Carve yourself a BMP-2

OK - slightly exaggerated title, but as you will see in this post there is an element of truth in it.

Recently I built an ACE Models BMP-2 that came in a box looking like this:

which is one of the earlier production models of the ACE BMP-2.  During the build I took a few photos - so it's not really a Work-In-Progress or tutorial - just a history of how it went together along with a growing pile of off-cuts.

Before I jump into this I have to make a statement up-front.  I have to say that despite ACE kits kind of doing my head in - I actually really like them.  I guess its a love-hate relationship.  Sure - they can be a bit of a headache to build - but I think they end up looking lovely and in my opinion - possibly the best examples you can get (along with a great range - even in most of them are out of production).  So - moving on...

First up - the sprues.  Here is all three of them:

Followed by some close up's of each individual sprue:

They probably don't look that bad from that distance!

This is a close-up of the wheels, and three chassis peices cut from the sprues.  You start to get an idea of what you need to do.

Once those peices were cleaned up this is the pile of off-cuts (for lack of a better word) I was left with:

The pile starts to grow and you get an idea of the cleaning required on the hull sides (sponsons?)

Hull (top and bottom), sides and turret all cleaned up - pile detris pile:

Starting to assemble the tracks:

Power train wheels - a reall pain as there are no guides to match them up - so I do it by eye - sometimes it works...

The detris pile continues to grow as the kits starts to come together:

I was hoping to get away without having to put on the top tracks - from this photo you will see why:

Once I decided that I couldn't get away with it I thought I might get away with just cleaning the side you'd actually see.  Once I cleaned that and fitted it I realised I'd cleaned the wrong side so had to clean them both anyway!

Here is the final picture of the completed BMP-2 with the final detris/off-cuts pile:

100% honestly that pile came from just this 1 kit.  Pretty impressive in my opinion... but the kit looks pretty good.

Just out of interest - here is a comparison photo between the S&S Models BMP-2 and the completed ACE Models BMP-2.

So that's it for now.

Thanks

Richard