The mysterious MilMod

I hope my readers had a good Christmas and got the gifts they wanted. I'm a difficult person to buy for so the majority of my presents were model kits from myself to add to my ever-growing stash, including a couple that are particularly unusual and not at all well documented. I thought it was worth writing something to shed a little more light on the mysterious little-known firm of MilMod, whose approach to kit production is rather individual to say the least. 

The model kit market in 1/76 scale just hasn't been the same since the demise of BW Models on proprietor Barry Wright's well-deserved retirement a few years ago. The moulds for the huge range were sold in batches to various other firms and while some former BW kits have reappeared, others have yet to emerge and their fate currently remains unknown. Thanks to a bit of detective work, some have now been traced to MilMod, with several already available and others scheduled for release next year. I had never heard of MilMod before and they seem to keep a very low profile, so who are they and what are their kits like?


MilMod just popped up out of nowhere, nothing has been revealed about the company's background and there are no contact details available but I have learned that it is a one-man band run by a German gentleman from Berlin whose identity remains a mystery. There is no official website and the kits are only available from the Luchtvaart Hobby Shop, also known as the Aviation Megastore, in Schipol, Netherlands. Choosing a Dutch firm as the exclusive distributor for a range of UK-outline kits seems a strange decision as shipping charges and currency conversion fees bump up the prices considerably for customers in Britain, which must limit the market somewhat. 

The company appear to have released only two kits prior to 2017, an American Minuteman missile carrier and a set of ground support equipment for military aircraft, so their range has expanded considerably and quite suddenly with the purchase of the former BW models and the release programme seems very ambitious for a one-man band. The only place with a full listing of current and future kits is the Henk of Holland military model directory; there is very scant reference to them anywhere else online, no reviews have ever been published and I have never seen photos of any finished models other than the missile carrier. MilMod remain very much an unknown quantity even among the military modelling community, which is full of obscure cottage industry manufacturers.

MilMod kits are not cheap and at 30-50 euros apiece cost significantly more than the BW originals. Once shipping from the Netherlands (via UPS) and the currency conversion fee had been added, my order for two kits didn't leave much change from £100. The service was very good though: I placed the order on a Friday evening, it was processed first thing Saturday morning, despatched on Monday and arrived less than 48 hours later with email notifications at every stage. It would no doubt be cheaper and quicker to order from a UK supplier, but this option unfortunately isn't available as the Luchtvaart shop is the only stockist. Given the prices and the lack of information, I suppose it was quite brave of me to order a couple of kits without knowing anything about what they were really like.


While the BW kits were made from white metal, MilMod are using the same moulds to cast in a grey resin, with some more fragile parts in an unusual black resin they claim to be unbreakable. Casting quality looks better than BW's, whose finish sometimes left a bit to be desired with flash and surface scarring, but there is still a lot of excess material to remove, the windows for instance being filled with a solid skin of resin that needs cutting out. No axles or glazing material are supplied and the builder is expected to provide these, a disappointing bit of penny-pinching considering how much the kits cost. Although described as 1/72 military scale, they are actually to the slightly smaller 1/76 or OO gauge as per the BW originals.

The MilMod approach to publicity is best described as unconventional. Instead of photos of completed models, they rely on digitally-rendered side elevations to illustrate (not always entirely accurately) what the kits look like. In addition some of these info sheets highlight key features like metallic transfers and the inclusion of figures, and suggest some 'easy conversions' that can be made from the basic kit. The result, as can be seen below, is an overwhelmingly colourful and hard to read catalogue, especially when reduced to A4 size and printed on the reverse of the instruction sheets. The instructions themselves are similar in style, containing the same renderings, a brief history of the prototype, some hints and tips for scratch-building small parts like mirrors, aerials and lights, and sometimes a random translation of Arabic numerals into English!

Each basic kit is available in two or three variations, each of which contains decals for two to five alternative liveries - while the quality of these is good, their authenticity is highly questionable and many of the colour schemes chosen appear never to have been worn by such vehicles in real life. The manufacturer's knowledge of the subject matter seems limited, perhaps due to him being a German producing models of British vehicles he isn't familiar with, and some descriptions are vague or inaccurate. There are currently around 30 different models either in production or announced for release next year, most of which came from BW Models but there are a few that originated elsewhere.

