Puma Schützenpanzer (IFV) - Empress Miniatures: Research

At Salute 2019 (amongst other things) I bought Empress Miniatures recently released Puma IFV.

I have been waiting to buy some books on the vehicle before starting assembly - and now I have them.

The Tankograd books cover the development and entry into service of Germany's new Infantry Fighting vehicle, replacing the venerable Marder IFV.

The books contain colour photographs including walk rounds and interior shots that will make assembly and detailing a lot easier.

While I was at it, I also bought another Tankograd book on a 2017 German exercise. No Pumas were involved, but it does have useful information on current German equipment.

 Now I just need to get round to assembling and painting the Puma.

Puma Schützenpanzer (IFV) - Empress Miniatures

At Salute I picked up the recently released Puma Schützenpanzer (IFV) made by Empress Miniatures.

The kit comprises a number of cleanly cast white resin components with a number of white metal detail components.

The resin is similar to that used by Rubicon for their Waffentrager  and P43 bis kits. Unlike those, you cannot slot them together.

The Puma is designed to have a modular armour package, which allows the base model to be air portable. Four A400M transports can lift three Puma (with the base armour package) plus the three upgrade packages to take then to class C. The kit appears to be able to model the base package and the class C side armour.

The Puma is armed with a 30mm auto cannon which can fire bot APFSDS kinetic energy rounds and airburst capable dual purpose rounds.