Sunday, June 10, 2012

1st Corps: Minerva Belgian Armoured Car

Hi, it's time for another review! This time the review is written by Schogun of The Lead Adventure Forum and he was so kind to let me place him on my blog for my loyal visitors. I have to note that i have slightly adjusted the style of the review to fit this blog. As said in the title this review will go about the excellent 1st Corps Minerva Belgian Armoured Car which has seen action during the first months of the First World War and was even send to Russia as the war in Europe had become a static one. This particular model can be bought for £22 directly from 1st Corps, the crew can be bought seperately.

First of all we have a picture of the painted armoured car which can be found on the website of the manufacturer. I think this example has an particular excellent paintjob which really make the detail of the car pop.


The model is listed to 28mm but is actually more scaled 1/51 so substantially bigger than 1/56 cars but this is only a minor issue as the car fits really well with armoured cars of other manufacturers. The model comes with one big green resin body and a bunch of metal components such as 6 wire wheels, a mounted machinegun, 2 armoured plates and 2 seat backs.


The resin body comes well casted except from some minor flash deposits in the view slits which is perfectly normal for the casting proces. The outside details of the car such as the headlights, boxes, spare tire and inside seats, bags and floor boards are great. The only criticism would be that the two longer sides of the crew compartment bend in a bit and the rivets are quite big. Other notice is that the body looks bulky but again this is understandable if you want a sturdy cast.



Here you can see the various metal components of this partical kit.


The car with the Belgian crewmembers ready to repel some German cavalry and cover the flanks and rear of the retreating belgian troops as they retreat to the Yser fortifications.



Here are some close ups of the Belgian crew members.



I hope you enjoyed this guest bloggers review as much as I did!


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3 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

Never heard of it but it's a lovely piece of kit!

Wargame News and Terrain Blog said...

I also didn't knew 1st Corps made model kits but as I'm very interested in early wwI belgian I might be tempted to pick one up in the future.

Unknown said...

I read that it was redone and now the wheels are molded to the body in resin. Which sounds fine. Also the crew now come with the set as per Scarab Miniatures website. References are thin and likeliness difficult that a few of these served in 1940 to help repel the German invasion. The last service date was 1935, so it might possible a few were able to hit the road during the rush for equipment in the Phoney War. Regardless, the car is available in the Bolt Action army list for the Belgians 1940 and my force will include one.