Eilat Infantry Combat Vehicle (GEV)

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What's cool about this vehicle is that at first glance, I thought - oh, it's just a BMP-3 (a modern Soviet infantry carrier). Then I looked again, and saw the key difference - no tracks! It's a ground-effect vehicle or hovercraft. The body has the general shape of the BMP-1 (not the BMP-3, as was my first impression), with the ribbed and sloping front, but with rounded "shoulders" and hatch arrangement totally unlike the old Soviet vehicle. The size of the turret is what makes the Eilat reminiscent of the BMP-3, though the Eilat has a hexagonal turret rather than the round Soviet style. The main gun is quite small, though not too delicate for the tabletop, and there's a "box" off one side of the turret which could be a missile launcher.

Summing up, this is a pretty cool design - I appreciate the fact that it looks so rooted in modern armor, yet is actually a unique vehicle.

The turret sits nicely on the hull, but you'll want to trim off some small nubs on the gun barrel and at rear of the turret. Hull is correctly squared off, with a barely visible seam running around the sides (only a problem where it runs through the rear hatchways, where some clean-up might be wanted). The six tiny "stowage boxes" (?) have peaked covers which all slope to different peaks - probably minor enough to ignore. Another minor (but ignorable) problem is on the lower front, where it'll take some careful work to clean up a sprue attachment point where it meets the edge of the "ribbing."

Note: Brigade also makes missile-turreted and anti-aircraft versions of this vehicle.

22mm x 10mm x 7mm