Introduction

Black Dog has gone retro when it comes to accessories for armoured fighting vehicles with their recent releases, the latest products are for dressing up the Trumpeter AS-90, Trumpeter LAV-R and the HobbyBoss AAVP-7A1 all in 1/35th scale. I am hoping that the release of these products indicates that a new more accurate AS-90 is in the pipeline somewhere. This review looks at the accessories set from Black Dog for the Hobby Boss AAVP – 7A1 series of vehicles in 1/35th scale.

Contents

This product arrives in one of Black Dog’s end up stiff card boxes. Inside the box you will find a Ziploc plastic bag containing the resin parts and protected by a good quantity of polystyrene peanuts. The set consists of 76 resin components covering both vehicle equipment and soldier’s kit.

Review

Black Dog is up there with the best resin moulding companies on the market today, possibly bettered only by the 3d printed resin parts companies, which are on the expensive side at this time. The mouldings all have excellent detail with no obvious moulding faults that I detected, although there may be some parts that have gone missing. It should be pointed out that none of the items supplied in this set are for correcting any issues found on the vehicle itself.

Vehicle Equipment
Where to start with all this resin, there are four mouldings that go together to make up a camouflage net on the vehicle; this is always a good place to start as a camouflage net adds instant interest to an otherwise devoid model. I do have one issue with this product and that is that the places where the net joins are not good joints and results in obvious joints that will be difficult to fill and hide. I like the detail it provides but I am not looking forward to hiding those joins, I hope that in future releases Black Dog consider providing better jointing surfaces perhaps via the use of a pin and socket. Also we get three coiled ropes, two of which it is suggested are used to hold a tyre on the front of the vehicle which is also supplied. I again really like the rope detail, and it is one of those items soldiers often pick up and take with them. The tyre unfortunately has an issue, the tread detail and the like is very good, but as there is no rim in the tyre you can see that it is solid instead of hollow.

There are 5 canvas covered none described items, i really like the crease detail that Black Dog works into items like this and also that only one of the five supplied offerings is a duplicate. Another great inclusion in this set is one I have seen before and that is a number of cotes that have been collapsed and strapped together, the detail in this moulding will really come out with some careful painting and weathering. A length of 12 track links is the next item I looked at, and it looks accurate for the vehicle, there is a slight bow in the part which may or may not work for your placement plans, if you want to flatten or reshape this offering some boiling water will allow you to alter it. There are 8 ammunition boxes in the set, 4 .50cal and 4 5.54mm I believe, these are useful items to have available at any time.

There are 4 large cardboard boxes that have taken a battering, I believe them to be ration boxes that hold the individual rations for each man, there are two different design of battered box and you are supplied with 2 of each design. Six 5 gallon water jerry cans are supplied which is another of those generic items that can be found everywhere and are the difference between life and death. There are five other designs of liquid container in the set, i do not know if they represent a specific type of can or if they are generic, I am sure someone like Gino will jump in with the answer to that question. You will also find two bound coils that I believe is razor wire due to it being bound, these have some very nice detail and should really catch the eye once weathered. Lastly here there are four large lidded oblong containers with handles at each end and I am at a loss with what they represent.

Infantry Kit
Included with this set for the poor beggars stuck in the vehicle you get what look like knee or elbow pads, there should be six pairs I believe, but one is broken off of each of the six pour plugs and only 3 of the loose items made it into the bag. There are four rolled ground mats in this offering and it is something that Black Dog replicates very well, this is due to one end being hollow and a nice rolled detail being present on that end. There are three holdalls supplied with one being duplicated, one of these items show another aspect that Black Dog do very well, the handles and strap detail, it really is very fine and will add an eye catching detail if painted and shaded well

We now move onto all the backpacks that are supplied in the set. You get six different designs of backpack in this set and camel packs, now I don’t know if Black Dog put specific numbers of each backpack in the set or you get a random mix, in this set there are:

• 5 camel packs
• 4 backpacks with a ground mat
• 8 duplicate back packs minus the ground mat
• 1 backpack with a waterproof cover
• 1 of three different small backpacks

I like the selection offered but wish there was a more balanced number of each type, some may disagree. That out of the way the various backpacks have excellent detail throughout. The webbing detail is again an area where Black Dog shines. Despite the efforts Black Dog puts into the packaging of their products, when you place 76 resin castings of various size into a Ziploc bag some damage is bound to occur, in this case 2 of the camel packs had the carrying straps broken off, they are still very useable but I felt this should be pointed out.

Conclusion

The large number of mouldings supplied in this set leaves me thinking that Black Dog has gone OTT here, now that is not really a bad thing as you can use what you want and use the rest on a different build; however due to this very large number of offerings I am a little concerned that the price may be higher than i usually see, if I am wrong in that then it’s all good. Black Dog’s usual high casting quality is good to behold and if you have never looked at one of their holdalls or backpacks, you really should take a look. I do think there are too many items for just one vehicle model, but due to all of the items being individually moulded you can pick and choose what you wish to add and where you wish to add it.