Models of vehicles that make up Israel's Iron Dome air defense system have been produced by Panzerkampf which is ostensibly a Chinese company, but seems to be based out of Spain.
I've seen references to these models announced as far back as 2015, but it's possible that they may have only been available in Israel until this month. Some background on how the models came into being can be found at ISRAEL21c.
I wasn't sure what to expect of the models, since I've seen some pictures where the entire models were fully painted, while others looked more toy-like because it looked like only the metal parts were painted.
In any event, the models I received seem to be of the fully painted type. The truck cab and some of the body are made of metal, the tires are made of vinyl, and the mounted units and remaining parts are made of different types of plastic.
The radar unit, control unit, and missile launcher are all mounted on identical RMMV trucks of some type. Translucent plastic is used for the colored dome lights on the trucks, but I think that they should actually be amber colored instead of red.
The radar unit is attached to the body of the truck, but is capable of elevating and rotating.
I'm not sure if the color of the radar unit is accurate though, since from what I've seen in pictures, it seems to usually be the same color as the trucks.
The control unit is fairly unremarkable. It has the Rafael logo on the side, which I'm guessing only appeared on demonstration units.
The launcher is of course the centerpiece of the set. The unit can elevate, but is firmly attached to the body of the truck.
The lights on the launcher are painted red, but should probably be one amber, and one red.
The launchers are sometimes described as having fixed or mobile capabilities, but it's not clear if mobile means that the launchers can be fired from the back of the truck. I have only seen video of the rockets being fired from a fixed position at any rate.
It would have been nice if the launchers were available separately or at least removable so that a battery of 3–4 units could be put together.
The following promotional video from Rafael shows how the system is deployed.
With a bit of dry brushing I reckon theyéd look quite good
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteYes, they would look pretty good with some weathering. I did forget to add one small criticism, which was that some places where metal pins hold pivoting parts had a lot of excess glue caked onto the attachment point. The glue can be scraped off very easily, and weathering would help hide the discolored area that's left behind.