BRDM-1

Manufacturer: ACE (Kit No.72117); MM (Unumbered Kit)

This kit is the latestentry in the ACE lineup of [former] Warsaw Pact and modernRussian vehicles. It is the second kit of the BRDM-1 madeavailable in 1/72d scale over the last couple of years, the otherone coming from ARMO in resin.

ACE kits are limited-run.This means that the molding quality is not going to be to thesame standards as with the large plastic model companies such asHasegawa or Revell. But this kit represents the best molding Ihave yet seen come out of ACE. There is a little bit of flash,and some of the parts will need to be carefully sanded to fitwith the others. However, unlike some other limited-run kits Ihave seen, the high quality of the master parts for the ACE kitsis readily apparent. The detail on the plastic parts is abundant,and for the most part, fairly sharp. The only sinkmarks I see areon two of the tires, which can be easily filled with putty.

The kit includes acomplete undercarriage and detailed suspension. The smaller"support" wheels can be built either retracted ordeployed. The roof hatches are molded open (but as one piece -they need to be separated), but unfortunately, the frontwindscreen hatches, and the rear fighting compartment accesshatches, are all molded shut. Detail on the hull is very crispand clean, including ventilators, vision slots and firing ports.

The smaller details whichare to be glued to the hull are very well made for a limited-runkit, and are so delicate, that great care is going to be neededto successfully remove them from the sprue. The SGMB machinegunis really quite beautiful, as are the tools, cleats, headlights,and other smaller parts.

The very small decal sheetmanages to provide markings for five different vehicles (threeSoviet, one Polish and one East German). The decals are very thinand very well printed.

According toBronekollektsiya #3/2000 - Soviet Armor1945-1995 , this kit scales out almostexactly 1/72d.

As I mentioned above, Ifeel that this is one of ACE's best kits, and it will build intoa superb model.

Comparisonto Other BRDM-1 Kits

There are two other BRDM-1kits available. One of them, by MM (Siga), is a re-boxing of thisACE kit, but with different decals, and better instructions.

The other BRDM-1 kit isfrom ARMO, and is resin (see ConstructionReview ).While it has extremely nice molded-on detail, and is very simpleto build, it is crippled by incorrect dimensions. The kit is fartoo wide and makes the vehicle look positively stumpy. Also, ithas no detailed undercarriage or decals. I feel that the ACE kitis superior, due to its correct dimensions, good decals, and muchbetter instructions.

THANK YOU to Alexey at ACEModels for providing the review sample.