I am not a military modeller but I chose two kits that have obvious civilian applications and fit the main themes of my collection: a bus and a fire appliance. I haven't even started to build either of them yet and below are my first impressions just from opening the boxes and looking at what was inside.

 

Dennis Rapier MkII water tender (MM000137)

This was one of the last kits introduced by BW and I missed out on buying one during its short time in the range, so I was pleased to find it had been re-released by MilMod. The instruction sheet is completely new, in MilMod's own unique style and entirely different from that supplied by BW, with plenty of colour photos of real appliances but little text. There are no detailed step-by-step assembly instructions, nor even a parts list, just an exploded diagram and unusually a photo of the actual components laid out with some of the smaller parts labelled. A brief history of the real vehicle is included, but it wrongly suggests the Rapier was replaced by the Sabre in 1995 when in fact these were two separate models both available at the same time

It is based on a Durham County appliance, photos of which by Barry Wright are included in the instructions, and this version has transfers both for Durham and also Dublin Civil Defence, the latter possibly not entirely authentic. Two other variations are available: MM000140 is for the German Florian Erfurt brigade (which does exist and is one of only two Dennises in Germany) with a fictional alternative for the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, while MM000141 is described as a Sabre but illustrated as a Rapier in the liveries of Dublin Airport and RAF Laarbruch.

Most parts of this kit are made from grey resin and attached to large blocks of scrap material that will need sawing away, as was typical of BW's metal products. Another bag contains smaller and more fragile parts cast in black resin, such as the ladders, mirrors and steering wheel. Disappointingly but perhaps understandably given the number of variations, no beacons or lightbars are supplied and it is suggested you should buy the MilMod accessory pack of emergency lights and firefighting tools, which at another 25 euros adds significantly to the expense.

 

Mercedes airfield shuttle bus (MM000404)

This is one of the MilMod kits that were never part of the BW Models range; the only bus Barry ever produced was the RAF Strachans-bodied Bedford SB, which is also now with MilMod and due for 2018 release. It appears to be a copy of the Reeve Burgess-bodied Mercedes L608D produced in white metal many years ago by Pirate Models, which would make it a pirated Pirate! The most surprising difference is that the sides and rear are now cast in clear resin with integral windows. which may make painting a challenge but it doesn't appear to be the same sticky polyester resin that was so hated by bus modellers in the early 2000s. The rest of the parts are in MilMod's usual grey resin and it lacks the one-piece bodyshell that is customary for modern bus kits.

There are two variations with different transfer sheets. Mine is the RAF version (MM000404) with four additional options for Gatwick Airport Shuttle, Aer Turas, the Royal Bahrain Air Force and again the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation. The other (MM000408) comes with transfers for the Royal Navy, British Airways, Aer Lingus and the Royal Saudi Air Force. While they fit with the liveries of other MilMod models, I suspect these are all fictional as BA and the British military definitely didn't use L608Ds (both favoured the Dodge G-series for crew transport) and it seems extremely unlikely that Middle Eastern and Asian forces would have had UK-built Reeve Burgess bodies.

The instruction sheet for this kit lacks any photos of real vehicles (probably because none actually exist in the chosen liveries), just digital renderings of the sides in the five colour options. Again there is a labelled photo of the parts but no exploded diagram. The description is very odd as it appears to be a copy and paste from Wikipedia or a Mercedes web page and wrongly suggests the L608D was front-wheel drive. It bizarrely states "this bus was rebuilt by Reeve Burgess Body Building in the late 1970s and sometimes is referred to as the Alexander version. It was specialized for short-distance transport at airports", so there is obvious confusion between two separate coachbuilders and over the role of the vehicle, which was actually built in the mid-1980s for urban minibus services.

So those are my first impressions of MilMod kits. I have to say I find the company's whole ethos rather odd: very limited availability from an overseas supplier, little effort made to publicise themselves, strange kit descriptions and inauthentic liveries, and a distinctly individual approach to producing instructions and other printed materials. MilMod are something of an enigma for sure and it seems strange that they keep such a low profile as they have an interesting range of models that while not the best value for money aren't available from anyone else, yet remain virtually unknown even in military modelling circles. I intend to start building these kits in the new year and will follow up sometime with another piece to show the finished products as I have never seen any built examples.