Never glamorous with its 30mm-thick armor and big, run-flat tires, the nimble Daimler Dingo was still popular with the British military. More than 6,600 were built.
MiniArt sure packed a lot into this little scout car; the 289 finely molded, gray styrene pieces are flash-free and augmented by a fret of photoetched metal for even greater detail. Three British infantry figures are included as well.
The directions are busy - even overwhelming at times - with 43 steps. A color painting and decal guide presents three options to dress your Dingo. However, instructions for the photoetched-metal parts fall short. (I left off some of the tiniest, most invisible parts.)
Building the Dingo is easy and straightforward, and the fit of the parts requires no filler and very little sanding.
Careful with those crew-compartment walls; test-fit for proper alignment. Same goes for the suspension to plant all four wheels firmly on the ground. The crew compartment's detail is outstanding, so you'll want to leave the roof open. The windows and side door can be positioned open or closed as well. A .303 Bren machine gun makes the Dingo look a little less dainty.
An enamel mix of Model Master sand, rust, and dark earth provided the camouflage color. I used pigments and pastels to dirty up the tires, and some light washes to highlight weld seams. The few decals went down fine with Solvaset.
My Dingo took about 10 hours, far less than I anticipated. The outstanding fit makes this build simple. Though the directions are a little hard to follow, and some of the tiny photoetched-metal parts were difficult, I would highly recommend Mini-Art's Dingo to anyone with a year or two of modeling experience. It will look great in your soft-skin armor collection.
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