Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV)

[Mike]

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV)

1:35 Kinetic Models

The M-ATV from Oshkosh is the winner of the MRAP competition to find a successor to the Humvee, which has served the US Armed Forces for a number of years now. The Humvee has some well publicised weaknesses, which have been addressed over the years with upgrade packs, but all of these things are best done at design stage, so a new vehicle would always give a better solution.

The M-ATV is built from the ground up with survivability in mind, and has a huge 16” travel on its centrally inflated all-terrain tyres. It can still travel with two tyres shot out, which would be very important in the event of an ambush. The underside of the vehicle has the now familiar V-shaped keel that deflects blast away from the crew compartment, and the Caterpillar made V6 diesel engine is well protected, but can still drive up to 1 mile with the cooling system shot up.

The crew compartment has climate control built in, as well as other creature comforts like charging points for mobile devices. The composite bodywork, provided by Israeli company Plasan, is built to take small-arms fire, and the glass is toughened to resist bullet strikes, and stands out from the chassis it is that thick. On the roof is a weapons mount, which can be remotely controlled from inside the vehicle, or crewed by a single operator within an armoured shroud, protecting from ground fire, but also fire from above in the urban environment. The turret can take a number of weapons, such as the Mk.19 grenade launcher, M240 machine gun and the ageing TOW anti-tank missile system.

The kit was an out-of-the-blue release to me, following hard on the heels of a resin kit from another manufacturer. It arrives in the standard “F-16” sized box, and inside are a profusion of sprues. Ten sprues of a sand coloured styrene, plus a separate hood/bonnet part, a sprue of clear parts, a sprue of flexible plastic parts, five hollow “rubber” tyres, a sheet of Photo-Etched (PE) brass parts, and the instruction booklet.

My initial impression of the package is that it has been done by a different team that tool Kinetic’s aircraft releases, which is to be expected I suppose. I would also say that it may well have been moulded by a different injection moulding company, as the sprues just look different. Neither of these things is a good or bad thing, just an observation. On the whole, detail seems good, there are a lot of parts, and the inclusion of PE for grilles and so forth is always a bonus.

The build begins with the Tak-4 suspension and drive shafts, which are quite evident on a vehicle such as this with serious levels of suspension travel. The large coil springs on the leading wheels are easily seen, and these are replicated by two large styrene parts, which because they are each moulded as one piece have a slight “candy-twist” look about them. The purists would probably create their own springs from wrapping wire round a central spindle, but for the majority, a dark wash would bring out the detail enough for them. The steering arms and brake calipers are all there, as are the wishbones that control the spring’s travel. There are some nicely rendered nut-heads that top off the tie-rods to each steering wheel, and if you can glue those carefully enough, the steering should remain poseable. The rear suspension builds up in a similar manor to the front, minus the steering option. A set of hoses are provided on the flexible sprue, which wrap around the suspension, giving a realistic look to the rear suspension package. Take care here however, as the numbering of the flexible J sprue is a little confused, as is the drawing of parts J7 and J1. A small diagram of the sprue’s correct numbering is provided on that page, but they have still got parts 3,4, 6 & 8 drawn the wrong way round.

The ladder chassis is then constructed, onto which the two suspension units are glued. This is then overlaid by a laminated keel shape, which protects the crew cab from IED blasts. There is a notification icon to “be careful” at this stage, but as yet I’m unsure what this means, unless it is to ensure that the part is the correct way round before adding the laminated parts? The exhaust pipe is installed on the outside of the keel, and is made of two halves, so take care when aligning the parts. The tubular “running board” crew steps are then installed, and care with their alignment will save any unpleasant surprises later.

Construction then moves to the cab, starting with the floor. This has a central area of shelved stowage that is filled with comms and sensor gear as the mission dictates. This is built up first, and the separate “black boxes” are added before adding the four crew seats. Three of the seats can be posed stowed, which entails raising the seat cushion to allow more stowage. The driver’s seat is clearly always required, and builds up from slightly different parts, which I would guess at being the height and position adjustment gear. Painting of this area will be time consuming, as although the main crew area is painted the same as the outside of the vehicle, the comms gear, seats and instrument panel will require detail painting, some of which will need to be done before installing in the racks due to them being locked in during construction.

The instrument panel builds up onto the windscreen surround, and various small parts install at the top of the windscreen area. The large thick glazing panels are then installed, and here we reach the first issue that may cause the modeller to pause for a moment. The real windscreen parts are necessarily thick, due to their laminated construction to stop or deflect incoming bullets. The kit parts mimic this with one piece of clear styrene, and there is a degree of shrinking during cooling, resulting in some sink marks on the large windscreen parts. Curiosity got the better of me and I nipped one windscreen part off the sprue.

Initial sanding of the windscreen part revealed that the sink marks were most definitely on both sides, so out came the sanding sticks, using a medium grade to level both sides. Then it was simply a matter of reducing the grades until the surface was both flat and polished back to clarity. This improves the look of it massively, and removes all of the distortion created by the sink marks. A coat of tinted Klear/Future will give it a final shine and that green tint typical of bullet-proof glazing. Problem solved!

The crew doors are built up next from inner and outer skins to avoid sink marks, but the glazing here may also warrant some sanding and polishing depending on how critical of the finish you are. The doors have separate handles, window levers and grab handles on the inside, plus a large double mirrored wing mirror on a tubular frame. The mirror will need a coat of Alclad chrome or some chrome foil, as they are simple styrene parts.

