Kit Number: 03083
1:35 scale
Review By: Graham Thompson (March 2011)
The BMP, Soviet Amphibious Infantry Fighting Vehicle is one of those classic Cold War armoured vehicles. The low profile body with flattened turret makes this a really good, modern-looking fighting troop carrier.
In the 1980s, the BMP-2, with its stabilised 30mm automatic Cannon and anti tank missile launcher and upgraded two man turret with capacity for seven equipped troops in the rear, was taken up by quite a few countries and the markings/schemes that come with this kit represent this quite well.
The kit comes in the traditional Revell end opening box instead of the preferred, by most, tray and lid style, with attractive artwork depicting an East German version.
This is not a huge kit, with two sprues moulded in olive green holding all the main parts of the vehicle including the hull top. The hull bottom is separate and all appear to be nicely detailed and virtually flash free. Another two sprues hold the individual track links, which I was surprised to see. A kit this low in parts would normally have the ‘rubber band’ vinyl tracks.
The sprues carry eighty links each which appear cleanly moulded with a small ejector pin mark on the wheel side of the links that look as though they will be very difficult to clean-up, but possibly not worth the trouble as they look very light and will not show much when in place, painted and weathered.
One really nice touch is the way the main gun is moulded. The barrel is in one piece, making the seam removal simple with half the rear block moulded to the barrel and a separate piece for the other half. This should make the interesting looking gun easy to clean up. It will need a fine drill to drill out the end though.
There are two nicely moulded rear crew doors that are begging to be left open but, sadly, there is no interior detail in the kit or the rear doors but a skilled scratch builder could fit out the troop compartment to add some interest and allow the doors to be open. I believe there is a resin interior kit available from the US but I have not as yet tracked one down in the UK. It would more than double the cost of the kit but would certainly add another dimension to it.
What is really nice about this kit is the five schemes depicted in the standard booklet style instruction sheet. These are widely varied, enough to tempt me to build a few to show the diversity of the deployment of these vehicles.
- The first one is a 2006 UN forces in Sudan, UNMIS, in the ubiquitous UN white
with large UN decals. - Next, and the one I will be attempting, is for the ANA (Afghan National Army
2006. This has a three colour camouflage scheme of dark green edged with
red/brown over a beige background. - The third is one from Finland, 1995, with a two tone green and very dark grey
pattern. A 1994 Russian Army (there had to be a Russian one didn’t there), this
is in a medium grey, dark green and very dark grey scheme. Lastly, an all over
olive green 1988 East German version.
Conclusion
In conclusion this is not an expensive kit, readily available for around £10, which will build into a nice looking model. The lack of parts, but having individual track links, may be appealing to someone wanting to have a go at moving away from vinyl tracks and have a go at the individual links but may put off the younger or less experienced modeller. It should be a relatively quick build; a nice weekend perhaps? But the diversity of schemes depicted makes this a very attractive proposition and maybe calls for five of them to represent each scheme.
Highly Recommended.
Graham T.
This Kit was bought from: http://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/