1/35 BJ212 off-road - "Chinese knock off of a Russian copy of the Land Rover"

[frank2056]

The title was inspired by a post by Old Wombat over on BtS.

I like the UAZ-469 but there were no good models of it until Trumpeter released one. Instead, I collected three Trumpeter BJ212 kits (which are pretty cheap) with the intention of somehow modifying one to look like a UAZ-469; the BJ212 was a slightly modified UAZ-469. It's a quaint little vehicle and the kit oob looks... meh.

I also started a Military Wheels UAZ-469; it's a rough, primitive kit that required a lot of scratchbuilding. The company had good intentions, but their mold capabilities let them down. I was almost at the paint stage when the Trumpeter UAZ-469 came out.

This is one of the Trumpeter BJ212 kits made into a beefier off-road vehicle by using some of the MW UAZ-469 parts. The Trumpeter BJ212 is pretty nice for a 20 year old kit. In this picture, the front fender is from the UAZ-469; the original BJ1212 fender looks like it would crumple if it hit a fly. The fender fit perfectly. I also added a PE mesh to the cabin floor:



Here it is so far; some of the parts are loose or missing, but it's almost ready for weathering.
The original tires were underwhelming, so I substituted the beefier tires from the UAZ-469 kit and they fit well. The MW wheels/rims were just somewhat circular lumps of plastic, so I used the Trumpeter parts. I added the spare from the MW kit  to the hood, Land Rover style. The colors look like those from the Ukrainian flag, but that's unintentional; I wanted the yellow to be more orange and the blue darker... but I'm not repainting:



I removed the PE from the floor after painting and it left a nice pattern. The antenna mount may be from the ever bountiful AFV Club M151 remote weapons station. I replaced the rear bench seat with two seats from an Italeri HMMWV. Both seats and the front seats are loose in this picture:



I replaced the rear fender bumpers with brass strips that I cut from a PE set frame - they were just the right width:



I added two small handles to manually move the windshield wipers, if needed. They're made from sprue attachment points from another kit:



I added a PE mesh in front of the radiator. The side mirror is another gift from the AFV Club M151. The air filter/snorkel is a curved bit of sprue from the kit, with some Gundam parts at the top :



Next up is gluing down the loose bits, adding a few missing parts and start weathering.

[Old Wombat]

Great work, Frank! The Chinese knock-off Russian imitation Land Rover looks spot on!

[Wardukw]

Great work, Frank! The Chinese knock-off Russian imitation Land Rover looks spot on!

Couldnt agree more 
Right look and colours and it just looks like a knock off 

[zenrat]

It looks like a Daddy Landcruiser did the dirty with a Mummy Landrover without wearing a boot on its CV joint...

[Old Wombat]

It looks like a Daddy Landcruiser did the dirty with a Mummy Landrover without wearing a boot on its CV joint...

Yes, Fred, there is a touch of Toyota Landcruiser in there, too.

[su27rules]

 

[frank2056]

Thanks for the comments! I think there was some unsupervised garage time with the various Landies...

In the last two 1/35 vehicles I've built, the position of the steering wheel would either cut the driver's legs (or naughty bits) off or crush their chest. I've had to cut the steering columns and adjust the angle.

[Wardukw]

No surprises there Frank..ive built dozens of 35th scale trucks...APCs ..jeeps and the like and it happens pretty much every time.
No idea why they keep doing it ..they can manufacture a extremely close to scale model yet they seem to get the steering wheel wrong .
Its like its a last minute thought .

[zenrat]

Same with a lot of 1/24 & 1/25 car models.  I generally rectify it when I do the RHD conversion but if I leave it LHD then I often don't bother moving the wheel if its a hardtop as it can't always be seen.

[frank2056]

I'm done with the weathering - I think it's a bit overdone; the clean version looked better. oh well. Ramba over at BTS posted a cartoon of a SWB (88") Land Rover that looked remarkably like this model. I cut the kit's soft cover and used some sprue to replicate the cartoon; I'm not sure if I'll keep it - the side windows don't fit well, but it looks cute:



I took the delicate air filter off, and also managed to knock the spot lamp back:



I made a hole for the steering wheel and pushed it back. It still looks too close to driver, but much better than before - it was at least 2-3mm further out:



This image shows the instrument panel. The front seats are loose and are only held up by thin plastic rods, so they flop around everywhere:



I'm working on two figures and some cargo, so I should be done soon.

[Old Wombat]

 

[Wardukw]

Your weathering looks pretty good Frank and not over done at all...we had 2 vehicles on the farm i grew up on..Ford F150 2x4 and a FJ short wheel base Toyota..i learned to drive in both ..anyways with in 20 mins of going into a paddock these things were covered in crap in winter and dusty as hell in summer ..yours looks quite tame mate 

[zenrat]

Your weathering looks pretty good Frank and not over done at all...we had 2 vehicles on the farm i grew up on..Ford F150 2x4 and a FJ short wheel base Toyota..i learned to drive in both ..anyways with in 20 mins of going into a paddock these things were covered in crap in winter and dusty as hell in summer ..yours looks quite tame mate 

Second that.  It looks quite restrained.

[NARSES2]

Your weathering looks pretty good Frank and not over done at all...we had 2 vehicles on the farm i grew up on..Ford F150 2x4 and a FJ short wheel base Toyota..i learned to drive in both ..anyways with in 20 mins of going into a paddock these things were covered in crap in winter and dusty as hell in summer ..yours looks quite tame mate 

Second that.  It looks quite restrained.

Third it 

[frank2056]

Thanks for the comments! I finished the vehicle today by adding a figure and a dog, plus some cargo.

Front view:


The figure is mainly the waving guy from the ICM Soviet Motorized Infantry set (ak Soviets vacationing in Afghanistan, kit #1) with a resin right hand and a head from the Academy 1/35 French Foreign Legion set. He looks disturbingly like Jeff "Bellend" Bezos. The dog is from a DML set:



"Dude, you really look like that guy...". The BJ212 looks much taller with the UAZ469 tires:



It can hold a fair amount of cargo. The various items are mostly from a Meng equipment set. One of the red gas cans is obviously newer than the other... The small backpack with the bear (for the dog, of course) is from the Master Box "Splinter" kit (here's my build of her). The large backpack is a nicely detained resin part that Jeff Fontaine from BtS sent me:



Here's all the cargo, dog and Jeff Bezos:



Overall it was a fun build. Thanks for following along!