The BA-20 light armored car was based on the GAZ M1 automobile, itself based on the 1933 Ford. This armored car, with a main armament  of a 7.62 mm Maxim machine gun, was in production from 1936 until 1941 at a factory in Gorky. A rail modification set was developed to allow this vehicle to use standard rail road tracks. This was accomplished by simply bolting on a set of railway flanges. The conversion took around 30 minutes to accomplish. These were not only used against the Finns, but several were captured by the Germans and utilized against Soviet forces.

THE KIT

What we have here is your standard BA-20 light armored car with an additional sprue for the railroad modification. It is very nice that Maquette includes a track section on which to display this kit. You can see that each of the sprues is a different shade of plastic, making for something of more colorful kit when you are constructing it. Sort of like Matchbox's multi-colored stuff of the 70s and 80s.

As with all Maquette kits, the detail level is good with flash on some sprues and next to none on others. No sink areas and those ejector marks I found are going to be easy to fill. If you wanted to, you could make a standard armored car from this kit, but why you'd buy the special edition and then do a 'normal' model is beyond me. The kit includes a full engine, which is a touch basic, but not a concern as you won't be able to see it once the kit is built other than from the underside.

Usual Maquette instructions with good drawings for the construction steps and no color info until the painting and marking guide. You also have the standard colors of either Russian Green or white depending on if you are going to do a summer or winter scheme. The only decals given are a couple of German crosses for a captured version as shown on the box art. These are by ProDecal and are OK, but not the greatest. You may want to scrounge crosses from an old aircraft kit or other source if you have the option.

CONCLUSIONS