I got the new Meng Pantsir S-1 on Thursday and started building yesterday. I am almost done the chassis and it has gone together very well. Only 2 things of note so far. The exhaust is left open for some reason so I filled it and shaped and sanded it to form. Looks much better and I’m sure it would have been very noticeable.
What a dream kit it is.
The top deck of the chassis is a very tight fit and I had to use a fair amount of pressure to get it installed. This was a tricky job as I didn’t want to destroy the axles and suspension. So be aware it will take some work.
There are 6 schemes in it and 3 different versions. I’m doing the Syrian one. If you would like more I will do little blurbs as I find things and then being totally backward I’ll talk about the kit in general.
UPDATE 7/8/ 2019 – Meng Pantsir Part 2
So far so good. The chassis is painted but I don’t have pictures yet. Meanwhile working on the cab. It needs paint before I can continue. If you look at the inside front of the cab you can see some of the punch marks. Luckily this is hidden so did not fill. The cab roof, on the other hand, had 6 big marks. Filled with disks and some filler. When I get the cab painted Meng has provided all the instrument decals as separate. This I really like as its easier to place than a sheet.
The Crew Cabin is all beveled butt joints which I dislike but that’s a personal preference. The Dspaie glue holder provides a nice weight to hold parts together. When you make the Crew Cab you will need to decide which version of the vehicle you are doing as the scheme A, B, and C need some holes drilled in the one wall. More to come.
UPDATE 7/15/ 2019 – Meng Pantsir Part 3
Working on the turret while I wait to get some paint for the cab and for the tan paint scheme I will do. All the modules are dry fitted. I usually mark the instructions if there are options but have not done that this time and almost paid for it. I glued the wrong roof onto the turret and was trying to figure out why there was a gap. I finally realized I needed a different roof. I applied more glue and waited a bit and then pushed it off from the bottom. So lucky it came out okay. New roof in and it looks better.
Places I had to fill in for this version were filled with plastic slat and rod and a bit of putty. The ladders for the power pack are very fragile and fiddly. I’ll take pics when I have them done. Be really careful in following the instructions that you are using the right parts. This is one thing Takom does I like a lot. They repeat steps with each version rather than mix everything together. Rubber tires are temporary until I can find the Miniarm resin wheels that are coming out.
UPDATE 7/8/ 2019 – Meng Pantsir Part 2
Another short update on the Meng Pantsir. Not much modeling over the past couple of weeks. But cab built, just external stuff to do. The instruments are all individual decals which are awesome. Some of the smaller ones did not adhere well. One thing I think Meng could have done better is to make the one instrument a single decal in a doughnut shape. Instead, there are 4 small decals at each cardinal point of the instrument and they are hard to properly place.
A small disk on each side window which is oblong is hard to paint. I don’t know what they’re for and I didn’t manage to paint them very well. I used Tamiya XF-25 Light Sea Grey as it looked to my eye to be a good match for the few pictures I have seen of this truck. No seat belts are given for the 3 seats but that seems to be par for the course. Everything fit very well but unless the doors are open you won’t see a whole lot. Minimal weathering was carried out.
I need to wrap the gun barrels in plastic and then mask a couple of spots and the guns will be able to be snapped into place. Then when I paint the modules the guns will stay black. Now the instructions say they should be gunmetal. I have not seen an actual gunmetal barrel ever I don’t think. All gun barrels seem to be a semi-gloss black to flat black and so I will go with that. Sorry for the quality of the pics.
UPDATE 7/8/ 2019 – Meng Pantsir Part 3
Another short update on the Meng Pantsir. Not much modeling over the past couple of weeks. But cab built, just external stuff to do. The instruments are all individual decals which are awesome in the black instrument cluster. Also, some of the smaller ones did not adhere well.
One thing I think Meng could have done better is to make the one instrument a single decal in a doughnut shape. Instead, there are 4 small decals at each cardinal point of the instrument and they are hard to properly place. A small disk on each side window which is oblong is hard to paint. I don’t know what they’re for and I didn’t manage to paint them very well. I used Tamiya XF-25 Light Sea Grey as it looked to my eye to be a good match for the few pictures I have seen of this truck.
No seat belts are given for the 3 seats but that seems to be par for the course. Everything fit very well but unless the doors are open you won’t see a whole lot. Minimal weathering was carried out. I need to wrap the gun barrels in plastic and then mask a couple of spots and the guns will be able to be snapped into place. Then when I paint the modules the guns will stay black. Now the instructions say they should be gunmetal. I have not seen an actual gunmetal barrel ever I don’t think. All gun barrels seem to be a semi-gloss black to flat black and so I will go with that. Sorry for the quality of the pics.
UPDATE 8/19/ 2019 – Meng Pantsir Part 4
I’m almost done the Meng Pantsir. All in all, it was a very nice kit and a joy to put together. You do have to be careful and watch the instructions though as there are different configurations based on the scheme you want to build. They should be easy enough but I got caught a couple of times when not paying attention. I think the biggest problem or weakness I have found is in the missile launcher pivot points. They are very flimsy and I managed to break one-off. No probs though,
I cleaned up the joint, drilled it out and installed a brass pin. One thing to be aware of, when you install the guns, they are locked in place and it won’t be an easy thing to pop them back off. I think this is the last bit of the review as I have gone over everything in previous posts. Again I am thrilled with the kit and the build. It is big and it is heavy as there is a lot of plastic. I highly recommend the kit. It was paid for by me. Just a couple of more small parts and a light weathering and I will consider it finished.
Finished photos coming soon…
