This is a kit modellers everwhere have been waiting a long time for. Well it's finally here! Firstly, let me say this is NOT A REVIEW.................It's a preview! This is purely to let people know what's in the box, and to show some pictures of it, then it will be passed to somebody far more qualified than I am to review modern armour.
What's in the box?
An awful lot seems to be the short answer! The kit is made of 760 parts, and included is one clear sprue, two fair-sized photo etch frets, 5 decal sheets, a sheet of 'fold your own' ration boxes, wire tow rope, a hull, aluminium barrel, pre-formed wires, 10 large sprues of light grey styrene, 2 small ones, and a bag of 'Magic tracks!'
There are 9 marking options provided for on the instruction sheet, which as usual looks pleasingly complicated! I have to say that there is quite a bit of flash evident, so careful cleaning up of parts will be the order of the day, the moulding is not up to Dragon's usual standard that we've become used to on recent releases. The anti-slip texture is particularly well done though. One other thing which gives me cause for concern are the Magic Tracks. Each of the links in the bag has a small length of sprue attached, which means a lot of clean-up..........which is not so Magic. That's all your getting! For now that is..................a full in-depth review coming in days! For now.....enjoy the pictures!
My thanks to Dragon for the sample!
SUMMARY
A fantastic looking kit that modellers everywhere have been waiting for!
I think it may take a while to get to Asia, someone I know said DML release kits much later in Asia.
This looks amazing and I cant wait to get my hands on it. Iovely raised welds and anti slip. The PE is looks superb and the decals are fantastic. Its just a shame their aint no Gen 2 Tank commander or Infantrymen.
I got one of these kits on Wednesday at the Nationals! It is a great kit. I started putting some of the parts together in my hotel room. I really have to say that this kit is going to be great to build. I have a few minor issues though. My set of magic tracks has ejector pin marks on each pad an every track. I know that is minor but, man, I'm going to be cleaning these up for a while. I'm also not a big fan of the "recoil action" barrel so I glued mine in place. So far everything else is great. I might recommend using the slide molded plastic barrel instead of the metal one because the plastic one has grooves in it to line it up properly. The metal one, you are on you own. I used the metal one, if I build another I am going to use the plastic one.
This is a really nice kit though. I am looking forward to really working on it now that I am back home!
This was unfortunately unavoidable. But we made sure that all these pins are raised, not recessed, so no filling is necessary, just some sanding.
This is how I cleaned up my tracks:
- first cut off the tiny sprue connector
- "dry" assemble a length of tracks - the fit is tight enough that they stay together without glue and it is easier to work on a larger piece than on individual links
- I used a dental burr in a motor tool to remove most of ejector pins
- scrape the remains of pins off with No 10 blade
- sand the surface of track pads with wet&dry paper
When you work with longer length of tracks, the whole porcess takes about half an hour.
Pawel
(Quote) Gary.J. from Brisbane QLD Australia
Yes they have and they supply everthing for it.
There are some flashes in this kit but one can not complain about the
quality and accuracy of the kit.
I am in the process off building this kit and I would like to stress that one
shuold take care when buildind this kit and read the instructions very
carefully. On a good note this is one hell-of-a-kit and I will buy another one in the near future. If anyone out there is not a modern armor builder get one because you will enjoy building it.
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