1/35 BTR-25 Mara

[Frank3k]

Back in late June, I bought three Panda Russian armor kits from a Sprue Bros. lightning deal. They were priced well over 1/2 off each.

One of the kits is the 1/35 Kurganets-25 BTR Object 693 - it's mid sized, compared to the other two kits in the same range ( T-15 Armata  and VPK-7289 Bumerang APC), which are huge.
These can be considered "what-if"  designs - since the real tanks are unlikely to be produced in quantity; at least not like the prototypes.



The Panda kit is nicely detailed and goes together quite well, unlike the sadistic kit design common to HobbyBoss, Bronco and Gecko (fuck you Gecko! Yes, I'm still salty about their M76). The track links are in three parts and snap together - which is nice - but for this build, we aren't using tracks...

Story sent me an old Dragon BTR-70 kit a couple of years ago. It had a fraught journey to Los Angeles; the package was stolen - probably from the mailman's cart - and the thief opened the box, saw nothing of value (to them) and tossed the box into the gutter. The mailman found it the next day and delivered it, with all the parts intact.
I wanted to build the BTR-70, but decided to make it a parts donor for this build. I cut out the wheel wells from the BTR-70 and for the first attempt, I checked to see how they looked placed against the Object 693 hull. Unfortunately, the tires would hit the large armored boxed on the sides.
Next, I cut openings into the Object 693's lower hull and fit the wheel wells. I screwed up the first cut and had to patch the gaps, but the other 7 fit reasonably well:



The tires are shiny because the old Dragon vinyl is decomposing. I was tempted to CAD and 3D print new tires to fit the Dragon rims, but timing and logistics got in the way (for now), so I have BTR-82 resin wheels on the way.

I put the upper hull onto the lower hull and taped the side armor on, and the wheels can turn without hitting the side skirts. The lower hull clearance is about the same as with the kit's track wheels in place, so that worked out. I thought about filling in all the now unused mounting holes for the suspension arms, drive and return wheels but most are invisible under the side armor or hidden by the wheels. I'll cover up what's visible.

I was going to make the four front tires turn in unison (like the Dragon kit) but it wasn't worth the effort. As of this afternoon, I have the upper and lower hulls joined and the vehicle should be ready for a primer coat in 2-3 days.

As for a backstory - the Ukrainians used the Russian design to make an ECM/Anti-drone/night hunter vehicle and called it the Mara; In Ukrainian mythology, Mara is a pre-Christian entity that appears like a bad dream to confuse minds.  It is closely related to mare in English (as in nightmare).

[Buzzbomb]

Like the sound of this.

Great research on the nickname to get such a fitting Ukrainian name

[Old Wombat]

[raafif]

Looks like a great project

The tires are shiny because the old Dragon vinyl is decomposing. I was tempted to CAD and 3D print new tires to fit the Dragon rims, but timing and logistics got in the way (for now), so I have BTR-82 resin wheels on the way.

Excellent choice.  From my experience, those Dragon (& Revell) tires will continue to leak oil then dry out & crack into several pieces !

[Frank3k]

The tires aren't sticky (yet) but they're obviously on their way out. They don't look like modern vehicle tires, either.

This kit is moving along pretty quickly. Here's were it was early this after noon. The side armor blocks are just pressed together and taped on; they can't go on permanently until the wheels are in:



The PE for this kit is well designed and was a breeze to fold and apply:



I forgot to add the clear periscopes when I glued the hull together, so I cut them in half and squeezed the upper half in place.

Tomorrow I'll work on the turret; it may be a variant of the Bradly AFV vehicle or some similar combination.

[Buzzbomb]

With wheels that layout of armour blocks make it different. :thumbsup:

Although first thought through the head was the Roman Testudo formation with the wheels standing in for feet 

[Old Wombat]

Looks very different with wheels & those big skirts but rather cool, too!

Tomorrow I'll work on the turret; it may be a variant of the Bradly AFV vehicle or some similar combination.

Replace the TOW with radar for anti-drone op's?

[Frank3k]

I may try some sort of Trophy or other APS system for anti-drone protection.

I tried a Bradley turret and it just didn't look right - maybe because it's an early Bradley. I did find a Trumpeter M242 25mm Bushmaster fluted barrel that looks good, though. I added some parts to the rear of the gun to replicate the back of the Bushmaster:



I don't want to use the Russian sensor? box on the side of the turret, so I tried the missile launcher from the Border "Apocalypse" tank - in this case, they would launch small drones - but it's too ungainly:



I'm working on some other addons now.

[Claymore]

 :smiley :

[apophenia]

...
I don't want to use the Russian sensor? box on the side of the turret, so I tried the missile launcher from the Border "Apocalypse" tank - in this case, they would launch small drones - but it's too ungainly...