With the addition of the rear bulkhead, which is surprisingly (but correctly) bland having only a fire extinguisher to decorate it, the crew area starts to take shape. It will need to be pretty much painted by the time you add the side panels, onto which the doors affix, as access will be quite limited by then. Various bases for antennae are installed on the cab sides, and switch/routing boxes attach to the inside of the roof area, which will need some scratch built wiring adding if you’re feeling in the mood. Once the roof is on and the windscreen is installed along with the instrument panel, that’s the inside done.

Attention then turns to covering the outer cab with all the little protrusions so typical of modern AFVs, and that’s before the rear stowage area is even started. The bonnet/hood intervenes however, and builds up around the large single piece. A PE grille sits behind the radiator cut-outs, and the large curved light cut outs are blanked off and the lights themselves added to the surface. Some additional parts are added under the hood, including two large parts that flank where the engine would be. Presumably, these parts are armour to protect the engine, prevent the see-thru effect on the model, or both. The rear sub-chassis is for external stowage, and has a pair of large black mudguards outboard of its central square platform. Two long stowage boxes fit inboard of the fenders, and have small perforated PE lips added to the tops of them. Tie-downs are added to each corner, and the protective framework is then built upover the next two steps. More antennae and their bases are added, including one of those GSM-style lollipop ones that I think may be used for local cell/mobile phone signal jamming. The two elements are brought together at the same time that the rear light panel is added, and tow of each of water and fuel cans, plus a tool box are included to personalise the storage area with as you see fit. Remember that modern jerry cans are plastic, so don’t chip them up like I did once!

At this stage the majority of the model is brought together on the chassis, with a large protective shield for the engine compartment being installed before the hood and crew cab are added. The model is flipped and the keel is added, along with a few small pieces to complete the protection.

The last major assembly involves building up the turret that sits atop the roof, and lots of detail painting will be needed here too, as several thick glazing panels need to be added before construction is complete. You have a choice of either an M2 .50cal machine gun or the Mk.19 Grenade Launcher, both of which are manually operated from the turret. Detail is nice on both weapons, but the barrels suffer by comparison to slide-moulded and turned metal alternatives. If this bothers you, there are plenty available in the after market. The final assembly is the large flag shaped sensor that attaches to the front bumper on a large bracket – detail is again good here, as it is on very prominent display.

The final act is to bring in the turret, the forward sensor “flag”, and the large off-road wheels together. Here there are two camps. Those that don’t mind flexible plastic tyres, and those that hate them vehemently. I’m not in either camp, but I have a concern here that may or may not make its presence felt as time goes by. The tyres are hollow, in much the same way as the real thing, and as such there is no support within, other than the strength of the thin walls. My concern is that over time they will literally sag under the weight of the model, and start to look a little like they have a slow puncture. Whether this will prove a real issue remains to be seen, but I will be looking at ways to get round it when I build mine. I also feel that the tyre sidewalls are a little too flat as they stand presently, and that they should have a slight bulge and some radial ripples too. As always, if this bothers you, I understand that a set of resin wheels is already available from DefModel for the other resin M-ATV, and they should be easily adapted to fit the Kinetic kit.

Colour schemes are any shade as long as it is Sand Yellow.. CARC for short, which stands for Chemical Agent Resistant Coating and has an FS number of 33446. The instructions state that no exact shade is available, but suitably close alternatives in Tamiya, Gunze and Vallejo are supplied. However, I have found (using this paint chart) that White Ensign and Polly Scale do produce the exact shade as AR US 01 (Gulf War Sand Tan) and 505364 (US Desert Storm Sand), so they can be used if they are available in your area.

The decal sheet is small, as you would expect, but has been designed by CrossDelta and printed by Cartograf, so quality is excellent. Some nice stencils are included, with spot colour here and there, and a set of instrument decals are included for the driver’s panel.

Conclusion

Apart from a little bit of flash here and there, mostly around the sprues themselves, the kit is well moulded, and the part count is high. Detail throughout is good for the scale, although there is quite a lot of cabling within the cab that isn’t really practical to add in an injection styrene kit.

The issue with the glazing will irritate some, but a little careful sanding quickly turns it into a non-issue, so of little overall consequence unless you don’t have the relevant sanding tools to hand, but forewarned is forearmed, as they say. As to the tyres, I’d consider packing them with milliput before you install the hubs, in an effort to ensure that they don’t sag – it’s certainly what I’ll be doing unless I can get hold of some resin replacements.

It’s good to have a mainstream kit of a relatively new AFV so close to its initial deployment, and with the other variants that are available from Oshkosh, I can see a few more versions being kitted using this kit as the base. It would be nice to see the variant with the remotely operated M153 CROWS turret installed. Whether the aftermarket industry or Kinetic will get there first remains to be seen!

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Biggles]

Cheers Mike, nice review.

I'm looking to get one of these - but which one?

There is another plastic kit of the M-ATV out by Panda Hobby. I understand that the consensus of opinion so far is that the Panda kit is for the more 'advanced' modeller as it has a great deal more etched brass in it. Panda also seem to have ignored the dreaded licensing issues and have tradenames like 'Michelin' on the tyres, not 'Michelic' (or similar).

There are also some issues in that the Kinetic kit is some 0.5 cm larger all round than the Panda kit. At the moment there are no side-by-side reviews which state which is the more accurate, so for the moment you pays your money and takes your choice...

Mike