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Review
Bronco: Ram Mk II
CMOT
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 08:50 AM UTC


Darren Baker takes a look at the latest Bronco Models release in the form of a 1/35th scale Canadian Cruiser Tank Ram Mk II Early Production.

Read the Review

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
petbat
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 08:58 AM UTC
Thanks for the review Darren. A missing link vehicle that I think will be well received.

In regard to building the tracks, and a suggestion of a jig, may I direct you to an article I did form my club website? Not pushing my own barrow, just a suggestion to make life easier here

http://www.ammsbrisbane.com/ajax/articles/Bronco_Sherman_Tracks.html
CMOT
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 09:06 AM UTC
Yes that is one way around it and well explained, but I would have liked to find a jig in the box.
Taeuss
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 09:23 AM UTC
As a completely unabashed Canadian I am positively thrilled at this release and plan on getting several to be used as training tanks, Kangaroo conversions and as a gun tractor or two. The dio ideas will abound.
nsjohn
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 10:46 AM UTC
Good review as always Darren. I particularly like the link to David Fletcher's Tank Chat which I presume ties in with your current thread on what people wish to see in articles on the site.
CMOT
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 06:01 PM UTC
I am trying to offer the membership what they want that encourages interaction.

I would not use your conversions just yet as I really believe a Kangeroo is not far away.
petbat
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 06:33 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Yes that is one way around it and well explained, but I would have liked to find a jig in the box.



Yes, I don't disagree there at all. It would be nice if all manufacturers took note of your comment. Some do offer jigs, some of the time, but not all of the time.
M4A1Sherman
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Posted: Friday, July 19, 2019 - 08:22 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I am trying to offer the membership what they want that encourages interaction.

I would not use your conversions just yet as I really believe a Kangeroo is not far away.



THANK YOU for that, Darren!

I'm sure that there are many modelers out there that have read your review of this new RAM kit, even though they may not have had the ambition to compliment you for your work and for your wishes to present the readers with more articles and reviews of more "diversified subject-matter". THIS kind diversification is a very positive boon for modelers who DO NOT want to "toe the line" that the "Panzer-Clique" seem to want to impose upon the WWII Allied fans.

A great review Darren, as always...

Thanks Again,

VR- Dennis
CMOT
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 07:07 AM UTC
What I want is to provide the viewer with what they are after withing my abilities and so encourage their participation. The posts in the other thread are understandable and most of those are people who are regular posters. What I would like to see is members willing to ask questions and add comments that add to the content or generate further questions. I say this as 'WoW and Great' while nice to receive do not further a subject.
m4sherman
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 08:17 AM UTC
It looks like a nice kit. I am more interested in the Kangaroo version, but knowing a few were used as OP tanks might twist my arm to get the turreted version.

That lower hull looks very Taska/Asuka to me. Perhaps they borrowed their design. If so the inner bulkhead is a crucial part. It helps square up the hull. I like how Bronco did the side plates with the sprocket and idler mounts molded on. It simplifies things a bit.
M4A1Sherman
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 09:54 AM UTC

Quoted Text

What I want is to provide the viewer with what they are after withing my abilities and so encourage their participation. The posts in the other thread are understandable and most of those are people who are regular posters. What I would like to see is members willing to ask questions and add comments that add to the content or generate further questions. I say this as 'WoW and Great' while nice to receive do not further a subject.



Hi, Darren!

Your review of this new RAM Mk.I is comprehensive, but let me point out that this was an "in-box" review, and not an in-depth "build-review", which would no doubt reveal the kit's "good points" as well as the "bad". Readers giving you "WOW" and "GREAT"-type comments are acknowledging your work, and I should think that your doing the "in-box" review would generate enough interest in the subject for the readers to go out and BUY the RAM kit and find out what it's like to actually build it.

True, there are some of us who will "hang back" before buying any given kit in order to find out what exactly entails building said kit, i.e, whether the kit is a "good investment" or a "dog", or somewhere in-between. These things are getting more expensive by the minute, and many of us DO NOT have unlimited budgets. There are some people who can afford to buy two, three + kits at one time without batting an eye, but I think that most of us will think twice about plunking down $60, $70, $80 + for a single kit, only to find out that the damned thing can't be put together without using a hammer on it, or that said kit is an inaccurate POS-travesty-in-scale...

Actual "build-reviews" I think, are more useful to the modeler, rather than the "in-box reviews", but when one thinks about it, one can't really have one without the other...

So, my hat is off to you Darren, for taking that first step. Hopefully, we'll have a full-on "build-review" of this kit very soon by either yourself, one of the ARMORAMA staff, or by one of the "braver" readers...
CMOT
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 10:44 AM UTC
We use to offer items to members for review on a regular basis unfortunately far too many members failed in the obligations and so now there are only a few members I still send items too.
nsjohn
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 11:06 AM UTC
Hi Darren. I agree with Dennis that ideally you want a 2 stage process, namely an out of the box review followed by a build review but then you are already doing this with your review of the Cromwell and your excellent build review (which I am avidly following although I haven't commented on for sometime simply because I haven't had anything useful to add as yet).

