Introduction

Legend Productions has through hard work earned themselves a name for quality resin and photo etch conversion and upgrade sets, one of the latest products from Legend Productions is the IDF Chata’P Conversion Set. The Hatap can be considered as a support repair vehicle attached to specific units, it carries spares and equipment for the unit in order to keep them fighting fit when away from their main bases.

Contents

This product from Legend Productions is packaged in a well designed flip top cardboard box, and this should product the product inside against all reasonable postal service handling. Inside the resin parts are further protected by bubble wrap packaging, and the other contents are protected by Ziploc bags. The contents break down as follows:
111 Resin parts
210 photo etched parts
A brass rod
Brass wire
Cotton twine
1 Decal sheet

Review

This conversion set from Legend Productions of the IDF Chata’P (Hatap) is designed for use with the Tamiya 1/35th scale M113A2/A3, the model used in the images of the finished product are of the Tamiya’s M113A2(35265) and are provided by Legend Productions. The quality of the resin castings in this example all appear to be first rate, even the ease of removal from the pour plugs looks to have been considered. A check of the castings did not find any obvious issues as regards air bubbles or voids, and the design of a number of the pour plugs has either protected fine parts from damage or prevented distortion in larger pieces.

Information on this particular IDF vehicle seems to be very limited, most of the Google links are model related, which is of limited help as regards reference. What I can tell you is that the armour package appears to be accurately replicated judging from photographs only, but this does mean I have not been able to verify all aspects of the armour. The weaponry, fuel cans and general stowage add a nice mix of parts that can be altered as the modeller desires, but it does offer a good selection.

The three photo etched frets included with this offering are parts that benefit from being photo etch as regards scale; I know some companies release photo etched parts for the hell of it in some cases, but this is not one of those sets. The parts are well numbered and so should be easy for most to find the parts they are looking for. The cotton twine is something I am not a fan of and I have been told by Legend Productions that a suitable source of metal cable is being looked for. The decals are well printed and very thin, as such I feel these decals will prove a popular inclusion.

Now the aspect I do not like when looking at more complex offerings from Legend Productions, the instructions. I consider myself a reasonably competent modeller as regards construction, but I do find myself getting lost when it comes to following what to add and remove to builds from the photographs provided as an instruction guide by Legend Productions. I hope that at some point in the future that Legend Productions switch to a more usual instruction manual; I should add that the photographs provided do have a benefit in how a part should look when added; they are just not great as a construction guide in my opinion.

Conclusion

This conversion set from Legend Productions certainly gives the M113 a very rugged look, and being an Israeli Defence Force vehicle will certainly prove popular with many modellers. The contents that go into making this conversion set are top notch quality wise from what I have observed. The only fault in my opinion is the instructions are not the easiest guide to follow.