Trumpeter has recently released another of their modern Russian armor kits – BTR-60PB. I was quite pleased when it was first announced and grabbed one when it has finally appeared on the shelves some days ago.

Of course I was wondering about the quality of the kit, Trumpeter has recently improved quite a bit, so the expectations were there. Overall I think this kit has not disappointed, as far as I can say without actually having tried to build it.

Molding is very nice with details well done, as you can see from the pictures. However it has to be said that Trumpeter definitely is not yet at the level of other producers (Dragon, Bronco or AFV) in term of the finesse of the molding. The kit thus might benefit from aftermarket photoetch set(s), which will undoubtedly appear. But even OOB, it might build into very nice piece.

Hull is made of two parts – upper and lower halves and there is quite a bit of interior provided. Suspension is also rather well detailed. Barrel is nicely molded using slide molding technology, so the muzzle is hollow. Tires are traditional vinyl ones with nice surface detail, but I would expect many will wait for resin aftermarket replacements. 

One thing that surprises me is that Trumpeter does not provide any indication on what version/theater of operations are the provided markings and camouflage representing. One seems to be traditional Russian green as seen on many Red Square army parades. The other, definitely the more attractive one, can be assumed to be from Afghanistan, where BTR-60PB saw extensive service.

There seems to be also selection of aftermarket marking sets available for modern Russian armor in Afghanistan from Bison decals, one of which I am planning to use with this kit.

You can find more pictures of the kit on the Trumpeter’s site here.

For more information on BTR-60 see Wikipedia here.