In the mid-1970s, the Canadian military needed a new multipurpose all-terrain fighting vehicle to transport troops. Three vehicles were designed for this role: Husky, Cougar, and Grizzly. All three of these vehicles are based on the Swiss Piranha. The Grizzly, still in use today by United Nations and Canadian forces, has been a perfect fit as an AVGP (Armored Vehicle, General Purpose).
Tightly packed into the Grizzly’s box are seven individually wrapped sprues containing 239 total parts. Six nicely detailed vinyl tires are included. A small fret of photoetched metal holds three parts. The moldings are crisp with very little flash and a high level of detail. However, neither interior detail nor figures are provided.
The decals offer two options: a lizard-camouflage vehicle or a white UN scheme. Both are eye-catching. In my sample, there was a correction decal sheet due to a misspelled word on the main sheet of decals. The decals’ printing is fine and in register.
Instructions are laid out in 14 steps. A separate, colored decal placement/paint guide is included as well. I did find a big mistake in the instructions: Step 13 installs the top of the turret assembly onto the lower turret. But there were no instructions on building the lower turret assembly; this step was skipped. I managed to figure out how to build it, but this would throw a less-experienced builder for a loop.
The fit of the parts was near perfect, and no filler was needed. A couple of the vinyl tires had a small seam along the centerline; this was easily removed with a sharp No. 11 hobby knife blade. Deviating from the instructions, I left off all of the clear parts till the very end for ease of painting.
After priming my model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 white, I painted with Testors Model Master paints. Once the primer had dried, I pre-shaded some of the panel lines with gloss black. This helped keep the model from looking so monochromatic. Once this had a chance to dry, I painted the entire model with very thin insignia white.
The decals hunkered down with no issues at all, only a little setting solution to prevent silvering. I weathered with a mix of different pastels.
My Grizzly took me about 15 hours to build, much less time than I had anticipated. Despite the issues with the instructions, I enjoyed building this kit — and anyone with a few models under his or her belt will, too.