Building the Rooikat in 72 scale.

For a number of years, kits of SANDF armour were non-existent. The classified issue made details of SANDF equipment very difficult to obtain. With the end of the Bush War and the transformation in SA, info became more readily available. Nowadays, a few companies even specialise in kits of SANDF armour. All of this are great news for anyone interested in SANDF armour.

Aerografix has a fairly good name in the resin kit market and I was eager to built one of their kits. As it turned out my review might be a bit disappointing for some, but this should not discourage you to have SADF/SANDF armour in your collection.

What you get:

A very sturdy box is used to house all the resin bits. A great feature is a full colour photogragh of a completed model, on the box top. While the sturdy box will certainly ship well internationally, the photo of the model should be a good reference for any modeller not quite familiar in all the aspects of the Rooikat. The photo is a fair size, so one can easily make out even the minor details. Another great feature is all the resin bits are neatly packed in bubble wrap plastic. Parts comprises the hull, turret, smoke generators (8), main gun barrel, wheels(8), hubs(8), mirrors(2), piano wire (2 lengths) and a piece of stranded metal cable to resemble the steel cable normally seen on AFVs. The instruction sheet contains a bit of info on the subject, resin safety warning and a layout diagram - in all a bit better than the normal resin kit instructions. I was most impressed with the kit design, in particular the wheel arrangement.

The hubs are separate from the wheels, which make it very easy to airbrush and weather the tyres on its own, without any masking. The hubs are done separately and then glued onto the tyre. Excellent design and why other kit manufacturers do not follow this arrangement, is beyond me?

With only a few bits and easy construction, that build up in a accurate scale model of the life size AFV, it is the perfect weekend project. However, my project went back to first gear, upon closer inspection of the resin parts. I was amazed to find no less than 26 holes on the hull and turret. All of this despite the bubble wrap plastic - no resin chips were in these packets, so it must have been casted that way. There were even holes in the tow bar part on the side of the hull and a number of holes on the engine cover. Remember every detail is casted in, there are no small parts to attach! Which is actually a great feature, but why Aerografix did not make, at least the engine cover in Pe, I don't know. Also part of the front of the turret and the periscope had serious air bubbles. The barrel was skew, but this is normal with resin - nothing some hot water can't fix.