BRDM

Manufacturer:ARMO (Kit #72001)

This was my first ARMOkit, and I am very impressed. It is not perfect, but it is a veryfine kit nonetheless. The box has the kit labeled as a BRDM,which is the same as the BRDM-1. My references for this vehicleare very scarce. I was able to glean a couple of photos off theweb (including one from the ARMO-JADAR website), and there are acouple of small photos and a side view drawing in Jane'sTank Recognition Guide . Unfortunately, goodphotos are a necessity, as ARMO's main weakness with all theirkits is poor instructions.

Like many resin kits, thisone was basically an exercise in painting, as the actualconstruction was very simple and straightforward. There were onlyabout two dozen parts, a handful of which I did not use. Theresin quality was very high. There was a single large pour blockon the bottom of the hull that needed removal. The other partswere easily removed from their resin "sprues." Therewere no airbubbles, or other imperfections. The level of detail,as you can see in the photo, is outstanding. The details weresuperbly undercut, as you can see with the iron bar, and towcable, attached to the right side of the hull (these were notseparate parts, but were molded onto the hull). This same highlevel of detail is present on all ARMO kits.

ARMO has a good habit ofpre-drilling location holes in the hull for the headlights, handholds and other wire framework. So it was a simple matter to addthe hand holds on each side of the superstructure, and on thefront engine access panel. However, there were some holes drilledonto the rear of the hull, and because I have no photos showingthis part of the vehicle, I was unsure of what went into theholes. Based on the skimpy line drawing in Jane's ,I came up with something, but it's probably not correct. (Inoticed after taking this photo, that the left rear tail lighthas been broken off the completed kit. Hopefully it's still inthe model's storage box.

There was one constructionproblem, that being the location of the wheels and their axles.Each wheel glues to a wheel hub with axle, and this axle is thenglued to the underside of the hull. But the axles are each bentat a different angle so care must be taken when attaching them.One method would be to attach all the axles to the hull first,and line them up appropriately, but then you must be sure to getall the wheels the correct depth in the wheel wells. The way Idid it was to first glue the wheels to the axles, and then attachthe axles to the hull, making sure that the wheels were all inproper alignment. Using this method, the wheels look great, butwhen you look at the bottom of the vehicle, the axles point inall different directions. Good thing you can't see that.

The kit comes with amachinegun to mount on the front of the superstructure. I believeit is supposed to be a 12.7mm DShKM, but if so, it is not moldedvery accurately. Additionally, the instructions are very poorshowing the assembly of the gun and its mount. The other parts Ileft off were two metal guards for the headlights. These aremolded on a flat backing of resin, and would be difficult toremove. It would be easier to scratchbuild your own. I have seena photo of a vehicle without these headlight guards, so I leftthem off.

According to themeasurements in Jane's ,this kit scales very well in length and height, but is definatelytoo wide. As I mentioned, this is the only reference I have, so Icannot confirm the measurements. I painted my kit in Polly ScaleSoviet Green. No decals are included, so I swiped some EastGerman markings from my ACE BRDM-2 kit. The decals are very thin,and printed beautifully, but silvered a slight bit, even withjudicious use of MicroSol. I like the finished model a lot, andam looking forward to building my other ARMO kits.