Price around £17.00 GBP (Oct 2012)
Ref: 03192
Review by Geoff Coughlin (Oct 2012)
Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit www.revell.eu
Reference…
You have to see this (even if the music makes you cry!):
A bit of background…
The Biber (Beaver) tracked bridge layer was introduced into the German Army in 1973. This horizontally laid cantilevered bridge offered the advantage over the previous system (scissors or bascule) of a flat silhouette. The Biber can bridge-over an obstacle within 2-3 minutes. The 2-man crew can control the whole procedure from the tank and are therefore protected.
The Dingo 1 was acquired to provide better protection for the soldiers during overseas operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. This very mobile cross-country vehicle offers protection against infantry munitions and artillery fragments. A V-shaped deflector on the under-body even deflects most of the explosive power of an anti-tank mine around the body.
This new Revell package contains 2 finely detailed model kits
Biber (Beaver):
- Front launching arm with movable main hydraulic system
- Rear launching arm can be fitted in all operational positions
- Bridge elements can be coupled
- Injection moulded tracks with individual links and segments
Dingo 1:
- Transparent parts to represent window
- Complete drive line with mine deflector
- Gun mount with optional MG 3, 40 mm grenade launcher or 12.7 mm MG
Initial assessment…
Revell 1:72 scale kits and packages are certainly proving popular and it’s hardly surprising given the quality of the tooling, relatively small size and possibilities for dioramas and gaming.
As you can see, you get two models in this package that contains many parts.
Moulding quality is to a high standard with very fine levels of detail across the board. The attached images should speak for themselves and you can decide what you think, especially as armour is probably your area. So I offer a basic insight into this Revell package that’s widely available and this will be good news to all of you that are interested in armour modelling in this scale.
The package…
Ten sprues moulded in dark green plastic form the basis of the two models supplied, a set of instructions and small decal sheet make up the package.
Dingo first…
Biber next…
Sprue trees…
This is a very interesting package giving you plenty of options of how you want to display your finished models. It looks from the instructions like the Biber bridge layer can be deployed in different positions and this great of course, extending your options still further. It’s big too, as is the real subject (check out the YouTube videos that accompany this review). You can see that moulding generally is very clean and crisp. The detail is cleanly and accurately moulded onto the surface and should look ok when spray painted and given a subtle wash and maybe filters (see your Techniques Bank for how to apply these weathering techniques). The moulded detail throughout is quite good and although I can’t give an opinion on accuracy, what you get certainly looks consistent with some of the images I have seen on YouTube and elsewhere.
The fact that the few vehicle tools are provided moulded into the chassis on the Biber rather than separately from the chassis is unlikely to please everyone, although in this scale is perhaps to be expected.