A pity that ... it is a very cool idea.

[Story]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-20-2023/j7VcfC.mp4

[Frank3k]

Finally got the tires in, and I believe that they may be a minor improvement over the kit's melt-y vinyl:



I also finally got my "new" (bought in June) printer set up yesterday. It's a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K. The first print was a series of exposure calibration plates, and the second print (today) was the following parts:



I didn't fill up the build plate as I usually do, and only printed at 50um but everything printed perfectly, so I have spares.  Top to bottom are the two piece mounts for the drone launcher altitude arms (I enlarged the drive section of the Iron Fist mounts, slightly modified), the drone canisters (I figure two drones per box, so 8 total per launcher), the drone launcher boxes, the replacement imager box for the turret, the longer range? Iron Fist radars and sensors, the Iron Fist launchers (and more radars) and the base for the Iron Fist, each with two radars.

I don't have the dimensions for the actual device, so I scaled them based on some grenade launcher tubes. My interpretation is inspired on this version from Elbit Systems:



The tubes don't move, but I can cut them out to reposition.

Here are the parts, quickly assembled:



A detail of the imager for the turret. The original box (may be a radar?) is at the upper left:



The top row are a high powered UV laser and a visible/thermal telescope. In between and below is a high powered IR laser. The small box to the right is a proximity radar. The lasers can be used to blind optical systems (organic or hardware) or guide the 25mm to shoot down drones.

Here's the rough placement on the BTR-25:





I'm modifying the corners to that one pair of Iron Fist radars points straight out to the let and right of the vehicle and the other pair points forward and back. The larger radars in front and back will probably be moved.
Despite all the real estate, there's no obvious spot to put the drone launcher that doesn't interfere with something. I may add a platform that extends out from the vehicle to the rear (over the hatch) or figure out a way of adding it to the top of the gun turret. The drones are guided, so accurate pointing of the launchers doesn't matter much.

I still need to add the Mk. 19 grenade launcher for the TC.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Not having the wheels in view in the above images gives the vehicle a bit of a 'Hover Tank'/anti-grav vehicle look to me.  All of the self-protection devices look great! 

[Old Wombat]

Finally got the tires in, and I believe that they may be a minor improvement over the kit's melt-y vinyl:

Definitely a very minor improvement, you may have been better off sticking with the originals. 



 

[Buzzbomb]

3D stuff looks the business and right in the zone for what it should look like.

Wheels look pretty cool to me.
It could be said that given what is actually visible, an option may be to cut in half and save a couple of wheels for another job 

[raafif]

Finally got the tires in, and I believe that they may be a minor improvement over the kit's melt-y vinyl:

Definitely a very minor improvement, you may have been better off sticking with the originals. 
 

From my experience with Dragon tires if you're going to trash the model after a while stick with the Dragon ones --- but if you're going to keep it use the resin ones.

[Dr. YoKai]

Those tires do look like they will be perfect for this build. The Iron Fist gadgets would look good as turrets for a Traveller style starship.

I think this is going to look terrific when finished.

[Frank3k]

Thanks, Craig! One thing about a 3D printer is that I can make more copies of useful parts whenever I want.

Slowly making progress. I cobbled together a Mk.19 from several sources, only to discover that despite the vast tracts of... armor, there's no good spot on the tank for it. It's either in the way of the driver and TC periscopes or it's in the way of the main gun... so I'll save it for a future build.

I painted the tires and put a coat of NATO black on the vehicle. The patchy black is intentional. I also started some basic digital camo on the turret:



The tires are just pressed on and not aligned. The hubs/wheels are in 4BO:



The yellowish patches on the turret are tape. There's more camo to come, although the main vehicle will have less extensive camo.

It looks pretty nice without the side armor. More like an APC and less like a block of cheese.

[Old Wombat]

But less protected, more vulnerable! 

[apophenia]

But less protected, more vulnerable! 

Yeah. And that 'block of cheese' effect makes this bruiser of a vehicle look even more of a beast! 

[Kerick]

This is looking better all the time!

[Frank3k]

I spent a lot of time (but surprisingly, not tedious) masking this beast, The dark gray is NATO black and the green is a mix of NATO green and 4BO - all three are in ATOM acrylics (great paints!) I know that digital camo works well at adding some visual confusion; my articulated tank blended in well with the trees, even though the colors didn't quite match. Since the BTR-25 is basically a crepuscular and nighttime hunter, I want it to look like part of a dark treeline from a distance:



The drone launcher is just temporarily tacked on, but this may be the final position:
 


I still have a fair number of bits to add, then some detail painting.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Looking good! 

[Old Wombat]

Yeah! That looks excellent! 

[Buzzbomb]

Oh yeah, that is great