This kit is a re-box of the Vision model 35002 WWII Russian BA-64 Armored Car with new decals to depict a captured armored car in German service. Plus the addition of a MiniArt figure set that calls them the “crew”.

Step

1. is the assembly of the transmission with the gearshift levers in place and painting it a steel color.
2. builds the frame and adds the transmission. There were no general painting instructions such as “if no color is called out paint the part the overall base color”. You need to prime and paint the frame before attaching the transmission, or do a lot of masking.
3. is the adding of the drive shafts and axles.
4. adds very small bolt heads to the lower hull. There are large ejector pin marks on the floor of the lower hull and they can be seen thru the turret opening. These need to be filled and sanded flush with the floor.
5. starts with the painting of the driver’s seat and the painting of the inside of the lower hull. The floor is green and the walls white. I used an interior white, or off white for this portion of the painting. The rest of step 5 is inserting the driver’s seat and louvered grill and attaching the lower hull to the frame.
6. is the assembly of the exhaust pipe and muffler.
7. is the installation of the muffler assembled in step 6 to the frame along with the steering wheel and the turret mount. If the steering wheel is installed as directed it will be markedly to the left of the center line and the driver’s seat. The mounting bracket will not clear the dashboard if you try to move the steering wheel to the center. I did find a photo online indicating that the steering wheel is indeed to the left of the driver’s seat centerline.
8. begins with the painting of the dashboard and the inside of the upper hull. The painting instructions calls for a white, but I used an off white.
9. glues the upper hull to the lower hull and adds various bits to the outside of the upper hull and driver’s side outer hull. A grab handle is misidentified as A42 in the instructions, it should be part B42.
10. assembles the 4 road wheels. I painted the wheels and the tires separately and mated them after the paint was dry.
11. assembles the spare wheel. I painted both the wheel and the tire separately and mated them after the paint was dry.
12. adds various bits to the outside of the rear hull and passenger side outer hull. This step also adds the fenders to the passenger side along with the door. The doors are only molded in the closed position. If you want to display the door open to show the interior, you will have to modify the hinges to leave the door open. The towing hooks are reversed, part B38 should be replaced with part B37 and in step 13, B38 should be used.
13. adds the armored visor for the driver. The fenders for the driver’s side along with the driver’s door are installed now. The spare wheel is called out, but I left it off until after the painting and weathering was completed.
14. adds the 4 road wheels. As with the spare wheel, I left them off until I was finished painting.
15. starts with the assembly and painting of the turret. After I finished the turret I set it aside and did the final assembly of the head light. Then I painted the body and weathered it. Once that was all done, I added the 4 road wheels, the spare wheel and the turret. At this point the model is complete. One note here on the road wheels, the hole in the wheel where the axle is to be inserted is too large. I did not try to fix that, but just glued them on and made sure that the wheels were aligned properly. You may want to plug the hole with plastic rod or even stretched sprue, then re-drill the holes to the proper size to fit the axles.

Crew Figures

The “crew” for this armored car is 5 figures from MiniArt’s Figure kit 35021. There are 5 figures in this set, but they are not for this armored car. They are actually a tank crew in winter clothing for the 1943-45 timeframe. They possibly could be modified to fit the armored car, but that is beyond my capabilities. My suggestion to you is to take the figures and put them on a tank as they were intended and look for a more suitable set of figures for the armored car.

Painting and Decals

The color charts shows the reference numbers for Vallejo, Testors, Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, and Mr. Color. The paint schemes and associated decals are as follows:

• Unidentified Unit Eastern Front, summer 1943 overall green.
• 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment “Der Fuhrer” 2nd SS Panzer Grenadier Division “Das Reich” Kursk, July 1943 Overall Sand color
• Unidentified armored unit, Gorizia Italy, summer 1944 Overall green
• 3rd SS Panzer Regiment “Totenkoft”, Kharkov, March 1943 Overall Whitewash

The decals are by Begemont and appear to be acceptable.

Conclusion

The kit will build a very nice, but small model. The “crew” is not for this model. They should be used on another tank kit as originally intended.