I think I start here a new thread to show how to build the other army on German soil.
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As an oldfashioned modeller, all starts with references. Luckily several publishing companies have releases good books on the NVA subject.
Motorbuch Verlag
Media Script
Fahrzeug Profile
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Found the GMG 2, on Ebay. Just the wrong scale. 
https://www.ebay.de/itm/334527094445
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One of my many projects. Sanitäts Schützenpanzerwagen 152
It´s a BTR-152 K with wider rear door to take stretchers.
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Well, I’d better pay attention then!
Some - in fact all - of my reference material:
The one on the left really for my Berlin Wall/Grepo projects; the one on the right - obtained when I was at HQ BAOR a million years ago - is not exclusively East German admittedly, but a really useful little ready-reckoner sort of book.
A rather blurry image I’m afraid, but these 2 books are very useful indeed.
The one on the left just for a bit of background; the one on the right is an extensive survey of the NVA’s uniforms, badges etc, and is a really interesting volume:
Despite all this material I’ve only built 2 x NVA models and that’s a T-72 and a BMP. I’ll try and provide some pics soon.
'Hopefully, other NVA enthusiasts will join in, or is it just me and Hermann?
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Hi Brian,
great selection of books.Unfortunatly, I missed after 1989 the opportunity to go into DDR. I still live some 30 km away from border with Thuringia/GDR.
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Some scans from my analogue collection.
Some target vehiles from Bonnland Training Area
NVA Uniforms
Pics from Militärhistorisches Museum Dresden back in 1993.
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They are indeed, fundamental to it! They are so well sculpted my painting-skills may not be up to it.
The plan is to position them outside the Trabant, looking at footprints in the raked strip of sand/earth, as an indication of some poor soul trying to flee the GDR. There’s not actually much to do to finish it all off; I’ve moved it all to a larger base as I felt it was too compressed, although initially I thought it might be too big and the Trabant, being so small, might be a bit lost, but by trial and error feel, when I actually tackle it, that it will work a bit better.
My original small base:
The larger option:
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Very nice; we only ever - for ease of reporting - identified this as an “ACRV”. I’m sure that it will look very impressive once completed; I’m assuming you’ve utilized a conversion kit from somewhere, as well as scratch-building?
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Why fleeing from GDR? 
The Wall and the Grenzzaun where build to keep foreigners out. 
Or to quote a from GDR Staatsratsvorsitzende. “Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten” (No one has the intention to build a wall). Where is the Trabant P601A kit from? The ACRV or 1V15(-1) kit is from SP Designs from Ukraine and a 12 years old shelfqueen. It should have been a Swedish MEDEVAC, but then I decided to give the kit a makeover. The kit has pieces of resin tracks, which are impossible to build. I bought me Trumpeters 2S1 SPH to harvest suspension and tracks. That GDR Technical Manual is extremely helpful with this project. I think the turret shell will and up as SNAR-10 someday.
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Well, exactly; why would anyone wish to actually leave the Worker’s Paradise? Wasn’t its official name “the anti-fascist rampart” or similar? Anyway, it made a hell of an impression on me as a young soldier when I visited north and south of Helmstedt in 1971 or thereabouts.
The P601A is from Panzershop - long out of production I believe; I’ll try and get some more pics of mine. Being resin it was a fraught build - always the case with me and resin - and at one stage I dropped it and it shattered into two parts(!) However, I soldiered on and filled it with the sort of equipment I thought a Grenztruppen patrol would have during a hard day’s work keeping marauding reactionary NATO forces out of the GDR; in fact, I overdid it and left hardly any room for the dog.
Are SP Designs still in operation? I must have a look, that ACRV is looking very good and with a SNAR would really set the scene.
Anyway, all good stuff perhaps for NVA fans.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a militarized Trabi before, thanks! I wonder if the body behind the A-pillars was made of the same plastic resin as the front end?
I imagine it must have been; I can’t see the factory/working practices using anything notably different - more a question of modifying the moulds/formers or whatever they used.
I’ve only ever seen one in the far distance and sadly, not close up. I wish I had in a way(!)
There’s one depicted in this short film clip at the beginning - though it’s an animation, but it does show it puttering away on its duties. I’ve linked this before somewhere along the line but I hope no one minds too much; it provided much for my planned diorama of the IGB:
Walled in: The inner German border | DW English (youtube.com)
Excellent job Brian! Very unusual looking vehicle. I was in Germany from 85-87 but wasn’t stationed on the border so I wouldn’t have seen those vehicles, but when were they taken out of service?
Wasn’t the real car made out of plastic or something?
Well, thanks very much; it was tricky to build and if you look closely you’ll see(!) - however, that’s because the pics are larger than real life; hopefully, in due course, I’ll be able to get away with it on the display tables. Story of my modelling life(!)
As to its service life, I have no idea; I suspect it was in use up to the end.
There are some good shots kicking around on the www showing it in private collectors’ use, which I accessed for details, coupled with a bit of military interpretation.