sides, trim the insides, then put a hole in the appropriate area in the ceiling and glue them into place.

The biggest challenge that I see with this is that once you have it all back together it is going to be difficult to pose the figures up near the driver side is going to be tough unless you have tiny little carny hands. You might want to look at ways to make the entire top removable (as they had to with the APC).

- R

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Yeah i agree with raptor on the removible top. Of course if you want to make it pop you will create or put in a dash in the drivers section and at least a minimal interior at least in the lower hull. Unless you are only going remove the hull for practical purposes.

Thanks!

Yes, there's a new one. This is the new Main Battle Tank:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Peacekeep ... B001S8SZAU

Actually, there should be a pic of it on the back of the IFV box (along with a pic of the SU27). The Abrams-like tank was called the Combat Tank, IIRC.

Thanks Raptor, i already have a couple of things in mind for the rear crew compartment. Right now, as far as access, I'm looking at hinging a couple of sections of the top cover. Not the whole thing, though.

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SWEET! Is that a British Chieftain tank? I like thatb they picked such an unusual and old tank but I am surprised they didn;t do a challenger. These toys are from Brittain am i correct? I am surprised they didn't do a Challenger tank.

Nope all Chinese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_99

and they are also from China as well.

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Thanks guys. I'd like to ahve one due to it's uniqueness though my shelves are getting VERY crowded.