I like the UAZ-469 but there were no
good models of it until Trumpeter released one. So instead, I collected three Trumpeter BJ212 kits (which are pretty cheap); the BJ212 was a slightly modified UAZ-469. It's a quaint little vehicle and oob looks... meh.
I also started a
Military Wheels UAZ-469; it's a rough, primitive kit that required a lot of scratchbuilding. I was almost at the paint stage when the Trumpeter UAZ-469 came out.
This is one of the
Trumpeter BJ212 kits made into a beefier off-road vehicle by using some of the MW UAZ-469 parts. The Trumpeter BJ212 is pretty nice for a 20 year old kit. In this picture, the front fender is from the UAZ-469; the original BJ1212 fender looks like it would crumple if it hit a fly. I also added a PE mesh to the cabin floor:
Here it is so far; some of the parts are loose or missing, but it's almost ready for weathering.
The original tires were pretty underwhelming, so I substituted the beefier tires from the UAZ-469 kit and they fit well. The MW wheels/rims were just somewhat circular lumps of plastic, so I went with the Trumpeter parts. I added the spare from the MW kit to the hood, Land Rover style. The colors look like those from the Ukrainian flag, but that's unintentional; I wanted the yellow to be more orange and the blue darker... but I'm not repainting:
I removed the PE from the floor and it left a nice pattern. The antenna mount may be from the ever bountiful AFV Club M151 remote weapons station. I replaced the rear bench seat with two seats from an Italeri HMMWV. Both seats and the front seats are loose in this picture:
I replaced the rear fender bumpers with brass strips that I cut from a PE set frame - they were just the right width:
I added two small handles to manually move the windshield wipers, if needed. They're made from sprue attachment points from another kit:
I added a PE mesh in front of the radiator. The side mirror is another gift from the AFV Club M151:
Next up is gluing down the loose bits, adding a few missing parts and start weathering.
