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Montex Model Club Dodge WC 203a (RMV35001)
Dodge WC 203a
Reviewed by Jay Laverty
Summary
Stock Number and Description
Montex Plastic Model Club RMV35001 - Resin
Dodge WC 203a
Scale:
1/35
Media and Contents:
Resin construction kit
Price:
http://www.montex-mask.com/html/news_en.htm
Review Type:
First Look
Advantages:
Totally new kit of this vehicle; impressive
debut offering; well cast; nicely detailed; includes masks
Disadvantages:
Some delicate cleanup required on grille
Recommendation:
Highly Recommended for all fans of
soft-skin vehicles, Middle Eastern, Eastern Front, and even civilian
subjects.
FirstLook
Montex is a name that will be very familiar with anyone who prefers
to spray on markings as opposed to decals, through their high
quality range of masks available for aircraft as well as 1/35 and
1/16 scale armoured vehicles.
What we have here is the first release of a 1/35 scale resin kit
from the Polish based company and from initial impressions things
are looking very good. The casting is of the highest quality,
without air bubbles and very crisp and clean. There is a lot of
intelligent thought process involved with this and there are several
nice touches that will prove very welcome during the assembly
stages.
Click the
thumbnails below to view larger images:
The first thing that jumped out at
me was the fact that the grille has a small and very thin membrane
to it, that is a logical compromise for caster and modeller. If they
were cast hollow they would very quickly and very expensively
knacker the rubber mould, however by adding a thin bit of membrane
this can very easily be hollowed out using a scalpel blade.
The instructions are very well done and the step by step plans are
clear and easy to follow, there are also two historical images on
the back page, showing the vehicles offered as the decal options.
Also included with the package is a nicely done CD-Rom full of
images of the catalogue of Montex masks for 1/35 and 16th vehicles,
which in my humble opinion is a nice touch in itself, but best of
all is a folder containing some images of a build of the Dodge 203a,
from beginning to end.
Of course this wouldn’t be a Montex
kit if it didn’t have any masks in it, and there is a complete set
of wheel masks included, along with a smaller set for the windows.
The realization of the finer details is just as good as the overall
kit, and I was particularly impressed with the wood grain texture,
and the smaller details such as the engine parts are equally well
represented. Overall I would rate the quality of the parts very
highly.
I am no expert on the Dodge 203a and in fact I was unaware of its
existence until I had heard about this model, however it is a very
worthy subject and an interesting one as well. Manufactured in the
US and Canada over 3000 vehicles were produced for the civilian
market, with hundreds of them reaching Commonwealth and Polish
forces in the Middle East, and many more making their way into the
Soviet Union via the Lend Lease programme, thus leaving open a lot
of options for schemes and markings. I am sure that a thorough
search would turn up some photographs of these in Afrika Korps or
Wehrmacht service, knowing the flowing nature of the conflict in
these two theatres of operations.
I think this model should be a source of great pride for the folks
at Montex as a first release. A lot of care and effort have gone
into the models execution and there are several nice touches that I
have already mentioned, that show that pride and effort have gone
into producing this. Only time and a build of the model will pass
judgment on how the parts fit, and how the model will look when
built, but at least the basis of a quality model is there already,
and I am personally very confident in the kit.
I would give this model a very high
recommendation to anyone interested in Soft-skin vehicles, Middle
Eastern, Eastern Front, and even civilian subjects.