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1/35 Miniart AEC Mark 3 Armored Car

Model Photos

Photos and Model by Dave Williams - UK

Editor/Owner of Dave's Tank Workshop Website

Here is the 1/35 Miniart AEC Mk. III (35159) armored car model kit I've built. What can I say about this kit? Well, I found it a great in some cases and awful in others. The detail was really good throughout but this was offset by the plastic used being delicate and brittle. Put simply, many of the smaller parts broke when removing them from the sprues - despite me being uber-careful. The worst part of the build was the fit of the rear wheel arches to the rear hull.  The arches were too narrow by 3mm which left a gap between the arch and the hull.

The good points though were present as well. The fit of the parts for the rest of the build was pretty good, and the kit included a useful little etched fret which complimented the styrene plastic nicely. The model also included some nice weld seams on the turret, and a fairly comprehensive interior if you wished to display your model opened up.

Additional detailing I did on the model included replacing the plastic kit barrel (which was actually pretty good!) with an RB metal 75mm QF gun, and I replaced all the lifting eyes with brass rod because the kit ones broke. I added stowage to the rear wheel arches to cover up the aforementioned gaps, and I added a soft brass Karaya tow cable. The figure is a Tamiya torso with an Ultracast head and I used a combination of the kit supplied decals and a Stencilit metal allied star stencil for the stars on the engine deck and turret.

In summary, Miniart is to be congratulated for tackling this interesting but niche British subject in model kit form.  For this, I totally forgive them for a few small/niggling issues.  Anyway, hope you like it!