ICM 35411 – V3000S (1941 Production)German Army Truck
One of the lesser known sidelights of the Second World War was that whilst Henry Ford owned numerous factories that built equipment for the U.S. armed forces he also owned a number of factories in Germany and France ( and Russia and Holland and Belgium ) that produced equipment for the Wehrmacht. Ford it seems very much liked to keep their fingers in all the pies. So it does seem somewhat fitting that one of ICM’s latesy additions to their line up is a Ford V3000s, a 3-tonne Ford built truck widely used in the German army.
This kit comes in a medium sized tray and lid style box on three large dark yellow sprues together with a small sprue of clear parts, a small sheet of decals, a printed sheet providing the colour guide and the instructions which are printed on two sheets of paper folded in half to produce an A4 sized eight page loose leaf booklet. The instructions also include diagrams of the sprues with their numbering, as the sprues themselves carry no part numbers. This all builds up into an early war production Ford-Werke truck built in the Cologne factory.
The moulding quality is very good with no flash, minimal clean up of mould seams and nice clean, sharp detail. Many of the parts are quite small and delicate but are very well done and I’d happily put the quality up there with the likes of Tamiya in terms of mould quality, and probably ahead and more in DML’s camp in terms of level of detail and number of parts.
The chassis is a multipart frame assembly with all the parts being cleanly cast and, most importantly, straight. The underside is fully detailed including drive shafts, exhaust system and differential. If you’re building one and thinking that there should be a gas tank under there somewhere there isn’t, in some fit of design brilliance it’s contained under the cab seat on the V3000S.
Be careful with the assembly as many of the location pins and holes don’t match and are best removed. The crossmember behind the transmission also needs to come forward a little to support the rear end of the transmission. The axles are well done and the kit includes the ability for the front wheels to be turned though at the expese of having no steering linkages so you would need to add these yourself if you want, though they will barely be visible when done unless the wheels are turned to full lock.
The wheels are an unusual design compared to what you normally get these days. The front ones come moulded as pretty much one piece forming the outer wheel hub and tyre with an internal brake disc and then the inner section of the wheel and tyre. This works well and looks good. The inner rear wheels are done in a similar fashion with the outer rear wheels being done in reverse sans the brake disc which means when you put in the centre section which includes part of the tyre you will need a little filler as there is then a noticeable gap around the sidewall.
There is a spare wheel included which is assembled in the same way as the outer rear tyres so similar care in filling that gap is needed, and the spare also comes with bolt heads moulded in place which really shouldn’t be there so you’ll need to remove the bolt heads and drill small bolt holes ( if so inclined that is ). The tread pattern is very nicely done though due to the way they are moulded you will need to be careful when removing the light mould seam around the centre of the tyres.
The engine is very nicely done. It isn’t an overly complex piece but still looks good when complete and would only really benefit from the addition of wiring and a little thinning of the fan blades ( which are already very thin as it is ). Of course all that is only needed if the engine will be visible. The transmission includes the long gear shift which is incredibly finely moulded, in fact amongst the thinnest, most delicate parts I’ve seen in injection moulded plastic kits.
The engine bay includes the radiator but little else. Despite the inclusion of the engine and the hood as a seperate assembly there is clearly no intention for this to be modelled with the hood open as the inner surfaces of the engine bay and underside of the hood lack any detail as does the firewall which has no horn, nor battery etc. So if you want to portray the hood up there will be a bit of work required to thin down the panels and add the necessary internal detail.
The cab interior is overall well presented and includes a very delicate and thinly moulded steering wheel, equally delicate individual pedals, and a full dashboard which includes decals for the dials. The interior of the doors sandwhiches the clear windows between them though personally I would replace the clear parts with thinner clear platic as they scale out at close to 50mm ( 2″ ) thick which is a bit thick to put it mildly. This is however more a restriction of the medium rather than of the kit.
The door handles are moulded in place and do actually look quite good, though would be improved with a little underscoring to bring them out from the door panel. Likewise the map pockets are just moulded on shapes so would do well with a simple replacement. The seat panels also have no texturing so will need a little work if you want them to look well used and worn.
The cab and hood are also multiple part assemblies with the cab being made up from the roof, rear of cab, two seperate fenders with running boards, firewall, grille, two seperate side walls, and the bonnet which itself is made up from the top, two sides and a seperate central ridge strip. These all go together well and the finished result is very clean and tidy needing only minor filling and sanding to get everything smooth. The radiator grille is open through allowing the radiator to be seen while the vents on the side of the bonnet are solid, but could be opened up with care.
The fittings up front include a shovel which has an unnatural looking kink in the neck and doesn’t match any I’ve seen in wartime photos so I would either modify it to be straight or replace it. The mount for it is also oversized and is best thinned down a lot or replaced. Many wartime photos also show a pick mounted on the right fender but you don’t get one of these. You do get the jerrycan that mounts on the right which comes with a nicely moulded seperate holder, though the strap is best thinned, or replaced with something thinner, with a latch added as well.
The bed is very nicely done and surprisingly thin. The underside of the bed floor has two prominent sink holes that will never be seen but there is also one in the centre of the deck headboard which can be seen if you try, so probably needs filling. The sides and tailgate are intended to be shown up so you will need to modify the hinge details if you want to show them down. The latch detail is very good for the medium though could be improved and no doubt there will soon be a photo-etch upgrade sets that will address this. Likewise there are no mounts on the sides for the bows when in use.
The bows themselves are very well done though you only get two of the four that would be used to provide a full tilt. So if this bothers you then you will need to add two more of your own and likewise if you want a rolled tilt none is provided so that’s another DIY job. The stowage mounts on the front of the headboard for the stowed bows need a bit of internal thinning to allow the bows to fit into them properly.
The decals include those for the dashboard, as mentioned above, as well as two sets of vehicle markings and a selection of licence plates with Heer (WH), Luftwaffe (WL), and Kriegsmarine (WM) options. On a side note Archer Fine Transfers have also just released a set of decals for the dashboard of this kit if you need more. Paint schemes are provided for generic vehicles in Russia ( winter or summer ) and Italy, as well as for a vehicle of the Herman Goering Division in Sicily in 1943.
Conclusion. Personally I think ICM is currently among the best of the Eastern European kit manufacturers and deserves much higher recognition of their work. Their Studebaker was good, this is even better. Certainly, like most kits, there are a few improvements that can be made, but nothing major, being mainly the sort of thing the truely dedicated like to do to good kits anyway just to make them a little bit better – the sort of things PE manufacturers are there for.
This is a great little kit that should fill many niches when it comes to 1/35 scale trucks and I think ICM deserves a big pat on the back for tackling the fringe subjects that the likes of DML leaves alone. I hope they stick with this and we see the maultier and ambulance versions in the not too distant future. Very highly recommended.
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