Meng 1/35 Russian "Terminator" Fire Support Combat Vehicle

[countzero99uk]

Pushing my comfort zone on this build with the Meng kit, lots of fidly bits that ive never done before but it looks amazing.





See you soon.

[Gav0909]

Should be a good build mate, enjoy!

[JediBoer]

Stunning kit! I almost joined you in choosing the Terminator for this SIG but decided I better leave it for later when I'm a bit more experienced. Good luck, can't wait to see the progress!

[MarkVerploeg]

Excellent choise
Couldn't pick a nicer kit .....oh wait i'm going to build one too
Good luck with the build

[AlkaSeltzer]

Evil Looking AFV! Great choice. Comfort Zone not important having fun is so build it

[zeekodadi]

i just finished this kit and its amazing looks better in person then the box art

[countzero99uk]

Still waiting for my hands to get to a point where I can start building really looking forward to it, not sure about painting whilst building but ill give it a go, if it looks like a pigs ear so be it. We learn from our mistakes.

[MarkVerploeg]

I hope they get better soon
I started this kit yesterday and although i'm only at step 3 it is a nice looking kit
I think you will have a hard time making this look like a pig
It is a very good looking kit and hard to mess up

[countzero99uk]

Aye I really want to get started on this,

[rodrant]

What a 'Mean Machine' ...looks like a very good kit , good luck with that build will follow it !

[countzero99uk]

So the Russian "Terminator" Fire Support Combat Vehicle (ill just call it the Terminator) is an interesting piece of kit. Made for a specific role namely getting the edge on people at higher elevation and being able to support tank platoons in an urban setting. Its an interesting read which ill copy paste here from Wikipedia.

History

The history of the BMPT's development can be traced back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Combat experience during the lengthy war revealed that infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) like the BMP-1 and BMP-2 cannot fully cope with manpower despite the latter having a high gun elevation. Although main battle tanks (MBTs) possessed a high amount of firepower, the limited elevation and depression of the main gun made them easy targets in mountainous and urban terrain. In the 1980s, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant began designing prototypes for the new concept, early prototypes being Object 781, Object 782 and Object 787. It was evident that a new vehicle concept was needed. The main requirements for this new machine was that it possessed immense firepower, a high angle of gun fire, and the protection equivalent to that of an MBT. An additional requirement that was meant to supplement the latter was enhanced protection from close range hand-held RPGs.

The need for a vehicle with all these requirements became even more evident during the First Chechen War. When using conventional armor during urban engagements, Russian forces suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment. While these losses cannot be entirely blamed on technology, it became clear that a dedicated anti-personnel fighting vehicle would provide valuable assistance in an urban environment. Self-propelled anti-aircraft (AA) guns were pressed as a temporary solution in Chechnya. However, these vehicles were not well-armored and do not possess the same obstacle-clearing capability as an MBT.

There have been several different prototype designs of a tank support fighting vehicle. For instance, the Object 193A and the Object 745. A mock-up of the Object 199 was shown for the first time in public during the summer of 2000. This vehicle was slightly different from the current design, being armed with only a single 2A42 30 mm gun and with four 9M133 Kornet missiles located on one side of the turret. The production model of the BMPT was introduced in 2002 which featured the twin 30 mm autocannons, the two independent 30 mm automatic grenade launchers, and the four Ataka missile launchers.

Mission

When used in urban terrain, each main battle tank is deployed with two BMPTs. Outside of urban warfare that ratio is reversed with one BMPT protecting two main battle tanks. This results from the complexity of fighting in urban terrain and the need for a versatile anti-personnel platform that can engage multiple targets at once and on different height levels. The introduction of such a vehicle makes urban fighting less stressful on MBTs and can relieve them of some of the workload so that they can concentrate on their main objective of engaging other MBT and hardened targets. The BMPT's armor protection is equal to that of an MBT and its powerful armaments allow it to engage virtually every enemy formation while operating in a common battle formation. Due to the multiple weapons systems found on the BMPT, this vehicle is able to fire at multiple targets simultaneously. These features significantly help increase the combat effectiveness of tank units and decrease their losses from enemy close-combat assets.


