Battlegroup Northag BTR 60 "Bloody Tricky Resin???"

Box has arrived. Lock down slippers and vaguely interested cat

So I've spent a chunk of my hobby time over the last couple days assembling the models on my Soviet starter army for Battlegroup Northag from Plastic Soldier Company. The army arrived two days ago, so I've had some rather nice lunchtime sessions in the garden armed with a craft knife cleaning up the vehicles.

First thing that needs to said is that contrary to the name, these are NOT hard plastic. They're in a grey plastic \ resin which PSC are calling "Ultracast". To the uninitiated eye like mine this seems very similar to Warlord's new resin. This has some pro's and cons. For the gamer it is lightweight and holds detail quite well. Allegedly it takes paint without undercoat too, but I'm nothing if not a rebel so I'm going to undercoat mine - if only to keep Halfords in business in these hard times. Apparently it also resists chipping and paint rubbing off - the bane of any models in this scale. It sticks together with superglue - though in my case I must admit some bits took quite a time to cure. It is also a bit flexible. I know some people are worried about bendy barrels but mine seemed mostly ok and straightened out where needed with a quick hot water bath, and I suspect you will really have to try to actually snap one of these gun barrels. The other pro on this material is that it doesn't have the massive up front costs injection moulding carries with it, which I'm guessing is one of the reasons it is becoming more common.

Now the cons. I hated cleaning mould lines and flash on these models. My previous experience of similar - ie Warlord resin on Blood Red Skies models, was relatively pain free. They were mostly flash free, and where there was flash and mould lines these were on smooth and regular surfaces so could be carved off with a sharp Xacto. This stuff doesn't like scraping or filing - it just frays, so the best way to deal with it is to carve the flash away with a knife. The PSC BTR60 is a collection of bloody awkward shapes with mould lines in about the most inconvenient places - ie around the top of the wheels and around the turret at the mid point. It was made worse by there being rather a lot of flash between the wheels too on some of them - I got the impression PSC were rushing these through and QC may have taken second place to quantity. The turrets on the BTRs and BRDMs were equally frustrating due to the shape and position of the mould line -  ie half way down the conical turret sides. After cleaning 88 wheels and 12 turrets I was ready to stab someone - thankfully Social Distancing saved me. In fairness I have had the same problem with metal conical turrets but they seemed easier to fix.

The actual models seem reasonable. Proportions are good, detail is good, and parts fit is mostly excellent. There are a couple of models which have sink holes - I assume where the resin has contracted for some reason, but I would guess these will not be that obvious once painted (fingers crossed). The BTR 60 is a four part model - hull, turret and two sets of wheels (4 each). I wasn't sure if these were supposed to fit a certain way round - one slot on the hull is slightly different to the others and there was a corresponding tooth on the wheel frame, but they did fit either way around. In practice I didn't have enough of the corresponding wheels to be picky and once assembled I am unable to tell which had been assembled the "right" way anyway.

The T64s went together smoothly and are rather nice - again 4 parts, hull, turret and 2 track units, and the BRDMs were similarly straightforward.

Overall I am happy with them. I would much have preferred the hard plastic that PSC are famous for, but on the whole they are nice models. IF however I decide to do another Infantry Company, they will be in BMPs so I don't have to face those bloody wheels again. I have not looked at the infantry beyond a quick glance so I will deal with them later - I'm praying they are relatively flash free.

No pics as yet - everything is out in the garden drying off from the undercoat, but I will do a follow up post "soon" once the paint is on.

Cheers