Canadian EROC Buffalo, Cougar & RG-31

sharkmouth Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:17 pm

Real Model is best known for their modern armor conversion sets and now they have released a series of books named the "Modeler Photo Assistant" or MPA for short.

This is the second title and is a thin softcover printed on landscape format A4 paper. The covers are glossy heavy card stock and the pages are glossy paper. This is important as glossy and semi-matte both allow for better print quality. Two staples bind the 64 pages together. This is not a bad approach for a modeler's magazine or booklet as it allows for it to remain open when on the workbench.

Flipping through the pages quickly, one will notice that it is a full color publication with large photos. After an un-captioned title page, we are brought to the EROC Buffalo chapter. Twenty photos cover a walk around view of this large vehicle in Canadian service. The captions are a bit simplified and do not cover any details but, since this vehicle is in current service performing sensitive tasks, the photographer may not be at liberty to disclose the details.

The second chapter covers the EROC Cougar. Here one finds a more complete walk around with 47 photographs, not counting the one on the title page. The captions are better in this chapter.

The third chapter on the RG-31 is the best of the lot with 80 walk around, and under, photographs. While the interior is not covered for any of the vehicles, this chapter does go into detail on the suspension. The chapter wraps up with a four photo walk around of a 3/4 ton trailer.

The last chapter is on US MRAPs. There is one photo of an RG-33 (it partially appeared in one of the RG-31 photos) and three photos of a US Buffalo. The text does explain some of the visible differences between the US layout to the Canadian.

In conclusion, we have 155 photographs of EROC vehicles in service with both Canadian and US Forces in Afghanistan. However, the Acronym EROC (Expedient Road Opening Capability) nor EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) are defined within the book even though it is part of the title.

While photos of these vehicles are available online or on CDs, the former has low resolution and both require a computer to be used on the modeler's workbench. This series of books therefore have a place for modelers tackling the new resin kits recently available and is recommended for them.