This is a morale boost project. I found myself in a situation where I have several long-term builds going at the same time: some of them are partworks that by their nature will literally take years to complete, and other are large, complex projects that I'm doing in between partworks and probably won't finish by the end of this year.

So I suddenly realised that I find it a bit hard to find motivation! I like to see an end to my efforts from time to time, and nothing I had currently on my desk was even close. So, the plan was born: I need to start and finish a model!

Cougar MRAP vehicle has been on my radar for some time already. I've seen it in several movies and it never ceased to be impressive. Then I did some reading and my resolve to get myself a kit became even stronger. Being my first military build, it is a wonderful vehicle, tasked with keeping the soldiers alive instead of being a machine of destruction.

Cougar MRAP - Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected - is a family of armored vehicles produced by Force Protection Inc, protected against small arms, land mines and IEDs using a combination of design features and materials to protect both the crew and the engine compartments from a variety of attacks. The V-shaped hull can direct blasts away from the vehicle. The crew can travel comfortably thanks to dual air conditioning systems.

First of Cougars has been delivered in 2004 and soon proved to be very successful in keeping the troops alive. Equipped with Caterpillar C-7 Diesel engine and automatic transmission, it has an operational range of 600 miles and a maximum speed of 65 mph - which is still quite impressive, as the vehicle weights 14.5t and can carry another 2.7t of payload.

The image below (note for admin: image is licensed in public domain, allowed to use) shows a 4x4 Cougar that has been hit by a mine and was able to safely deliver whole crew back to the base on three wheels, going nice and steady 20mph.



I'm building the 6x6 version which I consider even more impressive in its looks. It's been manufactured in 1:35 scale by Meng Models, and I'm also using (in moderation) additional details set from Voyager Models. Up till now, this was all coming together rather well and I'm very happy with the quality and fit of the parts. They have almost no flash, ejector pins are located in places that will almost in all cases be hidden, and all is quite clever in how it comes together. The main colour I'm using is Vallejo Model Air Sand Yellow.

My build was progressing so nicely that I forgot to take photos on the way, so please forgive me for starting this build log with the work in progress, almost halfway through.

The undercarriage:









And the almost complete interior. You can see the photo-etched seat belts, and some nice dashboard decals (printed by Cartograf). Last photo is a penny shot, for scale.













Thanks for dropping by :)

Nice kit I must get A Meng kit in my stash they look great kits will be following

Interesting kit and very nice work.

Your hard shadows are fascinating, do you have a staggered lighting solution?

No, don't. I think it looks awesome.

Time for another update. This model is still progressing nicely, although I got a bit distracted with other builds. Anyway, this is where I'm with it now.

The main body part was painted, and some details were added. The machine gun hatch in the roof even rotates thanks to some very nice engineering from Meng.







Next step was to close the vehicle by joining top and bottom halves, then install the windows. They are very pleasant to build. The plastic "glass" has two layers - internal mounted on the body from outside is clear. External, mounted in the thick frames, is bullet-proof green. After gluing in the window panes inside of the frames, they are glued onto the vehicle body. All very easy and clean.















At the end I spent some time working on the wheel arches, front lights and some other smaller details.







This is a lovely and very well-engineered model, I will post another update soon.

Thanks for dropping by!

Certainly coming along now, looking good.....

Regards

Alan

Looking good