Mike Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 SPz Puma 1:35 Revell The Puma is the successor to the Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), and has been designed to be modular, one of the key tenets of modern AFV design. It is unusual in that it has a single fighting compartment, rather than the separate crew compartment and passenger compartment arrangement. Not only does this allow a tighter integration of the two aspects of the crew, as well as direct communication, but it also makes for a compact design where the crew compartment is one single block within the vehicle. The driver's compartment projects forward from the main crew compartment by necessity, but otherwise the volume forms a box. Systems are well integrated and the digital battlefield is well supported, and the six infantry "passengers" have their own vision blocks and access to the camera system to assist in spotting, and so they have a greater situational awareness of the battlefield, which will doubtless help combat initial disorientation when disembarking. The Heer, the German Army took initial prototypes on charge in 2009, and have recently agreed a reduction in total build from 405 to 350 following re-organisation within the Bundeswehr. Testing has been extended until September 2013, and at the time of writing the vehicle is undergoing cold weather trials in sub-polar Norway. The Kit The kit arrives in a bulky end-opening black box with a PSM logo that states that it is an officially licensed product, so we hope that cooperation was close to obtain an accurate model of this new vehicle. Inside the box are eight sprues in a dark green styrene, plus two rubber-band style tracks, a pair of mudguards and a tow rope moulded in flexible styrene. A piece of wire is taped to the front of the typical Revell instruction booklet, and a small decal sheet completes the package. Initial impressions are that despite the off-putting green styrene, there is quite a lot of detail moulded into the parts, with the outer skin having some nice fastening and anti-slip coating details. I can't help thinking that in this day and age of sophisticated modellers, that an alternative to those rubber-band style tracks should be provided for those that want a little more realism. That said however, the detail on the tracks is quite nicely done, but you will never get that angular look around the drive and idler wheels with a continuous curved part. The build is a traditional one, starting with the roadwheels and suspension units. The majority of the suspension is hidden away inside the hull, so the separate suspension arms mount against a half-relief moulding of the suspension struts, which in truth won't be at all visible once completed. The wheels are arranged in two sets of three on each side, and if you planned on depicting an early prototype, you would have to re-arrange them, as the positions have changed during testing. The two-part drive sprockets are at the front of the vehicle with a pair of idler wheels to the rear, and the whole hull side is then attached to the keel on each side, with the rear bulkhead added to complete the lower hull. At this point the instructions would have you glue and paint the tracks a metallic shade with dark grey for the track-pads, and install them on the lower hull, when in reality they could be added at any point until the side-skirts are glued in place. The top-deck is rather nicely moulded, as mentioned earlier, and it fits atop the lower hull, boxing it in completely apart from the hole in the top for the turret. The flexible mud-guards are added at this point, and I wonder how well they will take the paint and for how long. I would be tempted to make some brass replacements, using the kit parts as templates, but that's just me. Various additional parts are added to the upper deck, with crew access hatches added, and the rear crew hatch is engineered to be posed open, which has little value due to the complete lack of interior. The sideskirts are built up next as separate units, which are added to the blank sides of the hull in much the same way as the real thing. There is nicely moulded detail of the reactive armour blocks, and a representation of the exhaust is shown poking from the underside of the skirt, although it could do with squaring up and opening out to add a little realism. Whether another edition will be released catering for the light-weight A-armour variant is anyone's guess – it looks possible from the tooling of the top deck, but whether it would be worthwhile is one for the project planners at Revell. The rest of the hull is built up over the next few steps, adding grab-handles, light clusters and a large tarp to the front, which is moulded in styrene. The towing cable is supplied as a flexible "rubber" cable, which has sprue gates and a mould seam to remove from its full length, and is top and tailed with styrene "eyes". Leaving aside my concerns about paint sticking to it, it may be wise to replace it with some alternative such as the RB braided wire that is available online in various diameters. The turret is built up last, and as it is un-manned, it is relatively small. The optics and sensors build up around the boxy turret, and the 30mm MK-30 barrel is sandwiched between the two halves of its support/mount structure, which has lightening holes on both the sides and top, making for an interesting seam along the top surface. The barrel itself is moulded as a one-piece affair, with a flattened bottom, and two pairs of lugs to mount it within the support. The muzzle is a separate cylindrical part that fixes to the end to give the impression of a hollow barrel, and the whole barrel will need painting before installation within the support due to the holes, although masking will consequently be fun. The barrel mount is then trapped between the turret and an outer panel, which leaves it able to move vertically if you leave it unglued. The front panel of the turret can be left open to show the optics, or closed for transport, simply by sliding the panel down into the turret. The turret roof is installed as a single part, and a rotating TV sensor suite drops into the keyed slot in the centre of the roof before being straddled by a three-legged sensor turret that sits on top of it. The turret is offset to one side so that the barrel is central on the vehicle when pointing directly forwards, and this is evident once the turret is dropped onto the deck and locked in place by turning it to engage the wings in the turret ring. The final act is to cut 75mm of wire, heat it and bond it with the aerial tip, then attach that to the starboard rear of the vehicle. The vehicle is painted NATO Black, Brown and Green, and as it has not yet taken a trip to the dust-bowl, that's the only scheme that is supplied, together with a small decal sheet that contains all the vehicle numbers you could want in individual digits that affix to the backing number plate, a pair of Bundeswehr crosses, speed limit badge, and some optional corner warning panels in red and white. Register, colour density and print quality seems to be first rate, and the sheet was printed in Italy, although no company name is mentioned other than Revell and their parent company Hobbico. Conclusion Revell's armour kits are always a two-edged sword for me. They produce kits of subjects that are both mainstream and niche, but always in that (IMHO) horrible green styrene, and always with rubber-band tracks, which are a compromise at best in terms of detail, realism and ease of use. This is a new tooling, and as such the surface detail is well done, petite and crisp, although it's difficult to make out because of the colour of the styrene. There seem to be many different fit and finishes to the armour and turret of the real thing in pictures on the internet, which is probably due in part to its protracted gestation period, so check your references carefully if you are intending to model a particular vehicle at a particular stage in development. As always with an early kit of a vehicle, there will doubtless be changes to the final specification before it reaches service, and even more so during its service life. As it is a German subject however, it is to be hoped that Revell will keep up with these changes and offer updated versions of the kit. Recommended. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul A H Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Looks like a nice kit, but I'm not sure about that box artwork! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Nice kit, these are in the 3 for 2 offer at Modelzone at the moment. Julien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick4350 Posted April 12, 2018 Share Posted April 12, 2018 (edited) The real vehicle is now going to serve with the Australian Army. Edited April 12, 2018 by Mick4350 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvrle Posted April 12, 2018 Share Posted April 12, 2018 Didn't the Aussies choose the Boxer wheeled IFV, while the tracked vehicle hasn't been chosen yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted April 12, 2018 Share Posted April 12, 2018 Gents the review is not the place for discussion, please do this in the modern AFV section. Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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