Wiesel
Wiesel C20mm
Ref : AFV Club #AF35S-03

The Wiesel is a recon vehicle designed by MAK for the Bundeswehr airborne troops. It entered service in 1990.
It has a low profile silhouette with a height of only 1.82m. Its low weight, 2.8t, enables the transport inside the CH53 and CH47 heavy choppers.
It mounts a Rheinmetall 20mm automatic cannon fed with 60 AP rounds and 100 HE rounds ready to fire in two external bins. 240 supplemental rounds are carried inside the hull.

The kit is produced by AFV and comes in 3 plastic sprues, a separate hull, a photoetched parts sheet, 2 tiny rubber sprues and 2 vinyl tracks. The instructions come in a 10-page booklet and present 2 decoration schemes.
The detail and the casting are good. The steel PE is a little too stiff.

The building is done without major trouble. The tiny size of the parts simply requires some attention.
The hull is easily built. The only difficulty is due to the stiffness of the PE part representing the exhaust protection. One must be careful not to bend it the wrong way otherwise the part breaks.

The turret, too, requires attention because of the size of the parts. The highly detailed cannon and its support come in 13 parts. The feeding belts are represented by a soft rubber part which gives it a realistic look. The barrel is drilled out before it is set on the turret.

Prior the painting stage, the tools are placed on the front slope as well as the straps made out thin lead foil. The buckles are from the PE sheet.

The camo scheme is that of the 262 Fallschirmjäger Battalion. AFV give colors numbers from the Tamiya range : Black XF1, Green XF58 and Brown XF64. The tracks being made of rubber, we must avoid any metallic shade except for the central guiding teeth.

Wiesel TOW
Ref : AFV Club #AF35014

The Wiesel TOW is the anti-armor version of the Wiesel. It complements its action and gives the Bundeswehr paratroopers a real anti-armor capability thanks to the 7 onboard missiles and the thermal viewer for the gunner. In this version, the crew is of 3 men.

The kit is produced by AFV Club and uses the hull off the basic version as well as 2 out of 4 sprues. A new PE sheet complements that of the Wiesel 20mm kit. The carving and the casting are good. The tracks are of the vinyl type. The instructions come as a 12-page booklet and show 2 decoration schemes.

The remarks about the building are identical to those for the standard version above. An interior is issued which comprises a driver station and a combat compartment. They build without any trouble. At the back of the grille B3, we need to glue a piece of plastic to avoid seeing the interior of the combat station.
AFV offer the option of building the dismounted version of the TOW. The tripod legs are correctly aligned thanks to 3 hollows adequately molded in the J sprue.

The camo scheme is the NATO 3-tone one. The Tamiya shades being used are Black XF1, Green XF58 and Brown XF64.

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