Buffel

Manufacturer: BaxMod

by João Coelho

Something different from South Africa

The SADF (the old South African DefenseForce) is for many, an unusual subject, especially for thoseaccustomed to the ordinary subjects of modern western armor andsoftskins linked to contexts of NATO and some French designs.Still, being an African born man and Portuguese, it was great forme to find models being produced by Bax Mod Models of some of themachines that I knew all too well from TV and reading material,linked to the conflicts in Namibia and Angola.

One of these vehicles was the Buffel(buffalo), that represented in comparison with America or Europesomething like an M113 or a VAB. It was, along with the Casspirand the Ratel, the standard APC for the South African forcessince the middle of the 70’s and played an important role inthe constant engage and disengage type of operations played inthe southwest African "Bush War". As with the Casspir,the Buffel's best trademark was its mine protection technology,although it became a sort of a mite with time, these types ofvehicles were thought of for the APC/IFV role with the inclusionof mine protecting tech, representing in the end, a new trend inAPC concept.

The model

Starting out, if you are looking for asmall scale model with "persona", you got it. Justtaking in the "look" of this small guy is great, thevehicle is funny in a number of ways, being very small andunusual for an APC and somewhat of a leggy thing. The smallnessof the kit makes for a fun build with some very thin and delicateparts.

In general the Buffel is very close tothe Samil 20 light truck also previewed here by Doug. Upon afirst look we see lots of flash, this is a result of the methodof casting as was with the Samil, still it’s easy to cleanup and get your parts ready for assembly. Some air bubbles arefound here and there being easily corrected with some putty. Thedetail is present, clear and abundant, with the finer partscoming in the form of two sets of etched parts. Alternatives aresuggested for making some of these parts, like the use of wireand plastic rod for the making of grids and mirror mounts. Inthis case the instructions are also clear and helpful, going verymuch against the trend of resin models which in general, providesparse instructions.

A check list of parts is provided and theproper instructions are clear in step by step assembly.

As items that probably could beconsidered missing, are markings for an original SADF version andother versions in use in other parts of the world, and some clearplastic or an acetate sheet to replicate the windshields on thecab. The first is not a big problem and in keeping with myphilosophy, I started a long time ago to paint, yes paint, mymarkings on vehicles.

Being someone that builds a lot ofIsraeli and Arab machines, I found that it was very hard to findtransfers for my kits. The problem consisted namely inunderstanding the numerical concept behind the numbering andmarking of any type of machine. So being a good archaeologistthat I am, I started out looking to understand the contexts inwhich the machines were in, after that it was easy, you only needto find good graphical reference material, just about anythingworks, photos, drawings, line drawings, anything.

The second problem (lack of clear parts)is resolved in much the same way as the first, you need toimprovise, which is by the way the big fun behind this hobby formost of us. So if you don’t have clear plastic or its harderto get, try acetate sheet, you can probably find it in a dozenplaces and in the end its very easy to work with.

Reference material

As a reference guide the only help is thecolor photos in the box cover, providing some 3 to 4 pictures ofthe vehicle. Having seen so many times this guy on TV, actuallymoving, I feel more reference is probably needed for those notaccustomed to SADF subjects. You can resolve this problem in anumber of ways, the first is paperback reference, trying to findbooks on this particular subject or the SADF in general, still itpresents itself as costly, timely and difficult because thesubject is not too common. Second you can try the internet, startby Bax Mod Models web page, there’s some photos present andsome historical background also.

http://www.baxmod.co.za/index.html

Also a search on google with the name ofthe vehicle also helps with the reward of a very good number ofpages on the subject of this particular vehicle.

Lastly you can search on particular sitesthat refer to military equipment and have plenty of historicalbackground and graphic reference material, being photos, linedrawings and so on.

http://www.ifrance.com/ArmyReco/

http://www.jed.simonides.org/content/jed1.html

Personal note

On a final note I would like to stresstwo aspects that seem important.

This preview is, even with all goodwill,an appreciation made by someone who has some year’s ofexperience with model kits and in particular with resin ones.This should not constitute a personal overstatement of mypersonal expertise in model making, I build kits for fun andthat’s it, no model contest winner here; I started buildingkits saying this and I’ll die saying it.

What should be understood and so manytimes is not, is the fact the this model kit may be great and funfor me to build, but it may prove difficult for any other givenperson out there. Resin may not be so familiar, or the way thistype of resin is cast may prove challenging to some, it alldepends of you.

For someone who likes those moments inwhich we sometimes find ourselves improvising and ask, "howthe hell am I going get over this now", this model is foryou, it has all of the companents for good fun and a pleasing endresult, it all depends of how much we put in it.