Building ICM's 1/72nd Scale BTR-60P By Michael Kendix

Background

A comprehensive in-box review of this kit appeared in the June 2005 edition of Internet Modeler. The kit's instruction sheet contains no background information on this vehicle but the web contains several excellent sites with history and background on the BTR-60P. This site at contains many pictures but it is in Russian. An English language site can be found here. To summarize the information on this site, the BTR-60P began service in the 1960s. Variants abound, one of which is the closed top and more heavily armed BTR-60PB, the subject of another ICM kit. Its initial purpose was as an armoured personnel carrier but it became a general all-purpose service vehicle that saw use all over the globe. A pair of GAZ-49B petrol engines powers the 8 x 8 wheeled drive. The BTR-60P is amphibious, as can be seen from its hull shape, and the small propeller at the rear.

Lower Hull and Interior

As is the case for the entire kit, the molding is clean and crisp. There is excellent detail on the floor of the hull and in the various seats and benches. However, at various stages, there were some fitting problems. The mountings for the benches and the benches themselves went in without any problems. Before adding the benches and the front components, I sprayed the lower and upper hull interior with Model master acrylic #2 Green (almost everything is in this colour). Once this was done, I added the benches, the instrument panel, seats and gear stick. I added some colour detail to the instrument panel though I have no idea whether this is correct. I glued as many of the various boxes and struts to the interior, as well as adding the front section pieces, including the fender and the extra piece of armour hanging down from the front. Then it was time to glue on the upper hull. This was where the problems began. The upper hull did not fit flush to the lower hull piece and there was a significant gap along the sides that I had to fill with plastic strips. The filling and sanding that I did to clean up this area meant that I lost some detail along the upper hull sides. Once I had completed this task, it was time to spray again. Taking care to cover the seats, which have a dark grey sitting area and instrument panel with Kleenex™, I sprayed the interior and exterior. At the rear, the mounting for the propeller and the cone-shaped propeller housing did not fit well. I had to sand things out to get the parts to squeeze in. I left off the propeller subassembly until the hull had been sprayed because it is painted in silver.

Wheels and Axles

The kit's representation of the axles' connection to the underside appears to be incomplete but this is not a big problem if you decide to glue the model to a base. Further, the wheel mountings' configuration is not conducive to a robust structure and they broke off a few times during construction. The wheel hubs and tyres are separate, which is excellent for painting and detail purpose. The tyres come in split halves, which did not create a problem. Using Ambroid Proweld™ I glued the tyre halves and squeezed them gently. Once dry, I sanded down the ridge I had created by the squeezing process and they looked fine. Unfortunately, the wheel centres did not fit into the tyre centres, the openings being too small. Eventually I figured an easy way to address this problem. I wrapped sand paper around a suitably sized paintbrush handle and sanded out the tyre centres until the wheel hubs fitted.

Details and Weathering

Next it was time to add the various upper hull details. All of these items fitted well, as far as I could tell. I drilled out the exhausts, posed the hatches in an open position, and opened the rear covers for the propeller housing. The various tools - poles, spades and a saw are a nice touch, and they contain their own mounting brackets. I added the decals at this point, using Future™ to prepare the surface. The decals are excellent: there was no silvering or tearing, and they adhered nicely. I went with the scheme on the box art - Soviet Marines from the early 1970s. Once I had glued on most of the detail, I gave the model a couple of burnt umber oil washes, followed by some highlighting with a silver Prismacolor™ pencil. I added a towrope made from some kite string and replaced the headlamps with MV lenses. I preferred to make my own grab bars (Parts A23) that go across the interior. I reasoned that would be faster than trying to take those delicate parts off the sprue and cleaning them up: I used .020-inch plastic rod. I added some extra weathering using pastel chalks of various browns and greys, especially around the underside and wheel parts. Finally, I gave the entire model a coat of clear Polyscale flat to seal things.

Conclusion

This is a decent kit. There are some fit problems with the hull and wheels but these are fairly straightforward to overcome. At this point, I have not seen this kit available in the U.S.A. so I do not know what the price will be here. However, NKR Models in Australia has it for AU$10 (about US$7 once you convert and subtract the Australian sales tax for foreign purchases). At that price, this kit is a real bargain and recommended.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to ICM for kindly providing this review kit.