Post by adampolo13-Email Not Valid on Feb 3, 2013 12:17:43 GMT -5
Hello everybody. This is my In-Box Review of Showcase Models Australia’s 1/35 Scale Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle. This vehicle was developed in the early 1990’s for the Australian Military. Following its original production, the Bushmaster platform now has 6 variants. This kit was released as the platform used to transport troops.
Upon opening the box you will see the box is well organized with five (5) bags of plastic sprue, One bag with four (4) rubber wheels. Also included is 1 fret of photoetch and 1 sheet of decals. One thing I want to make note of is that all the bags are re-sealable, it’s a nice touch.
Here is the first bag of sprue.
The first sprue comes out of the bag with the one piece body resting comfortably on top of the bottom half of vehicle.
The molding on the body is really well done, there is plenty of great detail that a wash will pick up on.
Well, there had to be some injection pin marks somewhere. Well, showcase put them in the best possible place, the underside where nobody will see them.
Here is the first full sprue of plastic. You will see that it makes up a majority of the body parts and some of the interior.
Here is a close-up of the interior floor, you can see the molding is very well done.
Dashboard with vents.
Steering wheel.
Again, well placed injector marks.
On to the next sprue, which contains exterior detail parts.
Nice canvas cover for the spare tire.
Close-up of some handles and the windshield wipers.
Here is where some of the drawback starts. A bit of flash.
If the rear door is going to be positioned open you will need to sand down these injector marks.
Second bag of sprue, PE, and decals.
More exterior detail parts, tools etc.
Now, look how beautiful this hatch is!
Photoetc.
Again, a little bit of a drawback here. The PE somehow got warped, don’t know if that is a manufacture or shipping issue. The good thing that this picture does reveal is that the kit includes PE seatbelts. Very nice detail!
Nice looking mesh and interior dials included.
On to the decals, very nicely done!
The third bag of sprue.
There are two identical sprues included in this bag.
Machine Guns and ammo boxes.
Suspension parts.
Fourth bag of sprue.
This bag contains four (4) identical sprue with more wheel, suspension, and other odds and ends.
Now, look at how nice this ammo belt looks!
Fifth bag, clear parts.
Last but not least the wheels.
You will see they have a very nice tread pattern.
The overall detail isn’t that bad, but it’s not that great either.
Finally we get to the instructions. They give a nice overview of the vehicle history and its operations in Australia and Iraq.
Nice clear instructions with color callouts as you go.
To wrap it all up, the instructions show three (3) variants of the vehicle that the kit will allow the builder to construct.
My over all opinion of this kit is that it is very well done. Taking into consideration that it is Showcase Models Australia’s first attempt at a 1/35 modern vehicle, I couldn’t ask for more. There are a few areas of flash and injector marks but those are very easily addressed. There really is so much detail already packed into the kit I don’t see much reason to purchase an aftermarket accessories. The only area may be the wheels as I am a very large fan of resin wheels.
Thanks for taking a look!
Adam
