Archive for March 2010
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Kit Review : MasterBox German Troops “Road To The Rear”
0 Comments | Posted by Dean in 4. All Reviews
If you’re looking for a WWII subject that’s something a little bit different then this is the one for you. Whilst the image we have of the German army in WWII is charging Panzers and mechanised Infantry the reality is that the lowly horse and wagon still performed a large part in the movement of troops and supplies and images abound of German soldiers getting from A to B via horse transportation.
So Masterbox’s “Road to the Rear” is a brilliant little snapshot in time with the added benefit of coming with a variety of options.
One of Masterbox’s few failings is their failure to emphasise the full strengths of a kit so they have sold themselves short here with cover art that only shows the cart and five figures. In fact the box itself states six figures and no mention is made anywhere of the seventh. But she’s there. Yes “she” as this kit includes both the farmer and his daughter from the “Somewhere in Europe” kit from which the hay-cart and horses originated.
So, what you get – one cart, two horses, one prone wounded soldier, one medic, one farmer, one farmer’s daughter ( a small girl with pigtails designed to be seated beside the farmer ), one seated figure who can be driving or just seated, one seated wounded figure, one walking figure that can be wounded in the arm or carrying a rifle.
The parts are very well cast, the detail is sharp and well defined - especially the faces and hands which are so important when it comes to figures. Clean-up is minimal and assembly is quick and easy with the rear of the box provding one set of basic instructions for the figures and an enclosed simple line drawing page providing the instructions for the rest.
The figures include parts for what MasterBox call “multipose” by providing extra arms, in this case allowing the walking figure to either be wounded or unwounded and carrying a rifle, and the seated figure to be either holding the reins or with his hands on his legs ( whilst the farmer figure is used to hold the reins ).
Everything on this goes together well with only minimal cleanup/filling etc. Some of the figures include such nice deatils as seperate collars and skirt flaps for the uniform jacket which is something usually only seen in the Dragon Gen 2 figure sets. There’s also nice touches like a wristwatch on the medic at the rear and optional hats for the farmer.
The horses are also well detailed including seperate ears which gives them better definition. The wagon has seperate parts for the rings through which the reins are fed. No reins are included but cotton works fine. I find it best to roll it between your fingers while lightly soaked in PVA glue to get it to stay rope like without the fraying. It will also then stay in the position you want it to.
The wagon depicts a wooden hay-cart style wagon and whilst there is no wood grain texture to the mouldings I for one don’t mind. I know some people feel all wooden items should have wood grain but I feel this is overstated and gives the parts a very rough hewn look. On real finished wood the grain is visual not tactile and properly paited wood parts look more effective than something that just adds grain to say “look I’m wood”. If however you like your wood with grain then this would be the kit’s one negative.
All in all a great value kit depicting a part of WWII not often seen in modelling.
FURTHER IMAGES : Sprue 1 – Wagon : Sprue 2 – Horses : Sprue 3 – Figures
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Scheduled for release sometime in April is a six/seven figure set of Commonwealth troops and AFV crew figures. Included are a four man tank/afv crew in the process of having a cuppa, an indian soldier, a bedouin arab and a camel. The photos of the actual figures that I’ve seen do look slightly different from the box art ( mainly minor variations in poses ) so don’t go expecting Monty till we’ve seen them in the flesh so to speak.
MasterBox Commonwealth AFV Crew
The recent news of the new 1/35 scale Tamiya Tilly was great news, but the rest to be honest is somewhat disappointing. This month saw the release of another of the old Russian SU kits with just the addition of a weathering powders pack and a boost in the sticker price, along with the recently released JagdTiger together with the old Otto Carius crew figure set and the motorbike and rider from the KT Ardennes set.
( UPDATE : Looks like I jumped the gun a bit there. This release is indeed the recently released JagdTiger but with additional parts to make it into a Mid-Production version. The figures are also new as far as I can tell. There is though a problem that the markings provided are incorrect for Carrius’s ride as his unit used the markings X1 through X8, not the usual numerical numbering system ).
And Tamiya looks to continue that trend with the releases planned for April. The three planned releases consist of a US Field Maintenace set, Tiger I Late and M2A2 Sherman.
BUT … The Maintenance set is just the Italeri Field Tool Shop reboxed as Tamiya and with the inclusion of the two figures from the Red Ball Express kit and the M2A2 Sherman is a reboxing of the Italeri kit with the inclusion of the Tamiya Russian Tank Crew set. I’ll reserve judgement on the Tiger till more info is available but on the surface it appears to be a rerelease of the Late Production Tiger I with the Otto Carius figure set ( previously available with the Mid-Production which should have had zimmerit but didn’t so I’m not holding my breath for this one to have it either ) and an additional crew figure set.
