I admit I bought the kit on a whim, seeing something actually from South Africa. There is the camouflage and plain versions, which came first? Also, how did it get used by the South Africans, besides the Lesotho intervention?
Hi Tom. The plain tan earth finish was first, then the camo. This is evident in the prototype vehicles and early pictures of the vehicle, as well as other SA vehicles. I think camo was introduced in 1994.
As far as I am aware, the Lesotho intervention is the only real deployment of the type.
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I am working on this kit now. Just painted the camo yesterday. Needs a few touch ups. I did order the resin wheels for it. The only upgrade I could find. If you want other SA armor, Trumpeter makes a MBT from SA.
Don’t forget the G6 self propelled howitzer.
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This is an answer I got at a FB group on South African armor:
Rooikat was used in a few internal operations, with most painted in the standard camouflage, but a few were painted dark brown.
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…and ‘as rare as Rocking Horse poo’…
I have been looking for one, that is not ridiculously priced, for years. I foolishly assumed that the kit would be available as a permanent release, not knowing Takom do production runs and don’t often do additional runs (their recent re-release of the FV 432 and JagdTigers being the exceptions). I can live in hope this one eventually gets run again.
That’s why some people have too many kits in their stash: Buy it now or wait forever …
I paid 53 Euros back in 2016
so this auction:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334438349609?epid=2254314044&hash=item4dde143b29:g:UsoAAOSwSgdifHy7
has a very reasonable starting bid (add VAT and other harassment by your own country)
this one is without auction:
There are some more at that price and higher:
Thanks Robin. I avoid anything out of China. My club mates and I have had too many issues with damaged goods, goods not what they paid for… and goods that disappear off the face of the earth (‘Tank Man’ must be busy building all those kits)
That sucks.
I never had any problem with Chinese ebay vendors.
The only issue I have had was one package from South Korea that went missing
(money back within two days after I asked about it).
Some of the Chinese reinforced the boxes with styrene foam sheets inside the boxes.
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I bought what was described as, and illustrated as, a Tamiya 1/35th Schutzenpanzer Marder. When it arrived (eventually, I paid for airmail they sent it slow boat) it was the Zhengdefu 1/48th motorised rubbish kit. I had 2 kits just never arrive. Other times they arrived, but were poor knock offs of other manufacturers resin accessories or figures.
One club member got a 3/4 built kit with parts missing. Another paid for one brand model kit and got a different, less value, manufacturer’s kit inside the box - clearly the seller upgraded and intentionally ripped him off.
Others had crushed kits, etc. One guy had two kits crushed because the seller flattened the boxes and used them to wrap around and sandwich the sprues, with one sheet of paper taped around it all to hold it together.
Maybe things are better now.
There are thousands of sellers out there so I’m not surprised that there are some bad ones as well.
I have bought from this seller a few times, no problems for me but I have no guarantees that it will be same experience if I buy from them again:
and these:
I bought three kits recently, for some reason they shipped them separately, two have arrived and the third is waiting at customs processing. One box was dented despite being a sturdy Trumpeter box, I can’t store it at the bottom of the stash but otherwise it’s OK.
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I’ve had some sellers that didn’t come through, but most of them did. China is as good as anyone else when it comes to selling kits.
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I’m going to reiterate what Robin said, in that I’ve never had any serious issues with Chinese Ebay sellers that last 10 years or so. I do only look for reputable sellers (i.e. those that have serious ratings in the 1000s). And as for poor knockoffs, those are pretty easy to weed out - typically sold with no box, even though the picture shows the original product, prices less then half of real cost, etc. And I’ve had the odd on poorly packaged, but most have no issues.
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