Sd.Kfz. 9/1 FAMO with Crane	Trumpeter, 1/72 scale
by Andrew Judson

Description

It is not often that I build 1/72 scale kits as I find them small and fiddly compared to my usual scale of 1/35.

Occassionally, though, I will see something that stands out and yells "Build Me!". That is what happened when I was offered this kit to review.

First impressions are important, and in the case of this kit the first impression is the box art. The photo of the model on the box is less than inspiring, but do not be misled - the contents of the box are excellent.

Trumpeter's 1/72 scale Sd.Kfz. 9/1 comprises ten sprues, a semi-finished chassis, three vinyl tyres, a set of rubber band-type tracks and a sprue of transparent parts for the windscreen.

Four of the ten sprues are for individual track links.

The instructions are very clear and you are given the option to build this as a early or late variant.

Constuction went really well and it was not long before the model was ready for paint.

I built and painted the model in two halves - the chassis with all running gear and motor attached, and the upper half all placed together as shown in the photos.

The side panels were removed so that all the nice engine detail supplied in the kit could be seen.

I was very happy with the high level of detail on the crane too.

My Famo was painted excluseively with Tamiya acrylics through my Aztec A470 airbrush.

With the basic painting complete, I weathered everything using Mig washes, filters and pigments, and also applied nicks and scratches with a very fine brush.

The tracks were then placed onto the model. I was originally going to use the inividual links but, for me, they just wouldn't go together easily so I went with the vinyl tracks. As it turns out, these were well detailed and loked great when installed.

All that was no left to do was to assemble the upper and lower halves of the model. I did a little bit of touch up with the weathering and then added the windscreen panels. The windscreen was scuffed to represent a hard-working vehicle.

In summary, I thought this was a little ripper of a kit and a lot of fun to build. The biggest benefit is the high level of detail in this small kit, with the minuses being a few sinkholes to fill and the vinyl tyres, which will not be to everyone's taste.

Trumpeter's 1/72 scale Famo with crane should be a welcome topic for all small scale modellers.

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Thumbnail panels:

Thanks to JB Wholesalers for the sample