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Forums - Modelling / Kits |
The kits forum is for the discussion of model kits. Typically questions on availability or certain subjects and quality of existing kits are posted here. Short reviews are good here too. |
| Topics | 1205 |
| Messages | 7359 |
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| Subject: | Bronco Comet Has Arrived |  |
| Date: | Apr 17, 2006 |
| From: | Eric Scurlock | |
Joy in Alaska. It's been a long wait but the mailman delivered my Bronco Comet today. I got it from my favorite discount internet model store. Terry Ashley has an excellent review at PMMS, but I thought I'd share my impressions. I'm that excited about this release. I'll be looking at the kit from a "how nicely will it build" point of view. I’m no expert on the Comet so I can’t comment on much in the way of technical inaccuracies.
I haven't test fitted any of the parts but I've given them a thorough look over and I'm impressed. The molding is high quality - very clean with about average sprue attachment points. There are no pin marks where they will be visible once the model is built that I could find. The vinyl tracks are very flexible and look pretty good. They feel much like the tracks in DML's 1/72 Ferdinand.
The kit does of course have room for improvement, but that's true with any kit. For instance the exhaust screen is molded in. This screen is located at the very rear of the hull. It'll be interesting to see how the after market manufacturer’s go about its replacement. It would be very difficult to simply cut it out without breaking the back frame of the screen. I would have preferred if they dealt with this feature much in the way Tamiya did their Cromwell.
It also has several molded on grab handles. I would have preferred separate ones. They also molded on the fender bracing. I would have preferred these to be separate parts also.
The vinyl tracks are nice but looking at pictures of the actual tracks I'd have to say the raised metal tread (for lack of a better term) on the inside part of the outer side of the tracks looks a bit shallow to me. Nevertheless I think they'll look OK once drybrushed and I may be being overly critical? You can find pictures of the model tracks on Mr. Ashley's review, and pictures of the real tracks can be found doing a Yahoo or Google image search. Judge them for yourself. I myself won't be forking out big bucks for aftermarket tracks.
The only other weak spot with the kit is the fact it does not have a canvas covered mantlet. This is a must if you plan to build the vehicle in its field configuration. Bronco has come out with a resin canvas covered mantlet as a separate item but my favorite supplier has as of yet to stock it. I may wait for one of the aftermarket suppliers to come out with a barrel and mantlet kit.
So there's my quick rundown from "the man on the street" so to speak. From what I’ve seen so far I’d definitely recommend this kit. One need not worry about this kit coming from a new company to the armor model market. I would have liked to have seen Bronco do a couple of things differently but that’s a matter of personal preference. For those people planning on building this model out of the box the few niggles I raised won’t be much of an issue. |
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