Build: Academy's 135 Warrior MCV "Iraq 2003"
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Introduction
Academy Models has followed suit
of other model manufacturers, in releasing existing model kits with minor
updates to depict modern vehicles used in the recent Iraqi Wars with this
new version of the MCV Warrior. This kit has the same 304 original parts
as in the first MCV kit that was released in 1996, with a new spare of
88 additional new parts to build the updated "Iraq 2003" version
and also an updated decal/marking sheet.
GKN Defense for the British Army developed the Warrior Mechanized Combat
Vehicle (MCV) in the mid 1970's. In 1978, a parallel evaluation of the
American M2 Bradley IFU took place, and the following year full development
of the Warrior began, which then led to full production of the vehicle
in 1986. It was officially handed over to the British Army in May of 1987.
By late 1994 over 789 vehicles had been delivered to the British Army,
and eight Mechanized Infantry battalions will now be equipped with the
Warrior, in service only in the British Army. And so, on to the build.
The Kit
When I first received this kit, I sat down at the dining room table
and immediately opened the box and spread out the contents, to find five
sprues of kit parts, an instruction sheet, and a small bag containing
a piece of vinyl mesh screen, a small length of heavy cotton cord, a small
spare of poly inserts for the wheels, and a decal sheet…as I studied
the parts and the instruction sheet, I noticed first hand how well the
parts were molded and how clean the molding was, no flash at all, even
on the smallest of parts; good beginnings, so far…After identifying
all of the parts and studying the instructions thoroughly, I made my game
plan.
As with most of my builds, I don't follow the instruction steps to a
tee, as I do make changes along the way because of certain parts not being
painted or finished, and I found out with this kit, my method will hold
the same. The general construction of this model was mostly a breeze,
almost flawless, but there are a few "gray areas" in the instructions
and also a couple of places that you must be extremely careful with; but
more on this as we go on.
I normally will spray all of the parts for the vehicles suspension and
drive train before assembly, while they are still on the sprue, and in
this instance, that's exactly what I did. The color scheme for this kit
is primarily Desert Yellow, with a little color here and there on the
stowage and tools that accentuate the overall look, so I chose to use
a Model Master enamel as my base color paint, as it is readily available
in my area and a good paint to use-I personally like Model Master paints
for most finishes, enamel and acrylic as well.
Steps 4 through 10 of the build mostly involve building both the lower
and upper hull respectively, and adding all of the external detail of
each assembly, and believe me there is a lot of such detail! I was extremely
impressed at the amount and quality of the super-detail, right down to
the interior detail and latches of all five of the working hatches that
are provided for the MCV…which leads me then to say that this kit
is a scratch-builders dream kit, because with the five hatches all being
hinged and workable, the interior detail possibilities are immense. The
two main rear hatches, two turret hatches, and the drivers hatch all open
and close with ease, and basically exposes the entire interior when you
do so.
By the time that you do reach step #11, about 75% of the vehicle is
complete, aside from some of the exterior detail parts that will be painted
a different color than the basic Desert Yellow. At this point I decided
to give the entire assembly it's base coat paint job, in which according
to the kit's instruction manual is Desert Yellow, so again, I used Model
Master to match the lower suspension system already painted earlier.
Suspension/Propulsion System
I took the opportunity to begin the assembly of the suspension/propulsion
system at this point, which includes twelve separate road wheels in tandem,
six per side, six smaller guide wheels, three per side, the two main rear
tread idler wheels, and the two front drive sprockets. All but the six
smaller idler wheels are movable when mounted, thanks to the poly inserts
inside each assembly. As I had already prepared these parts, all that
was left to be done was to paint the black rubber outer road wheels; personally
I always find this step to be a challenge to complete, because no matter
how careful I seem to be, I always tend to over paint onto the rim; not
so this time, as I have tried a new method, and I will explain it here….
really easy…since the assemblies have the poly inserts in them, a
standard round toothpick fit snugly into the hole, which can then be easily
held and rotated in the fingers; instead of the standard brush and bottle
paint, I tried a valve action paint marker (which has a perfect pin point
tip) to paint only the rubber outer wheels; worked like a dream! The paint
flowed easily from the marker, and holding the toothpick in one hand and
the marker in the other, all eight wheel assemblies were painlessly painted
in less than ten minutes; the paint in the marker is also quick dry, about
five minutes, and dries to a semi-gloss hard finish. Adhesion to the base
coat was excellent, and covered completely in one coat.
