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Italeri 1/35 Medium 3 Ton Truck
– Coal Engine
(6457)
Medium 3 Ton Truck – Coal Engine Late WW II German Army Truck
Italeri 1/35 Scale
Reviewed by Al Bowie
Summary
Stock Number and Description
Italeri 1/35 scale Kit No. 6457 - Medium 3
ton. Truck – Coal Engine
Late WW II German Army Truck
Scale:
1/35
Media and Contents:
151 sand coloured parts with one piece of
vinyl hose and rubber tyres on three sprues, 1 clear plastic sprue of
windows, decals for four vehicles and 12 page instructions with brief
history, parts plan, build diagrams and paint/decal drawings.
Price:
TBA
Review Type:
First Look
Advantages:
First mainstream kit of this well used
vehicle. detailed engine and interior; positionable front wheels; rubber
tyres.
Disadvantages:
Cab doors moulded closed; lots of sink
marks.
Recommendation:
Highly Recommended
FirstLook
Model manufacturers have had a love affair with German subjects
since the early 80’s however not many of those companies have
offered softskins or support vehicles, instead offering (seemingly)
an unending stream of heavy metal AFV’s whether they actually saw
service or not. Italeri (and Tamiya) have gone against the accepted
convention and have offered a number of softskins and support
vehicles of the German Army in WW2. This kit follows in the
footsteps of Italeri’s previous offerings and offers a lot of
familiar parts. It is essentially a modified version of the wooden
cabbed Opel 4 X 2, the difference being a modified Rear Body, Coal
Burner, reservoir and associated feeds.
When I first opened
the Box I thought I had just been sent the parts associated with the
Coal burner as it did not look like enough parts to build the full
kit; how wrong I was!
Construction was broken into 13 steps in the easy to follow
instructions and I pretty much followed these throughout although
not having painting facilities I have built the kit in subsections
to allow for painting after it is completed.
Click the
thumbnails below to view larger images:
Step
1: This covers
the building of the Kfz 305 chassis which, those of you not familiar
with italeris German Trucks contains a reasonable facsimile of the
engine. The only part I found a problem with was part 53A – the
driveshaft which appears to be about 2mm short. This could be caused
by parts 25& 6 A – leaf springs being reversed inadvertently but I
don’t believe this to be so. As I had already glued these I just
made do. There were a lot of knock out marks on the chassis rails
which I declined to fill as they won’t be seen when the body is
fitted and the chassis rails weathered.
Step
2: This covers
the Wheels and body support rails which caused no particular
problems. The tyres are in a very soft rubber with no sidewall
detail, manufacturers names etc. I used a very sharp no 11 blade to
remove the sprue point. They will not accept sanding due to the
softness and a scrape with a scalpel should suffice to remove mold
marks (quite subdued).
Step
3, 4 & 5: I
wished I had a third and more preferably fourth hand during this
section which covers the construction of the Rear Body. Some more
positive locating tabs or interlocking joins may have made this an
easier process. If I was building another I would use superglue to
tack parts in place. I eventually found it workable to assemble the
sides in the following order: 56A,54A, 57A, 55A, 7A&6A.
Note:
step 4 is the alternative body which would have you cut the
sidewalls to get a lower rear body. If you plan on doing this do it
prior to step 3.
Step
6: The Body is
attached to the Chassis in this section and the support rails for
the Coal Burner reservoir are attached at this point. The mounting
location is a bit vague so ensure your Reservior fits before
finalising its position. You may want to fill all the knockout marks
in the interior walls in this stage as it is hard once assembled. A
good way to halve these is to exercise the option in Part 4
Step
7: We assemble
the Coal Reservior here and fit it to the vehicle, no great problems
were encountered although I found the instructions a little vague in
this area. I Did not glue this in as I am leaving it free to paint
at a later stage.
Step
8: This is the
Bonnet, grille and Fenders assembly and the part I found the hardest
to assemble. I’m wondering if I found as hard when I built the
original Opel as a Teenager in the 70’s. Four hands are a distinct
advantage here or low tack sticky tape. I had great problems keeping
it all together and square. There are a few little gaps left over
but nothing drastic. I chose not to add the clear window insert so
that I could paint it later. Do not forget to open up the holes in
the fenders to allow the vinyl hose to pass through in later stages.
Step
9: The rest of
the cab is added to the Bonnet assembly with no particular problems
other than needing four hands.
Step
10: The cab
interior is added to the finished cab and detail parts such as
bonnet clips, Lights and mirrors are added. I chose not to glue the
cab floor to the cab to allow for later painting. The carpet monster
got the handbrake at this stage and a scratchbuilt alternative will
have to suffice.
Step
11 & 12: This
is where you add some plumbing to the Coal unit assuming you have
opened up the holes in the fenders. The spare wheel and jack are
added to the Rear body but there are no locating marks or holes (no
problem really)
Step
13:
Construction finishes with the Coal gas unit on the fender and the
rear body detail parts – no great problems here.
Marking Options:
Markings are provided
for Six version (look carefully at C for D and E for F):
Version A –
Unknown unit Italy early 45 in RLM 79 with RLM 82 wavy pattern
Version B –
s.Avt.abt. (mot) 764 Bologna italy early 45 in a three tone
scheme
Version C –
Wehrmacht 1944 in plain Sandgelb RLM 79
Version D –
Reichsarbeitdienst 1994 in plain Sandgelb RLM 79
Version E – Todt
Organisation 1944 in plain Sandgelb RLM 79 &
Version F –
Polizei 1944
Conclusion
This is a good sound
kit but the base parts are showing their age (the original Opel was
released in the 1970’s) compared to the latest überkits from
DML and Tamiya. It doesn’t have the engineering of a Tamiya Kit or
the fine detail of DML but it is more than acceptable, which is
testament to how good Italeri were in the 1970’s.
I applaud Italeri for
this release as these vehicles were plentiful in the later years of
the war as fuel got scarce, and German softskins are scarce in
mainstream production.
I don’t normally build
many German subjects but like the more fringe subjects and this
falls into that category filling a niche in the market. A large
number of these vehicles were used post war so a myriad of subjects
are available and the Coal unit could be adapted to other Italeri
Opel/Mercedes kit further broadening subject material.
I thoroughly enjoyed
this kit and it builds into an attractive model out of the box
requiring nothing more than basic modelling skills. I’d recommend
this kit to fans of German subjects and particular German Transoport.
Full marks to Italeri for providing this genre. This is one of those
subjects you may wish to try to get you out of a modelling rut. It
is certainly a different build from a myriad of M4 variants that sit
unfinished on the workbench!