Model Armour

Modern German Boxer MRAV Detail Set

Manufacturer: ET Model

Scale: 1/35

Material: Resin

Serial Number: E35-119

Price: Unknown

Introduction

ET Model from China has a rapidly expanding catalogue of photo-etched and detail sets for a wide variety of kits in varying scales, together with a very prolific release schedule.  This resin & photo-etch detail set is intended for the HobbyBoss kit.

Set Contents

The detail set consists of three photo-etched brass frets and a single block of cream-coloured resin castings. The instructions are supplied on two sides of green A4-sized paper and consist of the usual exploded line drawing type.

Each of the three photo-etched brass frets is manufactured using a different thickness of metal, indicating that the choice of thickness has determined to an extent what parts are best represented by that thickness of metal.

Most of the photo-etched parts supplied are structural in nature and therefore fairly difficult to describe. A full set of replacement grills are provided, although as these are already supplied as photo-etch in the HobbyBoss kit, it's up to the modeller to decide which looks the best fit.

The grill replacements include the three long rectangular ones on the roof of the engine compartment, plus the long panel on the left side wall of the compartment, along with its angled armoured cover. The actual mesh part also has a photo-etched guard fixed over it beneath the outwardly angled armoured cover and visible from below. There are also armoured side panels supplied for fixing to the front body of the vehicle, although the ones supplied for fixing to the rear body, i.e. the mission module, are less extensive, although they are supplied with separate inspection hatches. Many of the parts consist of small brackets, fixtures and fittings, along with such things as replacement wipers for the driver's vision block. The machine gun mount gets a minor make over, with new ammunition bracket along with some smaller details and two belts of ammunition. I've never been a great fan of photo-etched ammunition belts, and I'm afraid to say even less so of these, since they've been put on the thinnest fret for some reason and several rounds have even lost their point, so best not used. At the rear of the vehicle, we're offered new crew steps up to the rear module door, along with the rear mudflap assemblies.

In resin we're offered a complete set of replacement smoke grenade launchers that are fixed either side of the rear roof of the vehicle and do have slightly better detail than the kit ones, and are also supplied with small photo-etched retention wires.

Conclusion

It's actually not that big a set, which is probably a testament to both HobbyBoss's rendition of the vehicle together with the design of the real thing. Having said it's not that big a set, it's still very nice with regards to what it does provide. Also, put it together with the ET Model weighted wheels and you would have a very nice package indeed!

My thanks to ET MODEL for the review sample.