Projects Puma and Boxer.

[Ferry_vO]

When I was younger I built a lot of scale models, mostly aircraft, trucks and cars but after a few moves I kinda lost interest and threw most away. I did keep a few military models and the last few years I built a few more. Today I started a new project, the 1:35 Revell SPz Puma:



The Puma is the newest German IFV (Infantery Fighting vehicle) and quite an advanced panzer!
More info on the real thing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_(IFV)

The model comes in a pretty large box with 177 parts. Tracks and mudflaps are made of rubbery stuff and a piece of metal wire is included for the antennas which is a better solution than using streched parts of platic sprues IMHO. Here's a shot of all the sprues:



The turret has a lot of parts compared to other models in the collection; a quick count revealed 48 parts! After assembly the gun, three sensor aarays and the two smoke dischargers should move, the turret rotates but the wheels and tracks are fixed. Today I glued part of the hull together and the seperate side-armour. I also painted these parts and most large parts of the turret.
For the exterior paint I'm using the Tamiya NATO colours; XF-67, 68 and 69 which look great. There's a big manual included with markings and decals for only the first production vehicle.

Tomorrow I will do some more painting and take a few more photos! No idea when it will be finished, but I'll try to post regular updates.

[Ferry_vO]

A few hours of work done, mostly spend painting things green! Assembled the major components of the hull, with the sides as seperates assemblies; this resembles the real thing as it can only be airlifted if the add-on armour is removed. Glued the 30mm gun together, as well as some of the sensor components. Being sick of all that green I did most of the windows in metallic blue and a few sensors in silver.
The fit of most parts seems OK, maybe a little filler required here and there. Not Tamiya quality, but then again, not Tamiya prices either!

Here's the hull, parts for the tracks and the side armour, as well as the main gun:



Close-up of the 30mm:



First quick size comparison to the old (and dusty) Tamiya M3 Bradley:



Parts underneath the side armour and turret obviously not painted.

BTW Don't expect an award-winning model here; I'm just doing this for fun!

[Ferry_vO]

The first reason for me to get back in modelling wasn't the Puma, but the Revell 1:35 GTK Boxer, which is the latest AFV for the German and Dutch armies. Quite an impressive vehicle with it's eight wheels, 711hp Diesel engine and a topspeed of over 60 mph.
More info on the real thing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_(...ghting_vehicle)
And the manufacturer's site: http://www.artec-boxer.com/index.php?id=home

But of course when you have a week off and want to get this particular model it is nowhere to be found, which is why I got the Puma first and ordered the Boxer online.

The box it comes in is quite big:



223 Parts, of which the mudflaps and wheels are made of rubber, and the antennas are made from metal wire. The box I received was slightly damaged and although it didn't look like the sprues were damaged I did found some bigger parts were slightly warped making assembly of the chassis and body more difficult than it could have been.
One of the mirror supports is either broken or missing, so I'll have to improvise when I need to assemble that. No further problems found so far.

The real deal has a modular construction (Check their website for all the possibilities.) and Revell has reproduced that faithfully. Too bad the module they've included (The same as the prototype) isn't a module the Dutch army uses so it will have to become a German vehicle.

Here's the module in front of the chassis; the white part is the driver's cabin. Too bad the module doesn't have an interior, and there's no engine either.



And the module installed:



A lot of the bigger parts have been painted green already, next step will be to paint and assemble all the suspension parts.

As for the Puma, more detailing work has been done, all wheels have been assembled and some smaller parts were glued together. No pictures of that model, but I'll make a few once I start assembling the turret and track sections.

[Ferry_vO]

And the biggest part of the turret is finished!
Lots of parts and assemblies that need to come together, but they fit just fine.

[Ferry_vO]

Made a bit more progress this weekend, but mostly in the painting booth.

The Puma now has wheels, but the wheels and suspension parts are mounted on two seperate pieces that need to be glued to the hull, but I had a bit of a problem getting one of those to fit right; ended up removing a tab to get it to fit properly. Next up are the tracks, then the add-on armor on the sides and then I can start with the brown and black camo.





Meanwhile on the Boxer I did a lot of paint work on all of the suspension parts, and a bit on the driver cabin. Not too much detail there, just a steering wheel and a seat.



Assembling all the suspension parts and wheels is up next.

[Ferry_vO]

Another bit of progress over the weekend; the Puma now has the tracks fitted and the side add-on armor fitted. The real thing can't be transported by Airbus A400 with the armor fitted, so the Germans need four A400's to move three Puma's. One extra aircraft for the armor!



I started working on the suspension parts on the Boxer; lots of tiny parts for all of the eight wheels! Ran into a bit of a problem when I found that some of the instructions have the wrong part numbers on the drawings. Thankfully I dry-fit first before I apply glue, so I caught that in time! Next weekend I'll assembly the steering arms and uprights and after that it's time to go back to the top of the vehicle.