So this is all well and good a nice multirole for the fighting vehicle, but this fighting bit whats it got (again taken from Wikipedia)



Anti-tank guided weapons

The Terminator has four Ataka ATGM launchers as a set of primary armaments to defeat enemy tanks and infantry. Only one missile is carried for each of the launchers without any additional ones stowed away. Two ATGM launchers are located on each side of the turret and traverse a complete 360° in sync with the turret. These launchers have an elevation of up to +25°; the minimum elevation is −5°. Laser beam riding SACLOS is the method of guidance used by the Terminator's ATGMs. The 9M120 Ataka missile has multiple variants including: multiple anti-tank variants, an anti-personnel variant, and an anti-aircraft variant. The two former categories are the variants mostly used by the BMPT. The original 9M120 Ataka missile is 130 mm in diameter and features a tandem warhead capable of defeating explosive reactive armor (ERA). The tandem warhead penetrates 800 mm of Rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) behind ERA with later variants capable of penetrating 950 mm of RHA after ERA. The anti-personnel variant (9M120F) contains a thermobaric warhead and yields a blast effect of 9.5 kg in TNT equivalence. This missile's average speed for all variants is 400 m/s when reaching a target located 5.8 km from the launcher for a flight time of 14.5 seconds. The 9M120 has an operational range of up to 6 km[d] and travels at a supersonic speed of 550 m/s.

Autocannons

The BMPT has an additional set of primary armaments consisting of two 30 mm 2A42 autocannons. A total of 850 rounds of ready use ammunition can be carried. These twin autocannons have a combined fire rate of 600 rounds per minute. Traversal of the autocannons is in sync with the turret and it can elevate between −5° and +45°. The twin 2A42s are stabilized in the vertical and horizontal planes. One of the guns fires armor-piercing rounds while the other fires anti-personnel rounds. A wide range of ammunition is used by the 2A42 autocannon and they include: High Explosive-Tracer (HE-T), Armor-piercing discarding sabot (APDS), High Explosive Fragmentation (HE-FRAG) and Armor-Piercing-Tracer (AP-T). These rounds have effective ranges between 2,500 m and 4,000 m depending on the variant. The muzzle velocity of the projectiles is 960 m/s. A 7.62 mm PKTM machine gun is mounted coaxially with the main armament and holds 2,000 rounds.

Grenade launchers

An AG-17D grenade launcher is located on each side of the BMPT; operated by one crew member. A total of 600 rounds of 30 mm grenades are carried for both grenade launchers. There is no reloading for the grenade launchers because each one holds 300 rounds in a single belt. Only vertical stabilization is provided for the grenade launchers. The horizontal angles that the AG-17Ds can cover are from 5° (to the left) to 27° (to the right) for the right grenade launcher and from 27° (to the left) and 5° (to the right) for the left grenade launcher. The maximum vertical elevation is +20° and the minimum is −5.5°. The muzzle velocity is 185 m/s and the fire rate is 420–480 rds/min. An effective range of 1,700 m is provided while the kill radius of the 30 mm grenades is seven meters. Automatic grenade launcher operators are equipped with the "Agat-MR" day/night independent stabilized sights.


So as you can see it really does pack quite the punch, unfortunately no phased plasma rifles in the 40 watt range.


So far only one country has taken the Terminator into its arsenal but a couple more are looking into it those being Algeria, Azerbaijan and Peru. I also find it rather sad that Russia will not be taking the vehicle on board as its based on a chassis' from the Soviet era.


Here are some interesting videos covering the Terminator


[youtube]oP2aaJxpgbg[/youtube]

[youtube]L429oFGn55c[/youtube]
Here is a photo of the 2009 scheme from the Russian Arms expo, and the version ill be modelling and painting, simply to get the anti-mine stuff on the front.



Well thanks for reading I hope you learned something, come back soon for some box and sprue shots (and man there are a lot of sprues).

Take care
Brian.

[schweinhund227]

Nice machine......

Thanks for sharing !

[robertw]

I wonder if this went through the same development hell the Bradley went through. I can just imagine it.

"Sir it is equipped with a 30mm canon" "excellent... can you put 2 on it?" "Umm excuse me sir...?" "2 is better than one."

"Sir it is now equipped with 2 30mm canons" "Comrade, vodka all around. But... could you put grenade launchers on it?" "... umm... sir... I'll do what I can"

"sir, it now has grenade launchers..." "fantastic, I believe a promotion is in order." "Thank you si" "howeverr." "...." "could you put rocket launchers on it?" "Sure sir, absolutely. .."

[Yevgeny]

I wonder if this went through the same development hell the Bradley went through. I can just imagine it.

"Sir it is equipped with a 30mm canon" "excellent... can you put 2 on it?" "Umm excuse me sir...?" "2 is better than one."

"Sir it is now equipped with 2 30mm canons" "Comrade, vodka all around. But... could you put grenade launchers on it?" "... umm... sir... I'll do what I can"

"sir, it now has grenade launchers..." "fantastic, I believe a promotion is in order." "Thank you si" "howeverr." "...." "could you put rocket launchers on it?" "Sure sir, absolutely. .."

