Kinetic RG-31 Mk.3 Canadian Mine-Protected APC with RWS 1:35

[Mike]

RG-31 Mk.3 Canadian Mine-Protected APC with RWS
1:35 Kinetic Model Kits

To give it its full title, the RG-31 is actually an RG-31 Mk.3 Canadian Army Mine-Protected Armoured Personnel Carrier with Remote Weapons Station, but that's likely to leave you slightly out of breath if you say it out loud. It is based on the chassis of the Mamba APC that was originally manufactured in South Africa, but has been modified to suit Canadian needs by adding an offensive remotely operated weapons mount that carries an M2 50cal machine gun and smoke grenade dispensers to cover its withdrawal in case of overwhelming opposition.

Like most MRAP vehicles, it is based on a V-shaped hull and has a lot of ground clearance, which gives it effective resistance against even larger charges, as the blast is deflected up and away from the crew compartment. It is fast becoming a common sight in the Middle East, because it has a less aggressive look (without the RWS at least!) than traditional armoured vehicles, whilst still protecting the occupants against roadside bombs. Canada currently operates 75 of these vehicles, manufactured for them by Land Systems OMC, who are owned by the seemingly ubiquitous BAE Systems.

The Kit
Arriving in a top opening box with a painting of a parked vehicle on the top, and some real photos on the side, there are six sprues of a dark sandy coloured styrene inside, plus a sprue of clear parts, a sprue of black flexible styrene parts, a bag of five wheels in (not very) flexible styrene, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a decal sheet. The instruction booklet is landscape A4 and printed in black and white, with the painting and decaling guide at the rear in greyscale. A first impression is that it is a well-detailed model, and includes a decent interior as well as an exterior that simply needs some personalisation to make it "pop". It is also substantially different from the initial RG-31 that was released in 2012, with some improvements added for good measure.

Construction begins with the V-shaped hull, which has a flat-recess at the front on which the drivetrain is built up between two flat plates, with the forward leaf-suspension built in, across which the front axle is placed with doubled-up gas struts for redundancy as well as damping ability. Drive-shafts lead back to the differential, which is armoured, and the rear axle that is installed late in the build on more leaf-springs with double struts late in the build. Exhaust, fuel tanks and ancillary equipment are arranged around the V-hull, resulting in a well detailed underside.

The internals of the cab are next, and these are placed within the V-hull after a flat floor panel is added. Two padded crew seats are added up front, and five passenger seats in the rear compartment, plus comms. Equipment and controls for the RWS on the roof. A nice instrument panel is fitted to the forward firewall with a pedal box consisting of two pedals, but it's a bit of a shame that some instrument faces weren't included on the decal sheet. Construction of the interior seems a little disjointed, jumping from creating assemblies for the outside of the hull that aren't needed until later, to the rear bulkhead and access door, and then back to the interior. The upper hull includes all the window apertures, and inside here are installed a cab divider and control screens for the RWS, and before you install these you'll need to deal with the few ejector pin marks that are inevitable, but nonetheless reviled by modellers. The rear door is assembled along with the side window panels, rear roof hatches in between parts of the interior, which are used once the upper hull is added to the model. The door is quite nicely done, with grab handles, two gas-struts for open or closed options, and internal handles on the crew side. The upper hull is detailed with windscreens, door mirrors and other equipment before being installed on the lower hull, which seems like a recipe for broken parts, so it would be best to leave the smaller parts off for the time being, as well as the large T-shaped aerials and the RWS mount. Adding the crew hatches to the roof will probably add some structural rigidity, so there's no harm in adding those, and it will also ease painting the interior, so go right ahead!

The Remote Weapons Station (RWS) is built up on a base around which the rest of the station pivots, and the M2 machine gun is attached to mount suspended between a pair of arms to allow it elevation. An ammo box plus optics are added, the latter having clear lenses for realism, and the eight smoke grenade dispensers fix in pairs to the angled mounts on the rotating part of the station. That is then fixed to the roof of the vehicle along with the back door, the upgraded side window panels, and a raised stowage/crew protection area at the rear of the roof that surrounds the roof access hatches and has clear vision blocks added to the rear.

Unusually, the front grille and bumper/fender aren't added until after the hull halves are joined, but these should slot into the gaps at the front. Here the louvered grille is moulded integrally to the front, which would have been a perfect use of the PE sheet, but there are at least protective cages to the clear light parts in PE, which attaches to the surrounds after main painting. The bumper has towing hitches and a pair of fog-lights which have their own PE grilles, and a number-plate mounting point is added from PE just above the grille. The five wheels are made up from semi-flexible tyres that could do with a scuffing to improve their look, a two-part inner hub that traps a poly-cap, and single part outer with bolt detail moulded in. The fifth spare wheel has a two-part hub and separate retaining plate that bolts to the mount under the hull to be carried on either side of the front crew compartment. MRAP vehicles have external stowage bolted onto the outside of the hull, which is sacrificial in the event of an explosion, being made of less sturdy material than the hull. These are simply added to the outer hull fore and aft on each side, with a pioneer tool pack added to the starboard side front wing. Between the front and aft sections on one of the potential spare wheel stations, a rack can be bolted on with the same plate as the spare wheel, enabling the vehicle to carry more stowage, specifically jerry cans, which sadly aren't included. It seems that the instruction artist also got confused, as two aerials that were built up earlier, aren't shown being installed at the rear of the side windows, but simply turn up at some later stage with no mention of how they got there.

Markings
Three markings options are available from the box, all of which reflect the current sphere of operations in the Middle East, and wear the stone paint scheme typical of vehicles in that area. From the box you can portray one of the following:

• Canadian ISAF Unit in Afghanistan 67049 – ISAF & Transformer motif on the rear, front and sides.
• Canadian ISAF Unit in Afghanistan 67045 – ISAF & Skull motif on the sides.
• Canadian ISAF Unit in Afghanistan 2007 67686 – ISAF motif on the sides and rear.
  

Decals are printed anonymously but it is noted as Cartograf on the box, and as you'd expect, they are in good register, colour density and sharpness, although the red warning stencil has blocks where the text should be. There is also a mis-spelling of the word "injury" on the English stencil regarding the weight of the rear door, which I'm guessing isn't spelled that way on the real thing. That said, it'll hardly be visible on the vehicle with a coat of weathering.

Conclusion
It's nice to see some non-US ISAF vehicles being kitted, and Kinetic probably have another few variants of the base vehicle planned in due course, as this vehicle is becoming more commonly seen. It's a shame that they couldn't have added a greenish blue hue to the clear parts to simulate the bullet-resistant glazing, but a wash of clear green acrylic should sort that out in short order.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of