introduction

The UAZ 469 is the Russian equivalent of the British Land Rover and American HumVee. This all terrain 4x4 vehicle entered service in 1973 and suffered some reliability issues, a lot of which stemmed from the end of the Cold War with counterfeit parts made from cheap materials getting into the production line. However with UAZ taking steps to correct these issues things have improved, and now with Trumpeter having released a 1/35th scale model of the 469 other companies are releasing items to improve the model's appearance. SKP Model is one of those companies who have released an update for this kit in the form of their lenses and taillights products, and which is the subject of this review.

contents

The product consists of a photo etched fret packaged in a zip lock plastic bag, this attached to a card hanger with a stick on label containing the product information.

review

The photo etched fret in this set of lenses and taillights consists of 16 lenses and six photo etched backing plates. The lenses and taillights included in this set are the:
Two headlights;
Two front indicators;
One bonnet mounted floodlight;
Two side mounted indicators;
Two rear light clusters;
Two rear reflectors;
Light mounted above rear number plate;
Two round 50/50 red and amber lights; and
Two amber lights

I am a big fan of the lenses and taillights products from SKP Model as they really add something to a finished model. These products do have a single weak spot which is the lack of any instructions however this weakness can usually be overcome by the checking of online and book reference. This set does a great job of replacing all of the lights in the reference I checked with the exception of an oblong red light seen on some examples at the rear below the number plate. This omission is by no means the end of the world as explained it is not present on all examples.

The set does have some bonuses as there are two round lenses that are 50/50 red and amber that I have not been able to find on my reference, there are also two round amber lenses that I am unable to place. These extra lenses will I am sure come in useful for other projects. The headlight lenses on this model are quite large and SKP Model has done a great job of replicating the detail on the glass of the real lenses. The oblong rear light clusters are also a very high point in this set as they are amber and red and also have the light detail in the middle of the lens and they look very realistic. One of the beauties of this product is that you can paint your model and add the lenses after, this will result in very clean lights on your model before the weathering is applied.

conclusion

I have said it before and I will say it again this is a great product line that just keeps growing and getting better. If there is a set of these lenses released by SKP Model that is suitable for a model kit you are building, I very highly recommend you invest in them as you will not be disappointed.