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"Gray Area" #1
THIS IS IMPORTANT FOLKS, so pay close attention here; attachment of
the eight separate suspension swing arms, and although the procedure is
simple, there are two extremely important parts I need to make you aware
of; first, when you slide each arm into the lower hull, there is a rather
loose fit of these parts; each arm can be moved slightly from top to bottom
after insertion into the lower hull. I strongly suggest inverting the
hull assembly on your bench, and as you glue the suspension arms in individually,
making sure that they are all laying in the upward most position in their
range of movement when inserted; why, you may ask? #1, for the accuracy
fanatics, in this position you will get the closest to the proper ground
clearance measurements for the finished subject, and #2, when you attach
the tread assemblies later on (that is if you are not using an A/M tread
assembly), you will not be able to properly mate the two ends of the vinyl
treads if you don't keep the suspension arms in this position.
Turret Construction
The turret has all details in separate parts for good definition with
workable hatches, periscopes, and the two main sights (which are made
up of nine parts each with two position covers), multi-part smoke grenades,
and the long 30mm Rarden L21A1 cannon with separate flash suppressor,
and the 7.62 mm l94A1 chain gun mounted in the external mantlet beside
the main cannon.
Detail of the turret is superb, although there are some inaccuracies,
which I will list fully at the end of this review. The rear turret basket
is very delicate, with mesh supplied to be cut to fit (templates are provided
in the instructions), as does the large rack basket on the right side
of the rear hull.
This entire assembly went together smoothly, and there was only one
minor fit area between the upper and lower turret halves that needed a
little fill with putty, near the front under the mantlet on each side;
no problem, though. I assembled all parts except for the two guns, and
then gave the turret assembly its paint job base coat. The main cannon
will be a two-color part, with the barrel flat black and the barrel mount
desert yellow; I painted these parts separately for attachment later,
along with the chain gun barrel being flat black also.
Additional Armor
The passive add-on Chobham Armor packages provided for the sides and
hull front feature good detail on the exterior, but the inside tops of
the side panels could use some enhancement as they will be visible on
the finished subject. There is also a large tow hook on the front, and
note should be taken here; as this hook would not be visible on vehicles
used in Operation Granby/Desert Saber, but can be seen in Bosnia and other
vehicles in use up to the present time. Assembly of these panels is simple,
and after assembly, they were all given their paint finish of Desert Yellow.
Attachment of the front hull pieces can be done, but the side armor pieces
should wait until after tread attachment and weathering of the lower hull.
Treads/tracks
The tracks supplied with the kit are quite accurate, although they
are of the typical vinyl "rubber band style", and really could
be replaced with a better A/M set that would greatly enhance your finished
subject. I used the supplied tracks to stay in context with the build
review, but if I were building this kit for my collection, I would definitely
get a different set; for this case, I painted each a base coat of flat
NATO black, then a little silver highlights on the "metal" areas
for shown wear and tear, gave them both a good coat of FUTURE floor wax,
followed by a light wash of burnt umber for a little "dirty"
look. After they had dried completely, I gave each a light of clear matte
spray to keep the paint from flaking off when attaching them, then mounted
each to the lower hull after they were dried completely again.
