¹⁄35

Vigilance

This is a diorama which Ian just completed using the excellent Kinetic 1/35th Scale MAXXPRO MRAP model, which he got for Christmas. The diorama depicts a MAXXPRO from the Estonian Infantry company in Afghanistan which was attached to ISAF in Helmand province.

Assembly of the model was trouble-free and the chassis and suspension squares up nicely resulting in the model appropriately sitting on all four wheels. A nice dashboard is supplied with the kit and there are decals for the instruments on the decal sheet. Ian added harnesses to all the seats and wiring for the radios and electronics in the interior. In addition, he added some Trumpeter drink containers to the interior as well as some ammo cans and other accessories.

Ian decided to depict my MAXXPRO as an Estonian vehicle from their army contingent deployed to Afghanistan. He found great reference photos of the Estonian forces on the “Estonian World” website. This vehicle was not equipped with the DUKE antenna, Rhino anti-IED device, the antenna over the driver’s side roof or the rear roof-mounted whip antenna so he left all those devices off during construction. Once construction was complete, he primed the model with Model Master Enamel Primer. The fit of the upper body of the model to the chassis was so good, he was able to paint and weather those sections separately and then put them together at the end of construction.

The model was painted with FS 33531 Sand. Ian added a few drops of FS30277 Armor Sand to the FS 33531 to add a slightly more yellowish hue to the finish. He then shaded all rivets, access panels and panel lines with Tamiya Smoke applied at low pressure through my airbrush. An overall wash of much diluted Burnt Umber/Mineral Spirits was applied to the model to tone down the topcoat. He then applied pin washes of Raw Umber/Mineral Spirits to accentuate the rivets and recesses. Although muddy and dirty, these vehicles appeared to be devoid of chips and scratches in the photos so he decided to forego that portion of the weathering altogether. Ian then added MIG Pigments to the model to show a layer of dust and grime. The kit decals were applied to the model and the International emblem molded on to the grill was hand-painted as well. These Estonian MRAP’s appeared to carry the normal factory stencils for the MAXXPRO.

The figures came with the kit and appear to be from Merit but no instructions were provided. The photos I found of Estonian Infantry in Afghanistan show them to be wearing equipment very similar to what the figure in the kit were molded with. Estonian Infantry appear to use a very sparse digicam pattern of pine green and dark brown over a tan base. Vallejo Afrika Korps tan was used for the base color and Tamiya IJN Green and Tamiya Hull Red were used for the spots. Estonian troops carry the Galil rifle now so I used DML Galils to which I added reflex scopes and fore grips.

Finally, Ian made Estonian patches for their uniforms out of 3M 2090 tape which he painted using Vallejo Colors. He also made an Estonian pennant to go on the antenna of the vehicle itself. The K-9 came from the Tamiya Soviet Army set, also from Afghanistan.

All in all, this was a fun build and the Kinetic kit builds up into an impressive offering of the mighty MAXXPRO MRAP.