Out of the box the pieces look infinitely crisper than
what we've seen from Battlefront in the past.
You'll likely want to print out the assembly guide on the Battlefront
website as the directions are sparse (essentially a color coded picture on the
back). I'll start with the downside,
because quite frankly there isn't much downside to these miniatures. There are some annoying ejector pin marks on
the hull top and front, but fortunately they're in places that are fairly easy
to fix. I use Mr. Surfacer 1200 followed
by a simple sanding to even them out. I
accidently left one unfilled and it showed up prominently once primed. I fill them because they'll stand out once I
run a wash over them in places that should be smooth on the actual vehicle.
The suspension looks fairly good, they've even managed to
drop the mold line nicely into the track pattern so it needs little clean
up. They've also cleverly used the wheel
hubs for the ejector pins, though this makes the center hub of each roadwheel
over-large and slightly wrong in shape, but that's a detail so minor that even
this rivet counter is going to prime and paint right over it. You'll also need to drill out the barrels in
the guns, mortars, and recoilless rifle.
However, since the parts are plastic and not white metal, drilling them
out is child's play. Oh yeah, and the
photo on the front of the box is of the old resin and metal version, not the
current plastic one...
Thus endeth the VERY minor nits I can pick about this
kit. The rest is absolutely
spectacular. The detailing on the
plastic parts is incredible. The molding
is crisp and there's little to no slip on the parts. All hatches can be opened up or closed at the
builder's discretion. Did I mention the
detailing is superb? Construction so far
has been a breeze - the fit of the parts is absolutely excellent. You'll need to be careful as some are
fragile. There are also a lot of parts,
but there were a lot of parts to the old resin and white-metal versions as
well. The fact that this is a plastic
kit means that super-detailing and conversion will also be easier (if you want
to get exotic with your miniatures).
Another nice feature is that most of the variants you can make under the
current rules are included (there are a few that you need to hit up special
order for the appropriate turrets).
Finally there's the price. The box will run you $35 (US) for a box of
four, so that works out to roughly $8.75/vehicle. Still to the high end by plastic standards,
but far less than what you paid previously for the sets. For example an ACAV box ran about $50, or
$12.50/vehicle. Given that the quality
of the plastic is, quite frankly, better than the old resin and metal and the
ease of assembly is greater the kit is a strong value for the money. I haven't been this impressed with a release
in quite some time.
Bottom line - the M113 is an absolutely beautiful
release. The pricing is extremely
competitive given the quality of the kit.
I've played with some of the PSC and Zvezda kits in the past and by and
large, the new M113 surpasses what they have to offer at this point in terms of
quality. I'm honestly now looking for
places do dump my old un-built resin versions because I simply have no further
use for them. If this is a sign of
things to come from Battlefront - bring it on!
