The kit compires of 162 dark green plastic parts that are very well moulded and detailed. Included are decals for three vehicles.

The breakdown of parts is standard and construction is standard for a kit of this type. And is broken down into thirtytwo construction steps and three painting guide. There are no problems with the general kit construction if you follow the construction steps. However watch out for the thinness of some of the parts in particular part Nos 27A, 36, 37, 51, 58, 73, 74. Which are so thin that even gently trying to clean up the parts I managed to break most of then, I strongly recommend using a thin razor saw to remove the parts from the sprue.

When fitting the tracks I prefer to remove the teeth form the drive sproket where the tracks curve around the wheel. With the MARDER. I found it necessary to remove the track tooth from the inside of the tracks to allow them to fit the drive wheel. It is also helpful if you add a single track link to the front and rear of the longer track links Nos 16. Otherwise the spacer pieces for the front and rear track nos17 will be to short to span the gap between the wheels

The only filler need was at the front and rear joints of the hull, the joints of the gun mantle ( is the GUN mounting a MANTLE on a MARDER ?). and the gun mounting support parts 34 & 35. When all the parts where cleaned up the model flew together.

The detail of the anti slip surface on the hull top very delicately reproduced, ( any ideas how to paint it so that it is the colour of the vehicle when viewed from above but black when seen head on ).

Watch out how you fit part29 & 26 if you mix then around you will need to fill in the location hole for the cam nets. And need to alter the cam nets to fit the hull ( guess you got it wrong). I chose to leave of the wing mirrors part 39, 40. As I am 100 % sure I would have knocked them off during painting.

The turret mounted MILAN system is fantastic, and I am sure will find its way onto other models or dioramas on its own. Its made up from six pieces. That are so delicate greta care must be taken not to break these parts when built up.

The decals and painting guide are for three vehicles painted in the new GERMAN CAMOUFLAGE SCHEME used by the BUNDESWHER, There is no foreign users of the MARDER that I know about.

Nor are there any markings for vehicle deployed under the UN, IFOR, SFOR, KFOR.

As the three paint schemes are identical, I decided to prime my model in HALFORDS GLOSS BLACK , masked off the black pattern, then applied the red brown colour masked this off and finished with dark green. The model was then given a coat of gloss varnish and the decals for option one a vehicle of 5 KOMPANIE/ PzGrenBtl. 152. Schwarzenborn, 1997.

The model was them given a couple of washes of dark brown water colour, and some selected pastle chalks to represent shading. And dirt. Last a couple of very diluted coats of dark earth brown was added to the wheels , track guards, and lower hull. To represent mud splashes.

The finished model looks very bit like the real thing and is highly recommended to anyone interested in small scale military vehicles, even if this is not your usual tipple try it, and you will see what a brilliant kit it is. I really look forward to REVELL’s next release rummoured to be the SPAPANZER LUCHS.

I used to think that the ROCO MARDERS could not be surpassed but I was wrong.