ICM 1/35 scale AR-2 (43105) Hose Fire Truck plastic model kit review

The AR-2 (43105) hose fire truck uses the KAMAZ-4310 off-road chassis and was designed for mechanized laying of up to 2.5km of hose at a fire site. The ICM 1/35 scale AR-2 Hose Fire Truck plastic model kit comes with markings for three Ukrainian cities.

The assembly starts with a detailed multipart frame and suspension. Make sure the individual frame rails and crossmembers are parallel, level, and square, or you’ll have problems mounting the cab and body. Early in the build, you must decide to use either the fixed or posable front axle. A highly detailed diesel engine will be a welcome sight for those who want to add plumbing and wires.

The body builds from individual sides, floor, and roof. These parts have minimal contact areas for gluing. To add strength, you might want to reinforce these joints with an L-shaped or square plastic rod. I attached the rear and side doors, then glued the four vertical walls to the completed floor using the roof to help alignment. Since there is nothing to see inside the body, I painted the inside of the roof’s skylights Tamiya Smoke.

The rear toolboxes and side storage units are made from individual flat panels. The handles and door latches all come as individual parts. After enlarging their mounting holes, I attached the hardware with white glue and secured them with superglue.

If you try to snip the tree attachments to the fragile roof rails, they’ll probably break. I tried and learned my lesson. I cut the remainder with a new No. 11 blade, making multiple light cuts. The body and chassis join via mating rails, and this is why everything needs to be parallel.

You can mount the cab down or tilted forward; pins on the floorboard attach to concave brackets on the chassis. You could easily close this joint with U-shaped plastic and make the cab posable. Take care the cab sides are assembled correctly so the doors, which can be assembled open or closed) fit in their openings.

If you mount the doors in the closed position, they sit proud of the body. I recommend removing the recessed door-frame flanges. The clear individual glass panels fit well. The headlights and taillights are clear, so you’ll have to paint the taillights. The kit provides decal gauges for the dash and individual, tiny handles detail out the interior. I found the two-part exterior mirrors fiddly to mount.

I painted with Tamiya acrylics throughout and painted all the body and cab pieces before assembly. The decals were opaque and performed well, but they did tend to curl.

For me, this was a very involved build. I spent over 100 hours on it. I followed the build sequence in the instructions after building up as many subassemblies as I could. There was minimal flash on the parts, but I spent time cleaning up mold lines on the smaller pieces. ICM kits generally feature a high parts count with an abundance of small pieces, so I spent at least a couple of hours looking for launched parts. You’ll want plenty of experience before digging into the ICM 1/35 scale AR-2 (43105) Hose Fire Truck plastic model kit. With that said, the final result is worth the effort.