Being an ex-infantryman from back in the day, one of our nemesis's was the Soviet BMP series of Infantry Fighting Vehicles. If WW3 ever started, thousands of these were supposed to have poured into West Germany, accompanied by just as many T-64/72/80 tanks. The BMP-1 currently has a pretty bad reputation but few people seem to remember that when it was introduced circa 1970, it was a revolutionary design. At that time, US / NATO troops were riding in Armored Personnel Carriers. Basically tracked aluminum boxes with at most, a hand held .50 cal machine gun for offensive firepower. The troops inside those APC's had no view of the outside and no way to fire their weapons without being exposed.

The BMP-1 changed the game completely. In one light, agile package, it introduced a turret mounted 73mm cannon fed by an automatic loader (with a coaxial mg) and a wire guided anti-tank missile. It was equipped with periscopes and firing ports so the troops it carried could view the outside world and provide supressive fire using their AK-47's and light machine guns while under full armor protection. It also had a basic night fighting capability using active IR floodlights and was equipped with a full NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) protective system. Pretty impressive compared to the M113's that US troops were riding around in. It wouldn't be until the early 80's that US infantrymen finally had something better, in the form of the M2 Bradley.

The kit is the newly released Trumpeter BMP-1. A big step up compared to the Dragon kit that has been around since the late 80's. There are some issues with the Trumpy kit, the best list I've seen is included within this thread: https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/201579&ord=&page=2

Most of the issues can be fixed with some scratchbuilding but one would be a challenge. The turret of the BMP has armor of varying thickness. It's thickets at the front, less so on the sides and is thinnest at the rear. The Russians simply added additional armor plates on the sides and front. However, the kit turret has smooth welded sections instead of the "stepped" profile of the real thing. This is pretty hard to replicate but thankfully SP Designs out of the Ukraine offers a great resin BMP correction set. It contains a new turret with the correct armor profile and multiple other parts to enhance the kit. Total cost was $5.00 and I received the kit within approx 4 weeks of being ordered. Can't go wrong with these guys! I ordered the later BMP-1P turret. This was a late 70's upgrade over the basic -1 version, it included 6 smoke grenade launchers at the rear of the turret and replaced the early generation Sagger anti-tank missile with a more modern AT-4 (similar to the Milan).

Some pictures:

Kit and the two SP Designs sets


SP Designs turret showing the layered armor plates. Don't let my crappy pictures fool you, the SP turret is much superior to the kit's.


Kit turret vrs resin.

Got a bit of work done. Aside from the issues mentioned in Post #1, I'm pretty impressed with the Trumpy kit. Very fine detail, they caught pretty much all the small bits and pieces. Definitely light years beyond the old Dragon kit. I started out adding bits to the hull. Mostly very small fittings. So far, no need to modify any of the kit parts, they match nicely with the references I have (mostly the great walk-arounds on Prime Portal). I did "distress" the rubber shock absorber bumpers installed on the lower hull sides.


Lower hull, nice details molded on the bottom (if anyone is ever going to look there).

Next up I started assembly the road wheels. They are nicely molded and include backing sections. One thing I noted is that the rubber wheel itself has raised lines. In checking out my ref's, these lines are present on the outer sections but the flat surfaces are completely smooth. My uneducated guess is that Trumpy replicated a brand new roadwheel with the rubber mold lines present. However, once in service, the raised lines on the outer section of the wheel would be gone in a very short time. I sanded down the outer wheels and added some random cuts and dings.


Original kit wheel on the left, modified wheel on the right.

Next up are the guide vanes mounted on the rear fenders. These were required to allow the BMP to move through water. The real things are thin metal, the kit ones are a bit on the thick side. I don't think this is really a failing of the kit, just a limitation of the injection molding process. Using an x-acto knife and some sandpaper I thinned the interior down as much as possible. I then added a mounting bolt to the lower inside section and replicated some damage (which seems to be present on many of these vehicles.


Unmodified kit part


Modified part, installed on the hull.


Another view.

I have this kit sitting in my stash. You have a nice thread going so far. I look forward to seeing more.

Nice start, I'll be watching this one.

Looks great so far! These vehicles really have that certain something to their look

I'm in the process of building on of these myself- its a great kit but as you pointed out there are a few issues here and there but you've got that covered by the looks of things!
I like what you did with the guide vanes- they look excellent. The SP designs turret looks fantastic too. Best of luck with the build.

