This is the second 1/50
scale vehicle released by Evil Bear and as such marks a significant
improvement in accuracy. Whilst the Panther CLV was well cast and
finely detailed, it had some significant dimensional issues that
detracted from an otherwise nice model. The Foxhound is visually
better proportioned and whilst there are still some detail errors and
omissions to be dealt with, the basic body is an excellent starting
point for a project.
Like the Panther, the
Foxhound kit has clearly been mastered using a CAD system and then 3d
printed to create a set of moulding masters. The kit is cast in a
grey resin for the main body parts and wheels, whilst white metal has
been used for the detail parts such as the suspension, hatches, ECM
boxes and armament. The body is cast in two main parts, the
'skateboard' chassis with attached engine compartment and then the
main crew compartment. This split mirrors the real vehicle. Both
parts are solid 'lumps' so there is no opportunity to add interior
detail. This is to be expected of a kit primarily aimed at the
wargames market, where robust construction is a priority and fine
detail is more of a hindrance that an advantage.
The wheels are well
cast with a good tread pattern. However, the wheel hubs are
inaccurate and short of a complete re-work there isn't a lot that can
be done (so I ignored the problem because life's too short...). The
white metal parts are also well cast and finely detailed, except for
the two GPMGs, which are traditional, wargames-style 'heroic' size
(ie deliberately overscale).
Which brings us to the
fact that there are no assembly instructions included in the kit. I
strongly recommend that you study the photos of the kit shown on the
Evil Bear website (www.evilbearwargames.com)
because this should resolve most of the location issues. There are
also a good range of photos of the real thing scattered across the
Internet, so some image searching via your preferred web browser will
also pay dividends.
The two main body parts
require a small amount of clean-up to remove some casting nubs, but
far less than you would expect on a lot of resin kits. Then the fun
started.
The lower skateboard
chassis was left largely alone after it had been cleaned up. The only
change underneath was to boost the suspension units by fitting a 1mm
spacer between them and the chassis. This provides additional
clearance between the front wheels and the wheel arches but
exacerbates the problem over the rear wheels where the spacing is
already too great. There is clearly a dimensional error somewhere in
the kit but I'm unsure exactly where and wasn't something I
particularly wanted to pursue on this project. As an aside, I think
part of the issue is that the wheels are too large, hence the
clearance issues under the front wheel arches.
The engine compartment
forms the upper part of the chassis unit - reflecting the
configuration of the real vehicle. There are two lifting eyes located
on the bonnet which need to be removed. They are an incorrect pattern
and in the wrong places. However, this makes it easier to add the
next item. The bonnet lacks a non-skid panel so I cut one from a
sheet of etched metal four-bar tread plate that is sold by Accurate
Armour. Whilst the tread plate is overscale (1/35 scale), it is still
a good match for the pattern used on the real vehicle. The panel
needs to be cut at a 45 degree angle to represent the configuration
on the bonnet and the rear end of the panel should be carefully
measured and cut to shape so that it fits around the intake cowls.
Another small change
worth making is the addition of a cut-out in the bonnet to accept a
new container fitted to the main body, just below the windscreen. The
latter is a simple block of plastic beam, sanded to shape and
attached with cyano glue. The kit provides two ECM boxes for the
bonnet and these were duly cleaned up and fitted. More recent photos
of the Foxhound show additional brackets fitted just above the front
bumper and these too are probably for some form of ECM equipment.
Also tackled at this stage were the headlights. The kit items are
moulded into the resin and replacing them with aftermarket lenses
really makes a difference to the finished vehicle.
Perhaps the biggest
faux pas on the kit was to 'mirror' the right and left sides of the
vehicle. In practice they are different but the Evil Bear Foxhound is
the the same on both sides. The bulk of that will be dealt with when
the crew compartment is tackled, but it does mean that some work
needs to be done on the right-hand side of the engine compartment
too. There are three moulded vents where there should be four on
this side, a detail I ignored. However, the rear triangular vent
needs to be filled in and a filler cap arrangement fitted.
The final chassis
alteration was to open up the rear step and add brass mesh to create
the step surface. Earlier vehicles have a solid step with a central
slot - the step was designed to fold up and the slot allows it to
nestle either side of the towing hitch.
The main crew
compartment is an independent armoured 'cell' that fits onto the
chassis, just like the real vehicle. The kit part is a solid lump of
resin, finely cast and well detailed. However, like the engine
compartment it is identical on both sides. The production Foxhound
only has a door on the left side, although the earlier configuration
of the original Ocelot company demonstrator had doors on both sides.
Removing the hinge line, door handles and small 'cross' detail on the
lower hull is straightforward and immediately improves the look of
the vehicle. Where you go from here really depends on how far you
want to take the detailing. Since I wasn't producing a vehicle for
the gaming table it was practical to add more fragile parts, safe in
the knowledge that they would be knocked off or damage through
constant handling.
Starting at the front,
a wire cutter needs to be added beside the driver's windscreen.
