The fire alarms are ringing at MiniArt with the announcement of a Fire Truck in the works.

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nice

looks like this is a cross-branding with ICM

it was released in Ukraine some time ago...

Not sure they are the same kit, but we reported on that ICM release in June. http://armorama.kitmaker.net/news/14815

I'd be surprised if they were the same kit - Miniart has already released three variants on the Mercedes L1500, it's highly unlikely they would go with ICM's kit as a basis for this release.

It looks to me like the MiniArt kit is a little more detailed with interior detailing included and the TSA.

Actually, it's a LOT more detailed.. and Miniart already had the chassis for this Mercedes... But still, ICM's firefighter figures will go nicely with it

Hisham

Looks like a cool vehicle but did MiniArt make prices that are so small that when paint is add the prices are all covered
I have the ICM kit in my wish list

Maybe the molds were originally made by MiniArt, or they're just sharing them and MiniArt is providing interior sprues (if ICM has no interior).

The price for the Miniart kit vs the ICM one will all depend on where you choose to buy (and where you are), I think. On the US domestic market, Miniart stuff seems to be a lot more expensive than ICM - for example, ICM's L1500A Kfz 70 German personnel car is $32.99 from Squadron whereas the equivalent Miniart kit (same vehicle) is $71.10. However, Miniart stuff is enormously expensive in the US - if you go to somewhere like HobbyEasy in HK, you can get the ICM kit mentioned above (i.e. personnel car, not the fire truck) for $21.54 whereas the Miniart version is $31.03 (actually, it's $27.95 right now, but that's a sale price). So while the ICM is always going to be cheapest, if you shop around the Miniart version of the kit *doesn't* have to be 215% the price of the ICM one, like it is from Squadron.

It's definitely a different kit as the ICM version has fixed doors wheras these ones open....

Also, the details on PMMS specify "all-new tooling", which is pretty conclusive :-) It's a shame we're seeing subject duplication, but I suspect the target markets will differ a bit - I'm sure there'll be a lot of people who're quite happy with the ICM kit and would view the Miniart kit (anyone want to guess the parts count? I'm estimating 2-3 times the number of parts in the ICM kit). If I was doing a diorama with a couple of fire trucks in it, I might even use one of each - one fully opened up for a vehicle already on the scene (using the Miniart kit) and another just arriving (using the ICM kit).

Oh, given the way ICM and Miniart (and to a lesser extent Masterbox) are doing all these nice German softskins (insert obligatory plea for non-German softskins here), one thing I find odd is that one of the most numerous vehicles (if the photos in my reference books are anything to go by), the Horch Typ 108, still exists only as a rather basic Tamiya kit from the early 70s. As with stuff like the MB L1500, there were a heap of different variations on this, and the only way right now to do those is to pick up the Tamiya kit and a Leadwarrior resin conversion.

Miniarts will be a more complicated build with many more parts than ICM. I would get the Miniart kit as my experience with ICM has been they use crappy plastic that's hard to remove pieces from the sprue without breaking. Yes I tried a razor saw....

An interesting question is wether Miniart will release just the TSA or even just the TS 8-8 (never just use Acht Acht as a name(1)) as a separat kit. Those units where (some still are) used without the truck past WWII in rural settings like this.

And a very similar unit based on the 1to "Standard" trailer was used by the Bundeswehr. The fire pump itself is likely the same as the one shown here (800l min at 8 bar pressure hence the name)

Looks like it's going to be a good kit, though the masks on the rebreathers appear to be post war Soviet style.