You forgot machine gun

Definately on my wish list.
Looking forward to see the build

[countzero99uk]

So I finally got around to taking some shots of the contents of the box. Its an amazing amount of stuff that you get inside and the box is full to the brim





I have taken shots of all the sprues and put them in a photobucket directory here > http://s94.photobucket.com/user/count_z ... ue%20Shots

I wasn't sure about overloading my post with loads of shots of sprues with little text. This is only my 2nd 1/35 kit so im not sure what a lot of the bits are.

The quality of the parts is almost perfect, my only complaint is my upper hull seems to have a slight bend in it, im hoping this doesn't cause too much of an issue when it comes to assembly.

Anyway I hope to have some shots by the weekend of it being assembled and such

Take care out there, hope your enjoying this and thanks for looking
Brian.

[countzero99uk]

Right well ive actually started putting glue to plastic but before I show you the wheels this is the bend that I have on my upper hull, im not sure how to fix it, or if I should contact Meng customer services.

If its together at the front


If its together at the back.


If anyone can offer any suggestions as to either fix it or what I should do.

And here we are the wheels



Put together using Tamiya Extra Thin, take a little to dry but it does the job.

[JediBoer]

If its together at the front


If its together at the back.

Oh no! That is no good! Was the kit left out in the sun?

[countzero99uk]

Its how it came out the box. should I contact meng?

[schweinhund227]

Stitch glue it !

If you hold it down at one end and Tack glue it along the edge... using C.A. and
after each dot has Harden.. you keep stitching the seam...
you should be able to join it all no problems...

it must have been put in the box while still warm ?

If the part in question can be added now (out of sequence) and not impede on the rest of the construction
then you are ok!

[countzero99uk]

No it wont be going together until its all painted bugger, well these things are sent to try us.

[schweinhund227]

All Painted ??? Nah ! really ?

is there an Interior ? if not..! I don't see why you can't attach the upper hull as soon as the suspension is done ?
Most AFV's are built the same...

of course the instruction might show it near the end but... I bet it can !

Show us the instruction sheet ! if you don't mind?

cuz MENG might not replace it !!! so you will have to get inventive !!!

[countzero99uk]

The instructions don't scan easily its a massive booklet, MarkVerploeg is doing the same build so ive asked him his opinion on it. If its all ok I will just stitch it as suggested. Now you say CA glue rather than plastic glue, is there a reason for this?

Thanks

[schweinhund227]

stitching.... is a mere speck of glue to tack the part in place.... ( a dot ) Then.... when dried. You push down and move to the next section
and level out the seam and tack it down again.... and move along like that... once all secured !
you can come back and flood the seem with Tamiya Thin cement if you want to ?

Then Sand everything smooth as required.....

The Stitching is only used to bring the Rounded (warped) part back to its intended shape !
Using the Stronger and Straighter part as a Guide or Straight edge.

Don't flood the parts with C.A. just little tiny dots....
similar to what you see in the picture....



MAKE SURE !!! you have no other work needed inside or underneath the upper hull before proceeding !
if you do ?

Later mate and
Happy modeling !

[countzero99uk]

Thanks for the advice

[MarkVerploeg]

Now i see what you mean by a bend hull
Mine didn't have that
And Norm is right you can glue the parts together before painting
But with this one i thought it would be easier but that is just my way of working
But i think Norm's advuce is the best option
And if you don't glue on the side skirts you can still reach the wheels

[robertw]

Think you gotta miss mold there. I have the same kit and took a look at it and mine is fine. I'd listen to Norm. He definitely knows what he's talking about.

[countzero99uk]

Thanks for the advice ive also emailed Meng with some photos so ill see what they come back with you never know.

[countzero99uk]

Lack of action leads to results

Well ive not been able to do anything for the past month on this build for one reason and another. I was planning on starting it up again this week to at least get the vehicle finished in assembly by the end of the build but this morning i got a message from Meng, there going to send me a new upper hull So its a waiting game now. Dont know how long it will take, but yay.

[MarkVerploeg]

Good thing they do
And good they have something like customer care
I tried that with dragon but i got the reply that it was inpossible that a entire sprue was missing
And hopefully you get it in time
But you can do the turret till then ( if you haven't done that already)

[countzero99uk]

Na been too ill one way and another hope to get back to the workbench soon.

[eightfooticeman]

I know oh to well about feeling under the weather, I hope your feeling better. Just a reminder, this Sig is closing at the end of this month. I hope you make it sir.

[countzero99uk]

Still no sign of my upper hull replacement so Was fun whilst it went ahead.

This build will be finished at some point.

[countzero99uk]

Quick update, hey its only 2 years on, the hull did arrived, however i've been rather ill, hope to make a start back on this as soon as i feel up to it.

Stay tuned.

[SergioSolo]

Kudos to you for continuing with this project! Get well