Stowage Items
There are a lot of new stowage items added to this updated kit, which
include the following: two each of two styles of ammo boxes, two each
of two styles of stowage bins, two folding chairs (which are an essential
item for Iraqi service), two SA-80's, three communication wire wheels,
one spare road wheel, two oil drums (which are a bit oversized), and numerous
Jerry cans for water storage. It's the modeler's choice as to any and
all that he would like to add to the vehicle, but if you do your homework
and look at most vehicles in service, they are loaded down with most of
these items at any given time. I chose to use all that were supplied with
the kit, and the modeler also has a choice of colors that the stowage
can be painted, either dark Green or Desert Yellow for all except the
water cans, which should be Flat Black or Desert Yellow. All items have
excellent detail and look very lifelike when complete. These should be
painted and weathered first before adding to the vehicle at a later time.
Other options included are a pair of wire cutters (to provide protection
to crew members riding outside from wire strung across travel path), a
drivers external windshield, exterior louvers for the armor panels and
rear of the MCV, and a really cool tow cable assembly which is constructed
of the heavy cotton cord supplied with the kit and plastic loop ends and
clevis shackles to attach to the front D-rings on the machine.
Before adding all of these goodies to my Warrior, along with the side
armor panels, I wanted to lightly weather the entire subject…I chose
to use a burnt umber acrylic wash lightened up a bit with some ecru to
offset the Desert Yellow base coat, but not to make the base look too
dirty. The wash really made the models' super-details stand out, all of
the pin louvers, casting marks, every panel line, nut and bolt…looks
great! For the panel sides I drug a little wash down from top to bottom
along the rivet lines to simulate a little rain/rust run-off, for a little
extra realism. After the whole mess had dried completely, I attached the
panel sides and added the cargo items using reference photos in my collection.
Decals/Markings
The new decal sheet has markings for two different Warriors, one from
Bosnia in 1995, and one from Iraq in 2003, but no additional information
is provided on the actual units being depicted. My references indicate
that the Bosnia vehicle is from the 2nd Bn, Light Infantry, which deployed
to Bosnia as part of the IFOR in November of 1995.
The Iraq markings consist of just the number 08 on the turret boxes
and the black chevrons on the rear storage boxes, and quite possibly could
be from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, but no other markings are provided
apart from a small Union Jack for the rear door panel and the aerial.
I chose to use the latter set of markings for my Warrior; after decals
were set and dried, I gave the entire piece a good coat of flat matte
clear spray to seal it up and set it aside to dry completely.
Inaccuracies
Although minor, I must list the following inaccuracies for this model,
which I have found according to my research materials.
1) There is an unsolved issue with this kit (as there was with the
original kit), that the large mesh side bin on the right hull side and
the smaller left rear hull side bin were replaced with solid metal bins
(armored most likely) on the up-armored warriors, that also would form
part of the side armor supports. The new small left side bin had a flat
top without the x stamping of the thin metal bin on the "normal"
warrior, while the kits have the original bins.
2) The engine compartment vent cover (P# C-6) should be open at the
back,
opening covered with screen, and should be textured to represent a cast
item.
3) Many segments of the turret, notably the front end and the mantlet,
are castings and should be textured as such.
4) The final drive housings on the lower hull front are a tad too
wide, and should be narrowed down slightly and textured to represent
a cast product.
5) The turret hatches are not 100% correct, as the hinges should compensate
for the angle of the openings, which are not parallel to the turret
roof.
6) The bustle stowage rack is mounted too high and should be corrected
by lowering it so that the top rim is at least below the level of the
bottom of the turret's periscopes.
*NOTE- Accurate Armor has a number of fine upgrade kits and conversion
sets for this kit, and Eduard has a nice photo-etch set also.
Conclusion
Overall, this kit was a joy to
build, with not many hurdles to jump…the original kit from Academy
built up into a nice model of the Warrior, as does this kit, and the addition
of the corrected Iraqi parts corrected it's one notable flaw (the bow
appliqué armor) and made the kit as a whole, much better than the
original and will form the basis for a good Iraqi Warrior; Highly recommended
from this modelers point of view. Many thanks to MRC for providing this
fantastic review kit!
Reference
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Warrior-Concord Mini Color series, #7509
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Verlinden Publications, #76
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