Today Paul takes 2 of Skytrex Post-war Russian vehicles for a spin.
I was very happy to put my hand up to review these 2 vehicles from Skytrex. This is my first experience with Skytrex and the Command Decision range. Overall, I am very impressed and these two vehicles were a joy to clean up and paint.
Firstly, the range. Skytrex sell a wide variety of post-war vehicles suitable for Team Yankee under the Command Decision brand. Unlike the Battlefront range, Command Decision have many speciality vehicles. In the Russian range alone, there are 43 vehicles.
BTR60 Forward Air Control Vehicle
The first vehicle I will review is the BTR60 R975 Forward Air Control vehicle . It can be found on Skytrex page here. This vehicle retails for £7.50.
It appears that Command Decision are transitioning from metal to resin based upon notes on their page. The vehicle I received was a light grey resin. The body and wheels were a one-piece cast. There were then just 2 metal components to attach. I didn’t glue the turret but given it doesn’t have a gun or machine gun, I probably should have. There was a small amount of resin to be cleaned up between the wheels. I really like this one piece cast. It is light and the detail is crisp. Most of all, I enjoyed not having to glue 8 wheels on.
On the downside, there is no room for customization here. There are no crew provided and no real way to attach any. Given this is a transport, that is not really a big deal. If his was a standard BTR60, then the command vehicle could be represented by BTR60 Command Staff Vehicle which Skytrex have in their range.
On the table, this forward observer vehicle can be used as an observer vehicle.
BTR80
Next up, the BTR80. This is not on the Skytrex website and I imagine it is a new vehicle in their range. Like the BTR 60, the BTR 80 is a hollow-body resin vehicle with a metal turret and moulded on wheels. Just like the other vehicle, this one is has deep detail and the casting is very crisp. The resin is a different consistency to the Battlefront resin and seems much smoother. Even up close, there are no, even minor surface imperfections.
I could not fault the vehicle for differences to photos I examined. The only obvious component missing when compared to pictures are the steps between the wheels. I cannot imagine these would be easy to mould on the models though.
Vehicles cleaned up and ready for painting.
Painting:
I have a confession to make. I am not one of those painters that wash models in detergent. Occasionally this means that paint doesn’t stick to models as well as it should. I am not sure why but these are some of those models that probably needed a wash. It could be the resin or it could be a release agent. I am not sure.
Having said that, these models were tons of fun to paint. I decided to undercoat these white, then base coat these in Soviet Green followed by Strong Tone wash. Once dry, I then repainted the panels in Soviet Green. Finally, I hit the edges with a very light drybrush of Green-Grey. This final step really worked to bring out the pronounced detail of the hatches, rear deck covers and the sharp lines.
I hope you enjoyed this review. If you haven’t before, check out Skytrex extensive WW2 and Team Yankee range. I know I will be for future projects.