FYI, the turret was constructed of solid plates of different thicknesses, not by adding more plates on the front, applique style, in case you were thinking of detailing layers of weld on the tops.

KL

Hi;

There is nothing wrong with the kits turret, as it depicts the Early production varient. The BMPs turret was changed later due too the lessons learned in the Middle East, Syria being the largest user at this time and lost quite A few on the Golan Heights & Valley of Tears !!

CHEERS; MIKE.

I'm not wholly persuaded of that, as I have a 1972 BMP-1 manual which clearly shows three thicknesses of turret wall in a cutaway plan view of the turret. As the thing had yet to see combat on the Golan, it's hard for me to envisage how it could incorporate any lessons learned from such combat.

One of the most obvious (to me anyway) elements that Trumpeter missed is the fuel filler on the hill top by which the main tank is filled. It's not a huge job to scratchbuilding one (the cap is the same as those for the rear door ones) but it is a little hard to explain how it was omitted.

Based on the limited info I have seen (including some great stuff here on this forum), I tend to agree with your take on the turret. With regard to the missing fuel filler, I can't explain how Trumpy missed it either. Thankfully SP comes to rescue. In addition to the turret, they also provide a wonderfully cast fuel cap assembly (no idea how they got the resin so thin on the circular protective housing around the cap). Also within this set are the four overhead hatches with revised hinges, two rear doors (not sure what the issue is with the kit parts), a new driver's hatch (not sure what the issue was here either) and a better detailed ventilator housing that mounts on the hull roof, aft of the turret. All this for ~$6.00. Can't go wrong! I'll try to get some pics of all the resin parts.

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'll try to post an update shortly.

John

Hi;

After Climbing all over A BMP-1, A number of years ago that was Owned by A Private individual in Northern California, I was able too Take several Measurments of the BMPs turret, it was A very early production varient and was being restored from the Ground-up !! from the Foundry Stamping on the Turret that gave info, including the date of manufacture, it is identicule to the kits turret and had not had the turret extra armor added that only came later in the production runs of the BMP-1. Some of the BMP-1s that were lost in the Valley of Tears on the Golan were of this version; I know from the pictures that I took of them after the peace treaty was signed by Syria.

CHEERS; MIKE.

It's entirely possible that the initial run with the short bow had a different turret and that the subsequent versions with the redesigned bow had the standard type with multiple thicknesses of plate. Maybe the Sovs decided to offload some on the unsuspecting Syrians rather than have them clutter up their own units but if the 1972 manual showed the standard design, it sounds as though whatever experience dictated a change, it wasn't combat in 1973.

The steps are pretty subtle and tend not to show up well in lots off photos - I think it's between 5 and 10thou different in 1/35 and they are also chamfered, which makes it even harder to see.

Hi;

One has too remenber that the BMP-1 was produced way before 1972, and take into count that the Zavods were Heavy into rebuilds as the turrets were easy to change. Also the Soviets made up for Combat Losses on A Day to Day basis as the U.S. and BMPs were Taken Directly from units in Russia and taken by air strait too Syria & Egypt !!
As for the kit being accurate; There will never be A 100% accurate 1/35 scale kit. Were getting Better, but we still have A way to go.

CHEERS; MIKE.

Ok then, I relent. I will get off my duff and finish my BMP-1 I started FAR too long ago. Thanks for the kick in the pants John.

I helped to "push" Sergej at SP Designs make these correction kits, going so far as making a set of masters that Sergej ultimately did not use. oh well. But he understood the need for the corrections. Here are the reasons:

Turret: as noted, the armor plate thickness. Turrets on BMP-1's are interchangable. The VERY early turrets on the BMP-1 did not have the "stepped" armor. But it is hard to tell when the turrets changed to having more armour (I do not have a notice on when the production change happened) but I have seen photos of both types of turrets on both BMP hulls (short and long nose). The point to be taken, though, is the most common turret BY FAR is the uparmored one. Also, the area on the turret casting that is under and around the mantlet of the 76mm gun needed some attention. And the small "bump" at the back of the turret needed some shape work. Subtle changes compared to the armor.

Drivers hatch: Should have has a RIDGE around the outside edge with center depressed. Trumpeter did opposite.

