Part 1: First Look

MSRP: $59.98 New armored car models in injection plastic are not very common these days, British ones even less so. Come to think about it, this is the first 1/35th scale British armored car model I have ever had the pleasure to examine. Until recently, if you wanted such kits, your only option was the high cost resin kits from such manufacturers as Accurate Armour of Scotland. Bronco Models from Hong Kong, a relatively new entrant to injection plastic models, has come to the rescue of those wishing injection plastic models rather than resin. Bronco's kit comes in a sturdy box with a drawing of a Humber Scout Car overtaking some Sherman Firefly tanks on a dirt road, straight out of the movie "A Bridge Too Far". In fact, the scout car commander in the drawing IS a dead ringer for Michael Caine, one of the film's stars, no coincidence I would say. Inside the box, the modeler will find two main sprues of injection molded parts, along with two smaller sprues and the two main body shell parts of the kit. Also included is a small PE brass sheet containing approximately 50 detail parts, 5 black "hard rubber" tires, together with a set of decals, a resin commander figure and the instruction sheet. The resin figure is well cast, with nicely molded facial and uniform features. The decals, by Italian manufacturer Cartograph, are in perfect register, with good color saturation. Markings are provided for four WW2 British vehicles, one post war British vehicle (1950, Malaya) and one post war Danish Army (1950) vehicle. The plastic parts are very crisply molded in what I call "Chinese plastic", which is half way between limited run Eastern European "soap plastic", and the high quality hard plastic used by most Japanese manufacturers. If you have built any of AFV Club's kits, you know this plastic well. The parts themselves depict a very full vehicle interior, including an excellent driver's station plus radio station area, together with a very nicely detailed engine section. On the exterior, the chassis is nicely detailed, and all the hatches may be attached in the either an open or closed position, allowing all that interior detail to be seen if the modeler wishes. A small sprue of personal gear is included, with the rifles, machine gun and Sten gun standing out in particular as to the fidelity of detail. The instructions are "decent", being the exploded diagram type, and not as crowded as a DML/Dragon sheet, but not nearly as instructive as a Tamiya sheet. Study these diagrams carefully, for the location of certain parts is NOT always that clear. The painting and decal placement instructions are adequate, although an overhead camouflage diagram for the multi-colored vehicles would have been nice. Upon initial inspection, this appears to be a very nice kit, and the subject matter certainly is a blessing for those who like WW2 Allied vehicles, and armored cars in particular. I have managed to assemble about 25% of the kit so far, and the part fit is good to this point. Again, not Tamiya quality, but certainly far from "limited run", and I feel anyone interested in the subject matter would be more than pleased to own this kit. On behalf of IPMS/USA, I would like to thank Stevens International ( www.stevenshobby.com ) for providing me with this review sample. Full build report to follow.

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