ICM 1/72nd BTR-152
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Background
I bought this ICM kit with the idea of a quick build on the kitchen
table while visiting the grand kids, then Advanced Modeling Syndrome took
over! The open top cried out for detailing. How often my wife has said
”all that detail is nice but you’re going to cover it up.”
Here was the chance for detail to be seen!
Let me quickly say, this is a nice simple kit. It has very nice wheels
and chassis, so with a canvas cover over the open top, you could easily
build a very attractive model.
But I wanted MORE! First I Googled for a BTR 152 and found sites with
detail photos of the interior and exterior, see References below.
A quick note on the real vehicle: this is basically a 6x6 truck with
an armored body. It was used by Russia and her cronies everywhere including
Africa. Israelis also used them! There are benches on the sides for troops,
a back door for exiting and mounts for machine guns on the front and sides.
There are even “gun ports” on the sides. The earlier ones
didn’t have the winch behind the front bumper and more radiator
louvers. Some had solid piping to the wheels for “on the run”
inflating. It carried 17 troops plus two drivers, but I don’t see
how they packed them in!
The Build
The kit comes in two parts: the body and the chassis. The body suffers
from very thick plastic…almost an eighth of an inch thick! I thinned
from the inside using a Dremel to grind and then shaved/scraped with various
Xacto blades. There was enough plastic dust to have molded a Tiger! If
I had to do it over again (and I do have another one upstairs in the cache)
I would make a new body of 20 thousand using the kit body as a pattern,
but then it would be scratchbuilt!
Using pictures from the internet, I built a new interior. Everything
you see inside the truck was scratchbuilt! Even the wheel wells. To “fill
up the space” without people, I made duffle and storage bags from
Milliput and “stuffed” them under and over the bench seats.
The kit does have seats, but not accurate and too bulky.
All the detail on the exterior of the body was sanded away and rebuilt,
including the portholes, fuel filler lid, shovels and their holders. The
kit didn’t include the “get unstuck plate” that hangs
over the rear wheel well and I didn’t build one. The front end was
sanded away and a new grille assembly built with the proper number of
louvers for the earlier non-winch version. The light guards are bridal
veil material (tulle) because I didn’t want to try my hand at weaving a
mesh stone guard in this scale! The door, fold down window and armored
visors were carefully cut away and thinned. The spare tire had its lug
nuts and hub removed and drilled out…as it should be.
The chassis was built as per the kit but I changed the front bumper
to match the earlier version and added an exhaust pipe. Once again, there
is very nice detail in the kit axles and springs. It’s a shame they
wind up underneath. I remember having to make some correction so the body
would fit lower on the chassis and the rear wheels fit inside the body.
Fitting the wheels so they would be parallel, etc. was not easy. This
is better done using a jig and before gluing chassis to body.
The decals were a disappointment, out of register and a little blurred.
But this was an “old” kit and the new releases may have better
quality decals. Not wanting a green vehicle, I opted for one of the Syrian
Vehicles in sand color but there are many interesting schemes from Africa,
one with black and orange rings around the vehicle. I painted it with
Tamiya Buff heavily tinted with white or white tinted with Buff.
There is a picture of this vehicle converted into a “wrecker”
recovery vehicle used by the Lebanese Army and painted…baby blue.
That would be a nice conversion!
Conclusion
So have fun building this kit. I sure enjoyed it and my wife was pleased
to see my “handiwork” fully exposed!
References
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