Kinetic’s M-ATV features posable doors, seats, and hatches. Armament options include a .50-caliber M2 or a Mark 19 grenade launcher. Also provided are 5-gallon cans, storage containers, vinyl tires and hoses, and markings for four vehicles. A two-page black-and-white gallery of walkaround photos appears at the end of the 34-page instructions.
Building the complex drivetrain comes first. The front and back drivetrains are not interchangeable, so follow the instructions and mark each subassembly when it’s done. With their small vinyl hoses, these assemblies were a real challenge. Plus, there were poor attachment points, unclear instructions with mislabeled parts, and drawings that bore little resemblance to the parts or their assembly. For example, Part No. J7 has four hoses coming out of the middle, but it does not look like that in any of the drawings, the walkaround photos, or the box art.
The frame rails had a heavy mold seam that need to be sanded off. Attaching the end pieces (parts E14 and E15) is a bit tricky; the attachment tabs are very small. This led to an alignment issue between the rails and end pieces, and, overall, a poor joint. The instructions were not at all clear regarding alignment.
I painted the tires and rims Tamiya NATO black and used Tamiya weathering pastels for the dirt buildup on the tires. I could not get the rims over the soft plastic insert, so I glued the rims to the hub.
The cab assembly is built up from many parts. It starts with the floor and the shelving for the electronics. You will need to paint and install subassembly K5-K14 before closing up the cab.
Working on the seats was tough. Poor attachment points on the seat back added to the alignment problems. The driver’s seat frame was undersized and needed filler to fill the gap. I painted the seats Tamiya dark yellow, the dashboard and inner doors Tamiya semigloss black, then glued up the walls and roof. A noticeable gap between the roof and back wall needed filling. The windows in the real vehicle have a yellow tint, so I diluted Tamiya clear yellow with Tamiya clear.
The turret is built up from multiple pieces. The back wall was a little too wide and needed to be sanded to prevent a gap along the sides. The bracket for the front armor plate was broken and I could not find the other half, so I left off the armament; I didn’t like the quality of either the M2 machine gun or MK19 grenade launcher. Also, the headlights didn’t fit.
Working on the bed and antenna frame had its problems, too. With no locating pins and so many parts, it was hard to square it up.
I painted the vehicle overall with Tamiya desert yellow, weathered it with Tamiya pastels, and used Tamiya clear orange for the markers and clear red for brake lights.
With no measurements to go by, I had no way to judge the accuracy of the model’s scale or its dimensions. I do know it took 38 hours to build. With the complexity of the build and the corrections needed to complete it, I can only recommend it to experienced modelers.
A version of this review appeared in the July 2012 FineScale Modeler.