[Ferry_vO]

More progress on the Boxer; all of the suspension and steering parts are now fitted! Not always easy to line up all the uprights and on the rear uprights the left and right side parts have the wrong numbers.
Both side of the cockpit have been glued on, and these need to dry thoroughly first, as the top of the cabin is a single sheet of plastic that was badly warped. I bent it into shape a bit, the rest will have to striaghten out once I glue it in place. On top of that piece will be a second piece of armor with a small space inbetween, probably to reduce heat signature on the real vehicle.



The turret on top of the rear section is done too; lots of small parts in that! The kit has the option to fit either a .50 cal machine gun or a 40 mike mike; I went for the grenade launcher as that's the one fitted on the actual prototype.



Not the best photos btw, theese are made with my telephone but I'll make a few good ones with my camera once both projects are finished.

The Puma is now mostly done, next step will be to apply the brown camo, than the black and then add the last pieces to the exterior.

[Ferry_vO]

A few quick shots (Low light and phone camera; will get better photos this weekend if I find some time!) of last weekend's progress; the Boxer now has a front and wheels:

As a pick-up:



With unit and turret installed:



Wasn't easy to get both layers of armor on the front, as both pieces were slightly warped. The fit of the front section with the headlights isn't great either, but that's mostly visible for the under side so I can live with that for now.

From left to right: Puma, M3 Bradley and Boxer. Note how wide the Puma is!



Next up: Camo painting, than the fine details, the last few exterior pieces and decals.

[Ferry_vO]

It's been a long time since I've posted an update, but I did do a bit of work the last few weeks, just not enough to make a new post every time. Right now the Boxer only needs a few small parts, a few cosmetic touch-ups and the decals; the Puma needs all that and all the small details like the lights on the outside painted.

[Daveroo]

look pretty cool,man i just found this section..i allways look at the racers paddock,newshawks and FSX....seems ive got some exploring to do.

question?...do you hand paint?..with a brush?..or you use an airbrush and masking?

[Ferry_vO]

For now it's all had painted Dave. I don't think I build enough (Or have the skills for it!) to purchase an airbrush kit. I have used spray cans in the past on cars and truck models though.

[Daveroo]

i see,...i saw that you had some taymia bottles there,they flow well with a brush?.....when i built military models back before i found beer,i used a bottled paint..had a "wide mouth bottle" like those pictured in your shots...but i cant,for the life of me,remember the brand..they showed no brush marks at all,and laid down smooth,but id still use testors gloss ,then decal,then either semigloss of flat..or matt(matte?)
i tried the future floor wax a few times on both car models and military vehicles ,and the cars have never yellowed...ofcourse after decaling the race cars,and a second coat or two of the future...but they didnt yellow in time...they are probably ..well i know 22+ years old..i built them before 1990,i have a dodge 3/4 ton command car WC-56/57...i was very proud of when first built..probably the best one id ever done...but i used the major sub-assembly then paint method,when all together including the windshield,i used masking where needed,,sparyed the testors gloss.and decaled ,then a top coat of gloss..when all dried throughly..i gave it two coats of matte...testors again....it was great...NO decal edges showing ect..looked great..even won an award at the local hobby shop ( when we had one) ...but today...it is all yellow...like an old photograph sometime looks...

[Sascha66]

Ah, that brings back the memories! Great looking models! Any idea why the cannon on the Puma has the strange crane-like assembly around the barrel?

[Ferry_vO]

Any idea why the cannon on the Puma has the strange crane-like assembly around the barrel?

Not really; keeping it more stable would be my first though, and maybe to reduce heat signature?

[Ferry_vO]

i see,...i saw that you had some taymia bottles there,they flow well with a brush?

They're not bad, although I had a bad bottle of titanium color once; it had what appeared to be dust specks in it. Most paints these days are water-based, so no more getting high on paint fumes anymore! Revell changed to water-based too (Though they do still sell oil-based) so I can get most colors I need now.

[Ferry_vO]

Final update on both projects; the Puma needs a few more small decals, the Boxer is done (for now..)



The Boxer was a very nice build, I consider it an excellent model with a few minor flaws: Some of the bigger parts like the two front hull pieces were warped straight from the box and one of the mirror supports was missing. In the manual some parts are labeled incorrect but those should be pretty obvious for any experienced builder. Another minor annoyance are the painting options in the manual: The drawings are simply too small to be of any use!
Once finished it is an impressive, and quite heavy model.



The Puma is even better than the Boxer: No problems found except for a few small camera's and brackets that are a bit hard to mount.

More on upcoming projects soon, which will be my first models that I will use my new airbrush set on.