On the surface of it this isn’t such a bad thing, there are a lot of hard to find kits that only Tamiya made that I’d like to see back on the shelves and the recent return of the Quad gun tractor, the 25pdr and the Tiger I Initial to our shelves has been welcomed.
I’m not so over the moon about the reboxing of Italeri kits which we’ve already seen with the L3000, Sd.Kfz 234 Puma, Kfz. 15 Horch and more recently the L6/40 and P40 as well as the two-in-one kits such as the Horch 1a with the Nebelwerfer and the LRDG Truck with the Breda.
The “freshening up” of old kits though does seem to be more a case of adding extras rather than updating the kit itself. We’ve seen this with the DAKification of several kits such as the FlaK 36/37, Sd.Kfz 232, Sd.Kfz 222, Steyr 1500 and Kubelwagen as well as redos on the Carro Armato M13/40 and Semovente M40 and “bulkouts” with the rerelease makeover of kits such as the Ford GPA with the russian crew and the aforementioned KT Ardennes, itself a combining of the original KT with extras.
At the same time we HAVE seen a new Matilda and a couple of new Pz.Kpfw IIs ( not to mention of course the completely new kits like the Citroen IICV, The JagdTiger and the JSU-152 ) so there’s hope yet that we may still see a truely new Willys MB Jeep, a Universal Carrier or 6pdr but I suspect before we see new ones we’ll see the old ones rereleased with added extras.
I’m in two minds on the whole business of giving old kits makeovers. On the one hand it’s nice to see hard to find kits back on the shelves, on the other hand I’m not so keen on paying Dragon prices for Tamiya kits, and Tamiya prices for Italeri kits.
Sometimes I lose interest in tanks and look for a nice simple build with wheels and this is one of those kits that can be anything from an evening build for a quick break to a month long detailed masterpiece.
Being Tamiya it goes together like a dream, the mouldings are crisp and clean with only minor clean up needed – a few light mould seams and the inevitable knock-out marks but these are well placed and those that will be visible are easily dealt with.
The instructions are clear and simple, very easy to follow, though one point of note as it’s easily missed if you don’t read them thoroughly is that this can be built as either an early version A/B/C with the spare wheel recessed into the outside or a later version D/E with the spare wheel mounted on the inside.
Provided with this kit is a soft mesh to use in the grille though it isn’t truely accurate as the grille on the Steyr should be horizontal bars rather than square mesh but it does the job if supreme accuracy isn’t paramount, and if it is Tamiya also makes a photo-etch upgrade set for it as well.
Also included are two figures, a driver and a standing officer, both are very well detailed. Though the uniforms do appear to be more suited to an early war setting they are still appropriate for a later war setting in a non-combat location.
The side doors can be positioned open or closed and the rear doors although they come moulded as one are designed to be easily split into two doors so that they too can be modelled open if so desired.
Decals are provided for Russia 1942, North Africa 1942, Tunisia 1943, Russia 1943 and Germany 1945. Something suited to France in 1944 would have been nice but we can’t have everything.
If you’re looking for a quick build ( as in do it in an evening ) I would recommend starting at number 5 in the instructions and assembling the body shell first. That way you can put it aside to set whilst you go back and do the chassis and then the smaller sub-assemblies like the seats. In this manner the body shell can then be finished off whilst the chassis in turn sets before everything goes together at the end.
If on the other hand you’re the type who suffers from any form of AMS ( advanced modeller syndrome ) there are many a conversion kits available for this ( mainly resin from CMK and Verlinden ) including an ambulance version, small cargo truck version, radio car, fuel truck etc. Other upgrades include the Eduard Photo-etch set and resin tyres ( though the kit supplied ones are very good ).
Tamiya also makes this in a Command Car version called the Kommandeurwagen which is the same base vehicle but with a hardtop roof and they have just recently released this in a DAK version with new markings and a set of Afrika Korps figures.
Generally recognised as the best Sherman kits available in 1/35 Tasca kits don’t come cheap but are well worth the money.
We’re trialling a number of Sherman variants including the Firefly to see how well received they are in NZ. At $120 a kit they’re not cheap but we’re hoping that if they are well received we’ll be able to buy in sufficient bulk to get future ones down under $100 each.
