# Vision's BA-64B Armoured Car



## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Just picked this up from my LHS: Vision Models' 1/35 Soviet BA-64B Armoured Car. 









Never heard of this Taiwanese company, but it's a nice kit on par with a Dragon kit. Finely moulded in a medium olive styrene comprised of about 68 parts with decals for seven versions from 1943 through 1945. The tires are separate from the rims, but are in the same olive styrene rather than black vinyl like many companies use. The kit is from 2009 and comes in a sturdy corrugated box with a cardstock cover. The cover art is beautiful, depicting a vehicle of the 1st Guards Mechanised Corps in Vienna, Austria, April 1945 (according to the decal guide). No figures are included, but a friend of mine at IPMS Ottawa gave me the figures from his Soviet Aerosan RF-8 / GAZ-98 Snowmobile by Trumpeter, which I'm modifying to fit. I'll be using the markings for an unidentified armoured unit in Ukraine during the winter of '43-44.


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

I built the Miniart reboxing of this kit; it was a very enjoyable build! You can go nuts detailing it. The Miniart reboxing included figures.

Here's my build. I overdid the dust/weathering.



























This is one of the figures that comes with the Miniart version:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The MiniArt kit has NOTHING in common with the Vision kit. They are 100% different aside from being the same subject.

Both kits are a lot better than the old AER/Tom/Eastern Express kit, or the even older Tonda Vacuuform conversion for the old Tamiya GAZ Jeep


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

djnick66 said:


> The MiniArt kit has NOTHING in common with the Vision kit. They are 100% different aside from being the same subject.
> 
> Both kits are a lot better than the old AER/Tom/Eastern Express kit, or the even older Tonda Vacuuform conversion for the old Tamiya GAZ Jeep


The sprues and boxtop on my Minart BA-64 said Vision Models, as well as Miniart.










Armorama review:
Armorama :: MiniArt Ltd: A BA-64 Armored Car in 1/35th Scale


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Frank2056 said:


> The sprues and boxtop on my Minart BA-64 said Vision Models, as well as Miniart.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Even the box art is the exact same painting with the background edited out. Seems pretty conclusive to me.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Cool thanks for pointing that out. I have never seen Vision and MiniArt rebox anything. Vision inst the most common company so that makes sense. ALthough now MiniArt has partnered with Bronco.


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

Re-reading the reviews, yes, the axle is smaller than the holes in the wheels, but that was easy to fix. There are plenty of walk-arounds on the web, so adding details to the interior was easy and fun. It was one of those kits that is so enjoyable that you want to build again.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Been doing some research on the Net for the interior and I've got a lot to add. There are bins on the inside of each door, a battery rack and fuel tank and a firewall with pedals, as well as ammo racks and other assorted paraphernalia.

I've also picked up a set of Tristar Russian Tank Crew to pose with it as opposed to the snowmobile crew I'd originally considered, as There would have been way too much work to do the figure conversion. The Tristar set is beautiuful, with multi-piece padded tanker helmets and a very nice female figure which does _*NOT*_ look like the stereotypical babushka in uniform.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well, I've started assembling some of the Tristar figures. They're pretty well sculpted, but the fit is a little shaky with gaps between body parts, The figures are a little shorter than most other modern 1/35 scale figures, but that's realistic because people differ in height The multi-piece tanker helmets are touchy to assemble but look very good when done. The 7 pistol holsters included in the kit are of two or three different types and are the only items of gear supplied. The female figure is quite attractive, even cute, but quite diminutive - about 5'0" (1.5m) and 110 lbs (50kg) soaking wet - not quite the hulking female Russian tractor driver of popular Western imagination. The figures I've chosen for this model are the driver figure with his arms repositioned, sitting on the hood of the armoured car and the standing bareheaded figure holding his helmet, chatting up the female soldier, who will be getting some nice Tamiya weapons and kit (PPSh with mag pouch and canteen).

Basically, the model will depict the BA-64B stopped during a non-combat period with the commander/MG gunner sitting on the hood and the driver outside the vehicle (which has an open door) talking to a pretty female soldier.

Lots of work to go scratch building the interior...:grin2:


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well, I found a couple of walk-arounds showing the interior. The first one is apparently a US collection. The thumbs don't show on the page, but clicking on them or the link below shows the image: http://maquettegarden.free.fr/Vehicules/BA 64/index.xml

The second is a Russian collection. This one has been repainted, and I think the black details should be olive like the rest of the exterior: SVSM Gallery :: Ba-64B, Lehn Collectible Automobiles, Moscow, Russia, by Yuri Pasholok


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