(n)ever finished models: The Flying Dutchman - YPR 765 of Serbian Gendarmerie

History of this particular vehicle

Peacekeeper

This vehicle appeared in Balkans in the contingent of Dutch peacekeepers, tasked with protection of Srebrenica. They fielded a dozen of such vehicles, painted white with large UN emblems. The faith of Dutchbat is not a happy one, as they surrendered their equipment to VRS, being limited with UN mandate to oppose the war factions in Bosnian conflict. Their equipment was used by Serb forces, and one member of 10^th Sabotage Detachment was killed when YPR, driven by members of this detachment, turned over on the road.

in Dutch Battalion in Srebrenica

under new management: 10th Sabotage Detachment VRS

War criminal

Further destiny of those vehicles is not known. Whether they remained within above mentioned detachment (whose members were attributed for killing of around 1500 civilians and prisoners form Srebrenica) , or they might have been part of some other unit is yet to be discussed. Couple months after the fall of Srebrenica (in July 1995), the Dayton peace agreement was signed in the end of that year. We can identify 2 YPR over painted in Yugoslav people`s army „SMB“ – sivo maslinasta boja, a faded olive drab colour used for army vehicles. Interesting enough, one YPR still has protective shields in white color. After Dayton agreement, some equipment is transferred to Serbia, where State Secret service’s Unit for special operations used those vehicles. UN forces recovered most vehicles from various depots in Bosnia, but two were missing…

Counter terrorist

Unit for special operations (JSO) was founded as Secret service’s paramilitary unit, under Ministry of interior. They fielded various vehicles, including booty from Bosnia – 2 YPR and one Grizzly. These vehicles were used in emerging conflict in Kosovo, and their most famous task was during the siege of Adam Jasari house in village of Prekaz. It was filmed by AFP (1:24 - 1:45), and when British intelligence analyzed strange equipment from that video, it turned out that those were Dutch vehicles. It is assumed that one YPR was lost during the conflict in Kosovo.

Mutineer

The last remaining one was photographed when JSO mutinied in 2003, after they were used to arrest two war criminals. The vehicle was photographed outside JSO barracks. After subsequent assassination of Serbian Prime minister, where leading cadre of the unit participated, the unit was disbanded. The accused ones were prosecuted, officers downgraded and personnel transferred to Gendarmerie.

JSO mutiny in Kula: YPR 765 - 4th vehicle in a row

Gendarme on “administrative line”

Gendarmerie is special police unit intended to suppress armed rebellion, among other tasks. Its role was evident in controlling the “administrative line” with Kosovo. As military handed over to police the task of border protection, that task was fulfilled by border police. As Serbia do not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, it does not see the demarcation line as “the border”, but as “the administrative line”, hence border police couldn’t fulfill such task. Coupled with ethnic tensions in the area, increased smuggling and trafficking, with occasional armed incidents, Gendarmerie was given such task. It is located within Niš detachment, with similar “one of a kind” vehicles: Grizzly, Saxon, Panhard, BOV upgraded with Romanian TAB turrets, BVP M80 with experimental turret etc.

The vehicle

Main distinguishing features of this vehicle are installed weapons and rubber protection skirts. The original weapon was M2HB .50cal machine gun, with the option of further two 7,62mm MGs for the crew. In its current outlook, YPR is armed with NSV 12,7mm MG along with 30mm AGL M93 in the main turret.

The interesting feature are rubber skirts, intended to enhance protection of vehicle by slowing the bullets and projectiles and activate grenades/rockets before they contact the armor, consuming and dispersing heat blast. On the photographed vehicle in 2006-2009 period, only several skirts remained – in frontal area, on back doors and around the turret, revealing interesting attaching points on the vehicle.

Observing YPR and other vehicles from that unit, that had the same treatment in the same workshop, it is evident that skirts were attached with screws on rods and frames.

YPR has a number of attaching frames on its sides, along with numerous nuts (for screws) in two rows.

The most recent pictures showing this still operational YPR in large digital cammo paint, but without rubber skirts and attaching points.

The model

The base kit is AFV club YPR 765 PRI SFOR

It has large turret with 25mm gun, the version not used in Bosnia. I replaced that turret with the one from Academy M113 ACAV kit.
Further improvements included adding protective rubber over the shield, replacing right hand shield with additional weapon - 30mm AGL with protective shield. At first, i concentrated my effort to properly position AGL, to add some more space for the front shield in order to accommodate NSV machine gun, which is longer than M2HB. I added frontal rubber shield, and attached frames for left hand rubber.

Then i added AGL and other rubber shield, along with numerous nuts.

The hull was also treated with numerous frames, nuts and bolts, large amount of (on the model) missing grab handles and some rubber made out from styrene. Prior to attaching it, i treated styrene with heat source in order to slightly deform the rubber.

On the sides are numerous nuts for bolts, more than 40 on the vehicle. They were made from some leftover rods, cut to size, glued and then drilled with micro-drill.