Hauler has chosen to support a very fine kit with this release of a photo-etch & resin parts for the 1/48 Tamiya LAV. Please note, Tamiya also makes this LAV in 1/35 scale. Like the 1/48 HUMVEE kit Tamiya also produces, this kit can benefit from a bit of bling to really make the finished model pop! This set from Hauler includes a large photo-etch fret, one small photo-etch fret and two pour stubs of resin parts along with a detailed set of instructions to help you to install this array of parts on the Tamiya JGSDF LAV model.

What a liked about the detail set is it addresses many issues that are noticeable on many smaller scale kits. I find that many parts suffer from being non-scale thickness and can are easily corrected with the use of photoetch parts. On this kit the major items replaced are the mud flaps, gun shield, hatch doors, radiator louvers, head light shields, windshield wipers, door hinges as well as several mounting brackets such as the antenna mount and smoke discharger that are grafted on to existing kit parts. The resin bits are finely molded in light grey and provide the builder with some sweet new door handles and grab handles that will give a more realistic view of those parts.

Overall this inexpensive set will add some very nice detail to the Tamiya 1/48 LAV kit. I am very pleased with this set and I want to thank Brengun / Hauler for providing it to us for review. Additionally, I would like to thank the IPMS USA review corps for allowing me to reviewing this fine accessory set.