Here is Meng’s 1/35 Minenraumer that I’ve recently completed. I have been in love with this machine ever since I first saw RPM’s old kit. After attempting two of them I finally gave up and moved on. And then along came Meng. What a world of difference this kit is from RPM’s. Parts actually fit, there’s no distortion of parts, instructions are legible and the numbering actually matches the ones on the sprues.
Now about the kit. I was pleased to see that the large box was not packed full of sprues. The size of the box is mostly because of the excellent way in which they packaged the parts. And speaking of parts, there weren’t that many. And the track links made up about half of them. The tracks are huge compared to other 1/35 AFV’s and are workable as long as you are careful with gluing. And while easy to put together you need to be careful when assembling them. Just pay attention, take your time and reference the instructions.
Pay attention to the assembly procedure. For instance the first few steps call for the attachment of the smallest parts of the kit. Leave these off until the very end. I didn’t and ended up breaking a few of the hooks attached to the hull. These things are incredibly small and try as I might I couldn’t reproduce them. Also, I would paint the tracks before putting them on the wheels and paint the wheels before putting on the tracks.
Finally, painting the beast is left up to your own imagination. They included three variations in the instructions. One is plain grey (I used Tamiya RLM Grey) and a two tone and three tone camo schemes. Since whether or not this machine ever made it out of trials, and that depends on what you read, I chose to paint it grey because I had already installed the tracks and that scheme was easier. And one thing that I remembered while taking the pics was that I had forgotten to apply a coat of Dullcote which I’ll get to if the rain ever stops here.
Looks super cool [:)], kinda Star War-ish [:D]. I have ordered (and received) my stash for the next year or so but this one will certainly be in the next box as I like unusual vehicles.
What a cool vehicle, but looking at it I would think it’s an airbrushing nightmare. Getting inside and around those tracks looks difficult? Nice job on the build and what an interesting subject.
Jibber, in my case painting was no big deal. I just painted everything grey and then hand painted the tracks. They are so large they are very easy to get to. If I had it to do again I would leave the tracks off before painting and airbrush the tracks separately. Also in a do-over, I’d paint it in one of those camo schemes. They grey just doesn’t allow some of the detail to pop like a lighter color would.
Hi Johan. Thanks for your props. I’m not sure what the powerplant in this beast was. And while I was building this thing I was content to finish it in dark grey with little or no weathering. I figured since it was a “one of” vehicle, I didn’t think a lot of weathering would be appropriate. The more I look at it though, the more I wished I had painted it dunkelgelb with some minor weathering. I don’t know. I’ll think about it a little more.