Large troop hatches: One hinge needed to be split with mounting point in middle.

Rear Doors: Periscope and fuel cap details to make correct

Fuel port for top of hull: Trumpeter missed it totally

Air intake (snorkel) behind turret: Trumpeter kit part was only a undetailed part. Needed mesh and bracing.

I hope that helps clarify.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Still working on the lower hull. Trumpeter has done a good job, everything that is supposed to be there is present and from what I've seen, it all looks pretty accurate. Total parts count once everything is installed will be close to 80! Some of the PE shields that fit over the shock absorbers don't have fold lines, so they are a bit tough to accurately fold. Also, the suspension arms have some sprue gates that require careful trimming. Nothing overwhelming but it just requires time.

Here are some pics of my progress so far:







I also will be starting work on the rear troop access doors. One thing that Trumpy missed was the fuel fillers on the top of the doors. They just have a very simplified circular depression. Thankfully, SP provides replacement doors with the fuel filler caps molded accurately, they also provide an extremely accurate armored lip around the filler. No idea how they can cast stuff this finely.





One thing I did note that despite providing clear periscopes for everywhere else, Trumpy opted to mold the periscopes in the crew access door in solid plastic. No easy fix for this, SP also followed suit.

The SP Design parts are really a step up from the Trumpeter details....very nice.

I don't know about your kit but mine certainly included separate fuel filler caps for the rear doors. I'm using one as a master for the missing one on the roof.

I was aware of that but I could have sworn that the fuel caps were recessed below the protective collar (as shown on the SP doors). However, I just checked some references and it appears that Trumpy may have gotten this correct.

http://data3.primeportal.net/apc/robert_de_craecker/bmp-1_east_german/images/bmp-1_east_german_050_of_131.jpg

I need to do some more research but I may end up going with the Trumpeter doors (and just add a couple of small details).

The fuel filler port on the rear door has 2 distinct styles: Let's call them "proud" and "recessed".

It seems that the recessed version is for earlier BMP-1's...or non-Soviet produced ones, I am not sure. The most common version I am finding is the proud version. All the BMP-2's I have looked at also have the "proud" version, leading me to believe it is either later in production, or it is the common Soviet production version.

Trumpeters attempt at making the proud version is...crude.

Shot of the pieces side by side:



The Trumpeter piece need to be about 1/2 its thickness and its needs a weldbead around it to be correct.









And here are a East German BMP-1 and a BMP-1M with the recessed fuel caps:





and one of a BMP-2 to show what they all seem to have:



So while either cap can work, the proud version seems to be more common and also the only type on the BMP-2.

And to complicate things even further, I have now found a photo of a museum BMP-1 that has one of each style on it.

'Proud' on Finnish BMP-1's as well:



Also on my 'build some day...' list

Jim

Any pictures of BMP-1s with trailer hooks?

No tow pintle that I have ever seen.

Maybe some sort of field mod, but not a standard thing by far.

Little bit of progress to share. After some reflection, I went with the kit doors with the raised fuel caps. They seem to be more common then the SP doors. Detailing is pretty close, only thing I added were the plates below the periscopes. The prominent weld beads under these plates will be represented using stretch sprue and a thin bead of putty. I also glued one of the armored periscope covers on a bit skewed, the real things seem to get beaten up pretty easily. Also added some bolts to attach the water jet guide vanes to the hull side. Still need to add a couple of rivets to the covers and after that I think the rear section of my BMP is done. I'll add the door handles and other small bits later in the build. Note that things are still pretty rough, I have a lot of cleanup work to still do. I'll post better pics once I am 100%.


Also note that I've begun removing the cast on torsion bars that the overhead troop doors affix to. I think replacing them with plastic rod will be an improvement.

I then finished up the suspension and glued the upper hull in place. Had to add some putty and do some sanding work to the lower hull front as there are prominent gaps on the model where the two sections meet. On the real thing, it's just a single smooth plate. May have to come back and add some more putty, we'll see how it looks after some primer.



Lastly, just a few more pics of my progress:

Looking good, I just painted mine last night. One thing that I noticed when checking out a walk-around on the web is that a strip with some bolts needs to be added to the rear fender piece (with the water vanes) that butts up with the side fenders.....Trumpeter forgot this little detail.