'Toujours Pret'

The Editor paints and weathers Panda Model’s Stryker Dragoon.

Last month we looked in depth at Panda Model’s new M1296 Stryker Dragoon ICV. Overall, this is good model of one of the newest additions to the inventory of the U.S. Army, much better than some of Panda’s other kits, and a very good representation of the real vehicle. The kit was not without its faults, however, and the serious modeller will certainly want to add some details, not least the multiple straps that adorn the sides of the Stryker family of vehicles that enable the crew to stow their personal gear and other accessories. These are available from several Aftermarket manufacturers, including Eduard, ET Models, Griffon Models and Voyager. I decided, as you will see, to take a slightly approach to hide the fact that this very obvious feature of the Stryker was missing on my model.

I was helped in painting and weathering this model by a series of photographs that German photographer Ralph Zwilling was kind enough to share with me. As one of Europe’s leading military photographers, Ralph has access to many NATO exercises and his website www.tankmasters.de is a wonderful reference resource, as are, of course, the many books he has published for the likes of Tankograd. We published some of Ralph’s photos of the Stryker Dragoon in last month and ones that caught my eye were those of vehicles on exercise at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Bavaria. The 7th Army Multinational Training Command’s base is, at 232km2, the largest NATO training area in Europe. It also has a very distinctive light-coloured soil which leaves the vehicles training there covered in a buffcoloured dust which very much resembles the CARC Tan some modern U.S. Army vehicles are painted in. Given that Strykers are all finished in Bronze Green, I thought the contrast of the green AFV and the buffcoloured dust would make for an unusual looking model.

Painting