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To be honest my first thought about pic number three above was that it looked Israeli, but in regard to lots of comments on other forums where these pictures have been posted the comments about these vehicles looking "western" are very amusing... so many seem to think that rear access doors and front mounted engines is a western design concept, yet the BMP-1 had a front mounted engine and rear doors.
If anything can be claimed to be western it would be the ramp rear door and these models don't seem to have them... though in the case of the Taifun truck it has a standard door in the centre of a ramp door so troops can either open the door manually and get out or lower the ramp and exit.
I would actually not be surprised if the Russian vehicles designed for rear troop transport had half ramp doors split in half with the lower half folding down and the upper half folding up or sideways like the side doors on the BTR-80s. It gives a bit of flexibility in that you can leave the lower part up and shoot over it with the upper part open and by splitting it in half it should be able to be made lighter and faster opening than a large single piece door.
If anything can be claimed to be western it would be the ramp rear door and these models don't seem to have them... though in the case of the Taifun truck it has a standard door in the centre of a ramp door so troops can either open the door manually and get out or lower the ramp and exit.
I would actually not be surprised if the Russian vehicles designed for rear troop transport had half ramp doors split in half with the lower half folding down and the upper half folding up or sideways like the side doors on the BTR-80s. It gives a bit of flexibility in that you can leave the lower part up and shoot over it with the upper part open and by splitting it in half it should be able to be made lighter and faster opening than a large single piece door.
