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BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 19 Aug 2017, 14:09
by Olivier Carneau
Hi all,
just before the holidays I started this kit by Trumpeter. It depicts the BMP-3 in service with the UAE army. The kit comes with a basic interior and two possible decorations, the first one for an IFV in the usual desert camo and the second one in the 3-tone camo used during the KFOR deployment in the French brigade. I'll probably choose the latter.

The build is quite easy with no traps. The tracks will prove tedious to assemble as you need to glue 186 links plus the same amount of guide horns!

So far I built the crew and the driver compartments. The turre twill come later. The interior parts are basic as stated above and are hardly better than the Skif offering. No painting indications are given by Trumpeter so you'd better find reference pictures or the Skif instructions. While Trumpeter give you parts to fill the large compartment they apparently did not make a long research and did not look for accuracy. A lot is wrong but I did'nt try to fix all the mistakes, one) because I'm lazy, and two) because very few of the details will remain visible once the hull is assembled and the turret in place.

Here are the pictures.

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With a basic weathering before assembling the hull halves.

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Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 19 Aug 2017, 15:50
by Philipp Gross
Looks great :D

I like the version covered in ERA all over, might get me one of these one day...

Philipp

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 19 Aug 2017, 22:11
by Adam Durrant
Philipp Gross wrote:Looks great :D

I like the version covered in ERA all over, might get me one of these one day...

Philipp
+1 on that, I've got this kit in the stash because I felt it was the most interesting of the BMPs in Trumpeters stable.

Nice work so far Olivier. :D

Adam

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 21 Aug 2017, 23:53
by Vincent Power
I have to agree with the others Olivier, very nice work. :)

Vincent

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 22 Aug 2017, 18:07
by Olivier Carneau
Thank yo uall. I have made some progress on the hull but need to take pictures.
Tonight I'll hopefully start the painful tracks assembly.

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 22 Aug 2017, 21:19
by Olivier Carneau
Here are some more pics. The hull is nearly complete.

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I have started to glue the guide horn to each of the 168 track links!

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 26 Aug 2017, 10:44
by Olivier Carneau
The ull and the running gear are complete. Not sure about the black color but this can change when I paint the whole vehicle.
As usual with this green plastic, after the tracks were glued and the glue has set, I had to add another link. :evil:

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Now I have to detail the inner face of the hatches. The rear doors will be closed. Only the large roof doors will remain "mobile", i.e. not glued.

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 28 Aug 2017, 23:50
by Vincent Power
It's coming together now Olivier. Good progress. :)

Vincent

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 29 Aug 2017, 18:23
by Olivier Carneau
Thank you Vincent.
I managed to get the turret finished last night. Like the troop compartment, a lot is to be desired and Trumpeter omitted some major parts. I'm not even sure the interior is correct for a UAE version and its modified thermal sight. The 100 mm gun breech is provided (or a part pretending to be the breech) but the 30 mm gun breech is absent.

Anyway, I decided from the start not to go too deep in the internal details.
Here are the pics.

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TBC

Re: BMP-3 UAE

Posted: 30 Aug 2017, 03:36
by Mark Aldrich
Weird seeing the height increase since the BMP-1. Super nice looking.