Introduction

Pro Art Model is Belgian aftermarket company dedicated to modern armor. They have produced quite a few kits for the HEMTT and more recently have been releasing some quite impressive modern communications equipment kit as well as a slat armor for Stryker.

Kit content

The set comes in the traditional blue small box made of stiff paper. The box features a photo of the finished model. Inside the box, there are 2 plastic bags containing all of the kit contents and the PE fret.

The bag contains all of the resin parts (71 in total), and one PE fret and the black and white instruction on 2 A4 sheets.

As usual for Pro Art Model, the resin parts are cast in light cream with some noticeable air bubbles around the windows of the doors. The big part like the roof and the front cabin are not warped and the details are crisp. But the roof on the cabin ring is pretty fragile and almost destroyed in my review sample.

Upgrade detail

The kit to provides good interior detail for M1078 as well some minor exterior details.
The cabin, as already mentioned in my M1078 review, the worst part of Trumpeter kit. It lacks a lot interior detail and thisw update kit helps the modeler to tackle this issue. The cabin itself comes with the option of opening the doors and all the details of the interior parts. Moreover, the cabin comes with antenna and GPS antenna mounts. Night vision equipment is providing on the front bumper and a screen is attached to the roof of the cabin by the passenger seat. The kit contains a complete new cabin with a new corrected dashboard, new seats (not copy from Trumpeter) with PE seatbelts, new patterned floor in front of the passenger seat. The two rear storage boxes are improved with lock and hinges. Gun racks are done in PE. The dashboard has been totally reworked with the correct dials and with level in PE. In addition, the pedals are present as well as the stick shift very well detailed in resin.

Finally as a nice addition, the logo from the manufacturer is provided in PE. It is important to note that the upgrade version for the cabin only can be buy separately as kit number PAU 35033 without the PE parts.
**Note, although copper wire is called for in the instructions to make the various brake, fuel and air lines, none is provided in the kit.

Chassis details

The M1078 truck comes with airline to regulate the tire pressure. A new complete air line is providing with the rear tubing. The air regulator is provided and again it is not a copy of the kit part and the details have been totally reworked. Moreover, a small box between the air tank and the air filter that is not present in the Trumpeter kit is provided.
A new fuel tank is provided with better details as well as good tubing placement and better details on stopper heads. The detail is finer than the tank from Trumpeter. But Pro Art Model does not indicate any scheme for the tubing.
Details have been added to the spare wheel rack such as the ratchet strip down for securing the wheel as well as the chain.
Front wheels and rear wheels have additional detail for the brakes included. Small resin parts are very fragile. You need to check your reference pictures for the brake lines.

Conclusion

This kit contains a lot of resin parts, as always with Pro Art they come without part numbers, so you need pay attention during the build.
The cabin most of the detail the builder could want. You need to take special care when gluing the cabin parts in order to achieve good alignment.
One big draw back is the missing plan for the air and brake and fuel lines.
The night vision equipment is a nice addition but to be honest, most of the vehicles I checked did not have such equipment?
This kit is a great addition compared to the lack of detail in the Tumpeter kit. If you don’t want to pay the 49 euros, you can buy the kit 35033 that comprise an update version in resin only for the cabin at a reasonable cost of 17 euros.