I broke the model down into sub assemblies for construction and painting purposes. These subassemblies were the chassis, floor pan, bodywork and turret. I began construction with the chassis. This went together with very little trouble. The chassis frame is moulded as a single piece. The engine is made from a number of pieces and is reasonably well detailed. I chose not to add all the engine details because I planned to have the engine access doors shut.  I drilled out the end of the exhaust pipe. The suspension parts required a little cleanup. The  springs appear to be slightly asymmetrical but the instructions are not clear as to which way round they go. The wheels are made from 3 parts consisting of the main wheel, brake drums and hub details. They look OK after cleanup although there is no tread detail on the running surfaces. The front bumper had a squared off profile whereas I have photos that indicate these should have a rounded appearance. I reshaped this with careful scraping and sanding. Rivets were added to the bumper as a finishing touch. I used photos as a guide to positioning these.

The floor pan presented few problems. The rim around the mudguards and running boards looked a little heavy so I thinned this down a little. Some sink marks were found, notably on the sides just behind the front mudguards.  I rounded the front rim of the headlights as they were incorrectly moulded with a square profile. One of the headlight mounting points was malformed on my kit so I had to fix this with putty. I replaced the headlight lenses with MV products items, although these were not glued until after painting. No tools are provided but my references show a spade wedged between the passengers' side stowage locker and the body. I found a spade in my spares box and added this with mounting brackets  fashioned from lead foil. The fuel filler cap was a little soft in detail but I left this alone.

The bodywork is built up from a number of pieces which require careful assembly to get the correct alignment. Once I had assembled the bodywork I could see that it did not meet with the floor pan outer edges which resulted in a pronounced step at the join. This bore no resemblance to the real thing. Photos I found after assembling the bodywork clearly showed what appeared to be a nice smooth bend as the bodywork wrapped around the chassis. This is an example of the kind of backtracking I ended up doing during this project. I had to carefully saw the firewall away from the sides and add some plastic card to push the sides out to the same width as the floor pan. I drilled a couple of holes in the floor pan either side, just in front of the rear wheel arches. I inserted short lengths of plastic rod to serve as locating pins, which when set held the rear of the armoured cab at the correct width. When the sides are aligned to the floor pan they look much better. I carved off the flange covering the join between the engine compartment sides and the driving compartment sides and replaced this with plastic strip fitted on a more correct angle. I closed the radio operator's door but left the drivers door open. I replaced the door vision flap exteriors with new ones made from plastic card. The exterior hinges were sanded off . Internal hinge detail was added where it would be seen and rivets were added on the outside.  The door fastening mechanism were carved off and simpler mechanisms were added with details based on photos.  I also replaced the flaps covering the radiator with new ones made from plastic card. These were have  rounded edges and concealed hinges. New hinge details were added to the inside along with a representation of the closing mechanism on the lower inside. I discovered that the height of the radiator was preventing the bodywork from sitting properly at the front. Some quick work with a file on the top of the radiator fixed this, the top of the radiator is invisible anyway. I made some modifications to the rounded rear plate based on photographs. I scraped of the vision flap which was moulded in the upper right corner of the rear plate and added a replacement one in the centre. Rivet detail punched from lead foil finished this off.  There appear to be 2 flange strips running the full height on either side of the rear plate, I added these from plastic strip. 

The interior needs to be painted prior to permanently  attaching the upper body to the floor pan. The only information I have indicates that the basic interior colour was white.  I undercoated the interior with  black. The interior sides of the doors were then painted green like the exterior and masked off. I then oversprayed the interior with white but left some shadow showing through from the black. Fittings like the steering wheel, gear stick, visors and radio were then hand painted in black. The floor was soiled with pastels and raised edges etc. were drybrushed with graphite. Practically none of this is visible on my finished model as it turns out. The kit provides an aerial pot that the instructions suggests be fitted on top of the engine compartment between the front visors. This is a BA-20 feature, BA-20M's had another type of mount on the side of the fighting compartment, near the top midway between the driver's door and the rear. I made a new pot from plastic rod and tubing using photos as a guide.  The radio aerial was added from fine brass wire. The fit of the the body to the floor pan was still not perfect and I had to do a bit of filling after they were mated. Flanges were added over the rear wheel arches and at the rear. Four tow hooks are provided. I reshaped these to make the tips more pointed. 

I turned next to the turret. No interior detail is provided so I opted to leave it closed down. The front plate looked way too thick to me so I thinned it down by sanding the back until I got the desired thickness. The kit MG was pretty awful, being both oversized and poorly detailed. I substituted a spare one I had left over from a previous project.  There are 3 vision blocks that need to be attached to the turret. I found that these were a very poor fit. I ended up thinning them down from behind and then bending them slightly around a knife handle to get them to fit the curvature of the turret properly. The domed hatch  fouls the signal flag port on the roof if it is modelled closed. I carved this port off and replaced it with a new one made of plastic card which I fitted just clear of the hatch. I added a small round ring beside the rear vision flap and a similar one on the turret front plate. These are shown clearly in photos of the BA-20M photo so I added them. The MG mounting was a more streamlined affair on the BA-20M so I reshaped this with putty, again using  photos as a guide.

The box art shows markings that I believe were pre war which feature a white cross over the turret or the top half of the turret painted all white. Wartime color options seem to be limited to Russian Green or winter white. Other markings seem scarce on wartime photos. The Finns used a few BA-20's so this might provide another option. BA-20's were also used in the Russian invasion of Poland in 1939. I painted mine using various Tamiya Green Acrylics to achieve a basic uneven, weathered shade of green. This was then weathered using a variety of techniques. The chassis and lower parts of the bodywork were dusted with various shades of brown to form the basis for further  weathering. Rust and scratches were added using Tamiya enamels,more dust and dirt effects were added using ground pastel chalk.

At the end of the day, I was quite pleased with the final result. The look of these light Russian armoured cars reminds me of a mobster's car on steroids, which is a look I find appealing. The model captured this look and to me that's half the battle. If I were to build another one tomorrow then it would be a much quicker process due to the lessons learned from this project. The model offered some challenges but was not overly difficult to assemble.  If you want to build BA-20 then this kit would be a good starting point as the modifications required are minimal. To build a half decent BA-20M takes a bit more work, which is the main reason for the mediocre rating I give this kit!  The provision of a detailed motor and partial interior are useful features for diorama modellers. The model would make a nice space filler on a large "Barbarossa" diorama or a nice centrepiece for a small diorama or vignette.