Evergreen strip was used to create the lower 'C' section profile as
well as the tapered upper section. Moving to the roof, the kit offers
a couple metal parts that may be CCTV units. However, neither is
especially detailed so new ones were fabricated from plastic beam.
One fits on the front right corner of the roof and the other is
located over the rear doors. Over the cab, the raised roof area had
its detail removed and replaced with smaller panels and discs.
Grab handles were added
beside each roof hatch and some additional detail added to the
hatches themselves. Both MG mounts were rebuilt from plastic bar and
strip. For some unknown reason, both the Evil bear guns have the ammo
boxes on the wrong side of the gun. They are also over-scale. I kept
putting this task off as I couldn't glean enough detail from photos
to understand the bracket and cradle shape for the mounts. Eventually
I felt I had sufficient information to at least come close to their
configuration.
The bulk of the roof
detailing is at the rear end. In addition to the aforementioned CCTV
housing there are two whip aerials, a satellite communications unit,
some form of comms or ECM box inside a cage and some electrical
trunking. The whip aerials are lengths of brass rod and tube, with a
plastic collar at the bottom. The sat-comm aerial is plastic strip
and rod, all mounted onto a disc of thin plastic card. The comms box
required more effort as I wanted to replicate the vaned appearance of
the upper surface. Alternate strips of 10x40 and 10x60 thou strip
were sandwiched together into a block and left to set overnight. The
block was then trimmed down to size (guesstimated) and additional
thick card added to the bottom to build up the box shape. The
protective bars are 0.5mm brass rod bent to shape and slotted into
pre-drilled holes in the roof.
On the back wall of the
crew compartment I replaced the moulded stowage bins either side of
the doors. Although they are correct in profile they are too small.
The inner wall of each bin should be touching the hinge line of the
doors. To make the new bins I sandwiched three lengths of 80x125 thou
beam together to form the basic block. The bevelled long edge was
created by gently sanding the block at an angle. From this plastic
'blank', I then cut the bins to length. Building them in this way
meant that both would be virtually identical
This also gave me the
opportunity to add some of the detail missing from the kit bins. Like
the front of the vehicle, there are mounting plates for the vehicle
protection suite under each bin, as well as a metal carry frame of
some description under the right-hand one. Once again, the frame was
fabricated from brass rod, with scraps of plastic for detailing
I removed the moulded
handles on the doors and scimmed both with filler before sanding them
flat again. This helped to hide the printer 'layering' that is
obvious on the kit - perhaps my biggest bugbear because it suggests a
lack of attention to detail when preparing the master.
Painting
Everything commenced
with a decent undercoat of grey primer. The wheels were left separate
at thi sstage, as was the tow bar and one of the MG mounts. A couple
of days later the main coat of Tamiya XF57 (Buff) was sprayed on and
again left for a couple days. The Buff provides a good base for the
weathering and shading that followed. It's lighter than the typical
British Army Sand, but the weathering process darkens the shade.
Weathering was a mix of
thinned oil paints to add texture and shading to the base coat, along
with some careful dry-brushing using XF-55 (Deck Tan) - don't be
tempted by Tamiya's newer shade of XF-78 (Wooden Deck Tan) which is
more of a desert sand colour and too close to the base coat of Buff.
Markings
No markings are
provided in the kit and to be honest, there are very few tactical
markings present on operational vehicles. However, there are a
significant number of 'NO STEP' stencils and I wanted to replicate
these. The text was created in a graphics package, although MS Word
would be a simple option for this type of stencil too. The text was
designed very large, but the image was then printed at only 6% of
it's nominal size in order to maintain a high quality level. Several
test prints onto ordinary white paper were tried first in order to
determine the best combinations of size and definition, before a
final print was done onto clear decal film. The decal film is inkjet
printer compatible, but the designs need to be sealed onto the
surface with a coat of clear varnish before they are used (as
standard waterslide decals). Also created were a pair of registration
plates, using photos of actual vehicles to ensure the registration
sequence was accurate for a Foxhound.
Application of the
decals followed a familiar pattern. Areas to be decalled were coated
with Johnson's Klear to provide a glossy, smooth surface. Once the
decals had been applied, a coat of flat varnish was applied over the
top.
Final tweaks
The rear lights
received an undercoat of solver, followed by top coats of clear
orange and clear red as appropriate. The headlamps were replaced with
suitable items from Little Lenses and the windscreen and side windows
painted up in a clear blue applied over a base of mid grey.
A simple scenic base
finished off the project. The Hesco bastions are from Barrage
Miniatures and came free with another purchase I made from them.
Overall I really
enjoyed building the Foxhound. It isn't a perfect kit and there are
some dimensional errors that can't be fixed but it has the beefy look
of the real vehicle and is a great subject for painting. Most of the
vehicles in Afghanistan were covered in Barracuda camouflage on a
permanent basis but recreating this in 1/48 scale was beyond me, so I
left it well alone. Yet again, we have a good quality wargames kit
that, whilst not as detailed as a scale model, responds well to a
little TLC and looks the part.
