Mirror Models 1/35 CMP Mk I Otter Recce Car
By Joe Lotz
Overview
This is a first look at Mirror Models Ltd. release of the Otter Reconnaissance Car.
Mirror Models Ltd. is a brand new company out of Ireland specializing in limited run, multi-media kits. Most their kits are of vehicles that you don’t usually find with the mainstream manufacturers.
History (Taken from the box of the kit, since I couldn’t find any other information)
The Otter Light Reconnaissance Car was developed by General Motors Canada to meet the demand for this type of armored car. The design followed the layout of the British Humber Mark III LRC. The Otter was based on the Chevrolet C15 Canadian Military Pattern truck chassis and used many standard GM components. The armament consisted of a hull mounted Boys anti-tank rifle and a Bren light machine gun in a small open topped turret. Although it used a more powerful engine than the Humber, it was larger and heavier, overall performance was less than the Humber but still acceptable.
Between 1942 and 1945, 1761 units were produced in Oshawa, Ontario, though fewer than 1,000 were delivered overseas. The Otter served with Canadian units in the Italian campaign and Northwest European operations. It was also employed. It was also employed with the British Army and the RAF. Some RAF Some RAF regiments aircraft armament such as 20mm cannon and .303 Browning machine guns. After the war the Otter was used by the Jordanian Army and Dutch Army during the Indonesian Revolution.
The Kit
Let’s take a look in the box and see what this kit has to offer. When opening the box you will find 5 plastic sprues, 18 resin parts, a PE fret with over 140pcs, 3 wires of different gage, 3 small decal sheets and instructions. If my count is right then that is well over 300 parts. Now how do the parts look considering it is a limited run kit from a new manufacturer?
The detail on the plastic parts is very good, but not quite as crisp as what we get from some of the big houses. Except for one sprue that contains parts for the drive train, none of the parts have any ejector marks. The plastic parts are molded in a way that mold parting lines are avoided for the most part.
The detail on the resin parts is also very nice. The few bubbles that I found are limited to the back side of parts. Some of the parts need to have the pour stubs removed and require some cleaning.
The parts on the PE fret also look very good and some of the parts have raised detail representing nuts or rivets. The fret is from both sides protected by some adhesive plastic foil.
The decals are in register and the colors look good. There are no units information given with the decals.
Overall I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of the parts.
Now let us take a look at the instructions. The instructions are on 5 double sided pages and are a mix of drawings and color photos showing partially assembled components. The drawings show some of the parts in an already assembled position and some parts in an exploded view. Some of the PE parts called out in the instruction are color coded red only available through an aftermarket set. The instructions are very challenging to say the least and will require very careful study.
This model comes with and interior as well as a full engine and drive train, but no weapons are provided and must be acquired through an aftermarket company.
Also there are no paint or decal placement instructions. Mirror Model provided a link to a Flickr account, where are some pictures of a model posted that show the decaling and painting examples.
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The instructions also provide links to Mirror Model’s website for assembly and marking as well as a new reference book on the Otter from Capricorn Publications out of the Czech Republic.
Conclusion
This is a kit of a very interesting subject. It definitely adds to any collection. But it is not a build for the faint hearted one. It being a multi media kit plus the challenging instructions requires some serious experience with model kits. I do wish that the Manufacturer would have added paint and decaling instructions to the kit. Also the link provided to the online instructions just shows a hi-res version of the paper copy in the kit. Nevertheless, aside from the instructions and some parts that could have been included this is a very good quality kit and I would like to congratulate Mirror Models on a nice job.
Please look forward to a build review of this kit in the near future.
I would like to thank Stevens International for this review kit.