Coincidentally with all the talk about Airfix Stuarts, I am about to start one. If I can get some help with posting the pictures, I would be happy to do both reviews if that would be of interest to anyone
CMOT
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 11:57 AM UTC
I can help you with that. Do you know how to upload them? Or do you want me to deal with the images for you?
Taeuss
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 12:10 PM UTC
Personally I chiefly build German armour though I in no way consider myself part of the "panzer clique" as you stated, and I really could care less if anyone toes my line; I'm here to build what I like and some times that includes Allied armour; other times aircraft (gasp!) and I've got a 1/72 U-Boat that I intend on detailing and weathering to Hell and back. Conformity I could do without and I'd advise you to consider having more fun with this great hobby and less of making it seem you've been shorted by the manufacturers or slighted by others. Chill.
nsjohn
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 12:56 PM UTC
Thanks Darren. I'll write the text and then upload the photos to my gallery and you can organize things from there if that would work
basco
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 05:58 PM UTC

Quoted Text

We use to offer items to members for review on a regular basis unfortunately far too many members failed in the obligations and so now there are only a few members I still send items too.



That's really a shame people behaving like that. If I'd be nearer to you, I'd help, but the postage alone would be quite adventurous. anyway, keep up the good work.
CMOT
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 09:13 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Thanks Darren. I'll write the text and then upload the photos to my gallery and you can organize things from there if that would work



Norman send the images to my staff Email and I will embed them for you.
nsjohn
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Posted: Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 11:48 PM UTC
Will do. Probably better to transfer any thing further on this to your "when to reply" thread as I seem to have strayed off topic. Apologies.
barkingdigger
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Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 02:39 AM UTC
While we are straying OT, I'd like to comment on Dennis and Darren's posts about build vs in-box reviews. I've done quite a few of both, and the bottom line is I can usually knock out an in-box review within a week or two of receiving a kit (allowing for research, photography, etc), but a build review can take me several weeks of odd evenings/weekends just for the build, then more time for photos and text. So it can be at least a month from receipt of kit to posting of build review, by which time it might be old news. And that's a month I'm NOT spending building my own stash, so the review kit had better be something I'm interested in! I do try to deliver a quick in-box followed by a full build, but often stall at the painted&finished Feature article.

As for the Ram, it does look like a great kit! I've already got a resin hull and Academy Lee for my Kangaroo conversion, but if I didn't then this might be the better bet.
M4A1Sherman
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Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 05:42 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Personally I chiefly build German armour though I in no way consider myself part of the "panzer clique" as you stated, and I really could care less if anyone toes my line; I'm here to build what I like and some times that includes Allied armour; other times aircraft (gasp!) and I've got a 1/72 U-Boat that I intend on detailing and weathering to Hell and back. Conformity I could do without and I'd advise you to consider having more fun with this great hobby and less of making it seem you've been shorted by the manufacturers or slighted by others. Chill.



THIS is exactly what I've been saying. Someone makes a comment, and they get told to "chill". Maybe it's YOU that needs to "chill"...

Did I ever name YOU personally as being part of the "Panzer-Clique"..? Go back and read every single post of mine, and you will find that I have never said, "The Panzer-Clique, of whom Frank Winkler is a card-carrying member"...

C'mon... We're here to have a little bit of fun...

Think I'll go order my BRONCO RAM kit, right now... So long...
M4A1Sherman
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Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 10:33 AM UTC
Ordered...
Taeuss
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Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 10:46 AM UTC
You're right Dennis, I stand humbled & corrected; it just seems that you're always on the warpath over a perceived slight on the latest release when we are all talking about building models for cripes sake. Hence the chill part. I've got nothing against you and your opinions, I just don't really believe that there's this secret cabal of manufacturers out there timing their releases to spite you. If the order of release is "Panther" "Panther" "Sherman" so be it. I enjoy the building and I even enjoy the interactions here but we've all got to understand that we are all just big 14 year-olds avoiding the world by enjoying building something special. Or at least I seem to be. Enjoying, that is. So let's all try and limit how upset we get over the nothings that plague living in a crazy age.
JSSVIII
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Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 12:48 PM UTC
Hello Darren, I Thought I remembered someone commenting that the angle of the front hull around the drivers forward vision block (Hatch?) looked a little off in the CAD drawings. Could you post a couple of photos of that area? (your hand is covering up the area in the photo that this angle would show.)
jpmerce
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Posted: Monday, July 22, 2019 - 12:27 AM UTC
Thanks for a great review Darren. It is interesting that they provide Grey and Simcoe Foresters markings. This Regt. was disbanded November 1, 1943 as well as other units while training in the UK. My Uncle was recruited there and then remustered in the 2nd Infantry Division with 14th Canadian Hussars Recce Regt.
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