The Puma is a family of Italian light wheeled armoured fighting vehicle family, consisting of the Puma 6x6 and the Puma 4x4. The vehicles were developed and are produced by the Consorzio Iveco Fiat - Oto Melara for the Italian Army. First prototypes completed in 1988, with a total of five testbed vehicles being completed by 1990.
The 4x4 variant carries 3 troop members plus the driver, the 6x6 variant carries 6 troops plus driver.[1]

I'm doing the 4x4 version by Trumpeter. For such a small vehicle there is an awful lot of plastic and PE



Construction is pretty straight forward with excellent fit if parts and nice clean moulding.





Some quite complex structures. This has 18 plastic and PE parts and I don't even know what it is 😀


But the fit was excellent

Some really tiny parts too. I bought a "sticky pencil" from RB Productions at our recent nationals and it came in very handy




Very useful tool for only €2

Some tiny and complex PE also. This little piece requires 30 desperate folds

Didn't go quite according to plan

But I'll hide it with a tarp or something

The side stowage bins went better


I just need to mask the vision blocks and lights and ready for priming

Hi Sean! The complex structure is the Puma's winch.

Thanks Marco. I'll have to see can I get some cable around the drum so....

Yes you should. If you look at the instructions and the sprues you have the tiny eye for the cable end.
Here is mine on which you can notice the eye.


Olivier

Cheers Olivier, that pic is appreciated.

Sean, thank you for showing this build. I have never seen this vehicle before today. I really like it. The shape is very modern and aggressive looking. It looks like it could be a quick build. At least as quick as a build can be with a handful of photo etch thrown in. I will have to keep it in mind if I ever finish anything else!

Regards,

Eric

It's a lovely little kit Eric, I certainly recommend it.

Vison blocks painted at the back and masked at the front. Same with the lights. Time to fire up the compressor.

Nice job, Sean.. what color scheme are you going to do it in?

I remember wanting to get one back when it was first released.. but looking at all those complex PE parts, I'm almost glad I didn't get one

Hisham

Great work on the details!

Cheers
Walter

Thanks Walter

Hi Hisham, going for UN white on this one. To go with the UN Lince when it arrives.

I'll just let this sit here for the night



First white coat tomorrow. Should I pre-shade around the hatches etc?

The benefit of using a dark primer is that you can control how dark or light the base coat is by how many coats you spray of it. You spray one or two light coats overall.. then you come back with more coats of white in the center parts of panels and raised surfaces to make them look whiter.. and that way the areas that don't get the extra coats end up looking like they are shaded.

I hope what I said makes sense

Hisham

What a sweet looking kit!

It makes sense Hisham, but assumes a control and mastery of the AB that I don't have yet. Anyway, after 2 coats still can't get it consistent



But after 3rd coat even the dogs in the street know it's better 😊

Finally got around to the decals. A clear coat tomorrow and then I can start the detailing and weathering

Great work Sean!
White base looks fine. Now the fun begins and you can start weathering with filters, streaking effects and pigments ;-)

Have fun and good luck.
Cheers
Walter

Thanks Walter, but I seem to have made a mess of that. Obviously touched it when setting aside to dry. Will need to sand off, reprint and I'm sure I have spare UN decals somewhere



Then I can start my on the weathering. Found some nice reference photos of the real thing.

Hey, Sean.. good work. Looking at the last pic, especially at the circular shape right on top of the UN letters, it looks like you're spraying a thick coat of "thick" paint. I pretty much only use Tamiya paints.. and I thin them to 1:3 (25% to 75%) paint to thinner.. and I spray it at about 10 psi.. that's what gives me some control over the thickness of the paint.. What paints are you using, and how long do they need to dry up? Most acrylics almost hit the surface dry.

Anyway, keep playing around with the AB and you'll get it. Luckily I had a bunch of broken fuselages and car bodies that I practiced on for quite a while to "kind of" get it right

looking forward to seeing it done

Hisham

No problem Sean, try to sand the fingerprint with as fine sanding stick.
The decal seems tho have a little bit of tearing.

If you want to completely remove the damaged UN letter I can make you a vinyl mask to respray this area as I have the same kit in my stash ;-)

cheers
Walter

Thanks Walter, but I have spare decals somewhere....the benefits of never throwing anything away. What I'm missing now is time to get to the bench 😀

Found my spare UN decals and they didn't match the kit ones so I had to clean off the good decal on the other side and repaint that side also. Finally have the decals done





Now for a quick sorry of Satin clear and then I can start weathering

To match the correct UNIFIL style markings I would suggest to fill the white gaps in your UN markings with black colors.

cheers
Walter

Sean,
as you can see on this picture, Walter is right.

And it's an easy fix.

Olivier

Thanks Gents, but they have caused enough grief so I think I'll leave as is.

On to the last few bits of equipment

 

Looking at reference photos I have lots of choice in how to finish her. White wing mirrors, black wing mirrors or black & white. White frame on drivers glass shield, or black. Black or white covers on the smoke grenade launchers. And pristine finish, weathered finish or totally beat up finish.... 😃

 

 

 

I'll go for something like the middle one but if I overdo it, as I tend to, I won't mind.

Nearly there. One more session at the bench will see it finished