With the escalating prices on Trumpeter kits, I started to look into these reasonably-priced Russian tank kits.
Just received my BMP-3 tank by Skif at a very decent price.
It is relatively detailed with a lots of parts, including the turret & hull interior.
However, the plastic used is relatively soft & sometimes a little twisted after coming off the mold. Fitting is sometimes not too perfect & therefore, might need quite a bit of trimming and re-trimming.









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from Pierre
Happy tanking!

Hi there Pierre.

Indeed, SKIF kits are very affordable and they do have quite the product range in cold war/ modern Russian armor compared to other manufacturers. The scale authenticity of their kits is great although the detailing (and the fitting) suffers a bit when compared to the lager brands such as Dragon, Tamiya.
SKIF kits are a very solid base for first time modelers and for those who found their way back to the hobby and perfect at practicing your airbrush skill on. I´d rather fail my airbrushing miserably on a SKIF T-72 rather then on a M1A2 SEP from Dragon...if you get my drift .

Pierre, it´s GREAT to see an open box of the BMP3! Would be ace if you could post a SKIF BMP3 review in the review section as well.

Thanks for contributing and happy modeling.
/ Christian

Wow, that looks like a very nicely detailed kit (at least from the instructions). I also second the idea that you do an in-box review of the kit.

Yeah, the price is right, however I do find the 'fitting' is a problem or it could be just the kit I received by chance. I probably will post it in the review section after I work on it further, to see to what degree is this fitting problem, so not to give Skif an unfair judgement affecting their sales. We do need makers like Skif to continue producing new Russian models which no other big model companies would produce & to continue to price it so everybody can afford.

HAPPY MODELLING

An honest judgement of SKIF will not hurt them and this kits faults have been know for the 7+ years it has been on the market.

The main problem with most SKIF kits is that they are more ltoy-like than we are not used to out of the box. They remind me of the Revell and Monogram Armor kits of the 1970's.

One SKIF kit that is very bad is their T-55 line. Very inaccurate.

The BMP-3 is a good solid kit. But it is also a huge headache with all the fit issues and detail ommisions, as well as overscale detail and a few accuracy problems. It is bad enough that SP Designs would not do any conversions based on it because it had too many problems to address.

However, if you do not have high expectations for this kit, and you do not pay too much money, it is a GREAT kit to work on your building skills with. And it certainly looks like a BMP-3 when done, accurate or not. SO enjoy building it they way you want, and if you want to addres the accuracy problems, feel free to ask. Otherwise, we are all looking forward to seeing what you do with this kit.

Be shure to keep us posted on your BMP3 build.

Btw, when is the release date for Trumpeters BMP3?

Thanks for the review Pierre

It was useful..cause I havent found any open box picture of the Skif BMP-3..

Cheers

Erick

Ooh, what's old is new again Considering that this kit is several years old, I've never really seen any built-up examples (with the exception of Steve Zaloga's build in Mil Mod) at shows or otherwise. I would try to track down the Eduard set for it....hey, what'ya know, I have an extra one if someone wants it
Looking forward to the build,

Jim

Christian, the kit number for Trumpeter's BMP-3 is 00364. If number means anything, it should have come out around the same time when the German KV-1 756(r) was released last year, which was 00366. Probably it will be released after the BMP-5 comes out of Russia ( the air-borne BMP-3M has been named BMP-4, I heard) .
By the way, the drive-sprocket teeth do not match the track. Jacque is right. The kit has a quality issue
Jim, I will take note of it.

Cheers

One of my many 'stalled' projects was this kit with the orig interior/exterior Eduard set.
I grabbed the AEF interior and turret. I also printed off the instructions for the dedicated interior etch and used them to scratchbuild many of the interior components. The Concord book was the best reference I found.

The AEF lower hull was pretty useless, but the rear tunnel enterance was a drop fit and well detailed.

I gave the turret away it was so poor.

I think I have a second copy of the kit, with both the interior and exterior etch set in the stash, but it's undergoing long term shelf life testing...

Mike
with grandiose plans for building/detailing the Skif inteior into a Tumpter BMP3

I would recommend the Model Point BMP-3 barrel set to replace the kit barrels.

If you are looking at reference images note that there is a sprocket retaining ring fitted to the rear drive sprockets....not included in the kit.

Here are a few well built BMP-3 models......

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/bmp3aj_1.htm

http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/modern/szbmp3.htm

http://www.modellismopiu.net/m+gallerie/main.php?g2_itemId=54619

There are some very good options for finishing and modifications for the BMP-3 to make a non Russian version.....Cyprus, South Korea, United Arab Emirates KFOR, and Kuwait.

The Missing-Lynx link is for Mr. Zaloga's build of the kit pretty much OOB. However, he used someone elses' tracks IIRC, or cast them up himself. I know they are not the kit offerings anyhow.

This is the best showcase for what the kit can look like without too much add on stuff.

IIRC he scratchbuilt the replacement tracks.

The ModelPoint barrels are very nice, but you then have to scrqtchbuild the braces connecting them. Not insurmountable, but an additional bit of work.

Mike