Miniart 35050 – Bantam 40 BRC British Staff Car With Crew

One thing that amazes me is how hard it is to find good kits of the small utility vehicles like the Jeep, Kubelwagen, and Gaz. Tamiya and DML serve the German cause pretty well, and Tamiya’s jeep is still a good kit, but we’re still very limited in choice for small vehicles, so while it might be easy to overlook this one as “not a real jeep” the Bantam did serve in large numbers with soviet and commonwealth forces with around 2000 produced, so there’s a ready spot for it if you need a small vehicle for a diorama. ( update, just prior to publishing this review Dragon have announced a forthcoming Jeep of their own ).

This kit comes in a medium sized tray and lid type box on two large sized light grey sprues for the jeep, and a third medium sized sprue for the figures. There is also printed instructions which is a single sheet of good quality gloss paper folded in half to form four pages. This builds up into the Bantam and the three man crew. The Bantam would have been the Willys Jeep if only the Bantam Company could have built enough, but they couldn’t so the U.S. Government gave the contract out and with a few modifications we got the ubiquitous Jeep. Those that the Bantam company produced instead went to Russia or Great Britain under lend lease.

The moulding quality is pretty good with minimal clean up of mould seams and nice clean, sharp detail, though let down a little as there is a small amount of flash that needed removing. Some of the parts are quite small and delicate but are very well done and all of these small parts were free of flash in this example. The moulding on the figures is typical MiniArt and includes little touches like moulded on pistol lanyards and wristwatches.

The intructions likewise are very good, being clear, easy to follow and having a logical progression of twenty two simple steps which aren’t overcomplicated, but there are no numbers on the sprues, instead you need to match parts up with sprue layouts on the front of the instructions which numbered. The last page is in colour providing an assembly guide for the figures as well as a painting guide with a colour chart included listing the appropriate paint numbers to use for either Vallejo, Testors, Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, or Mr.Color.

The Bantam chassis is very Tamiya like in its construction, having a single piece chassis frame with the lower part of the engine in place, to which the axles, the transmission, drive shafts, and differentials are added. There’s quite a bit of detail here with the exhaust ( which needs the end drilled out ), leaf springs, shock absorbers, and engine shield also added in. The leaf springs in particular are very nicely done.

There’s an engine included which is quite a decent representation just requiring the usual addition of wires for the various leads if you’re so inclined. The fan blade could also use a little thinning down but only if it’s going to be seen. There’s also a battery included which again will need the leads added if you’re going down that road.

The wheels are again Tamiya style with the outer side of the wheel and the whole tyre moulded as one part with an insert for the inner side of the wheel and the brake detail. These are very nicely done though if you’re fussy you’ll need to add the inflation valves and on the spare you will need to drill out the two unused bolt holes ( the other three have bolt heads representing those of the spare wheel mount ).

The Bantam’s body is primarily one piece with a separate firewall and grille. You get a decent looking dash, separate pedals and a thinly done gear shift lever which looks good though if you’re fussy it needs to be about half the thickness it is. Likewise the steering wheel is good but could be thinner if you want to spend the time doing it. The rest of the fittings like the separate grab handle, light guards and mirror are also very good but would look better with a little thinning down. It should be noted though that the kit parts in all these cases are very well done, the need to thin them further is more a limitation of the process of producing injection moulded plastic kits, not the kit itself.

The seats look good with quite a good representation of the fabric covers, and they include a stowed first aid kit under the passenger seat which is a nice touch as it is difficult to see when finished. The rear seat could use a little texturing and the frame could also use a little thinning ( again a limitation of the medium, not the kit ). There are also two slight sink marks on the rear seat upper part but you could get away without filling these if you wanted to as they aren’t majorly noticeable as defects.

The bonnet can be displayed up or down and includes individual very finely moulded hood latches. If you want to do it up there are two injector pin marks that need removing, and you would also need to do some thinning of the edges. There are also separate pieces for the side walls of the engine bay to represent the louvers.

The tilt frame only comes moulded in the clipped down position so if you want to add a tilt to your Bantam you’ll need to clean the moulded on clips off, remake clips for the body, and then fashion your own tilt from paper, foil, tissue, milliput etc. The frame though is suitably thin.

The windscreen can be modelled up or down and includes the two side slides as separate pieces, though they need the centres hollowed out to be properly accurate. The clear parts are very nice and impressively thin. This would be one of the kits where I don’t feel it necessary to replace the kit supplied clear parts with clear plastic sheet.

The figures represent a driver and two officers, with one officer seeming to be more senior to the other, having three moulded pips where the other has none. All three are dressed in khaki drill with the exception of the senior officer who wears the safari ( or “bush” ) warm weather jacket together with a scarf or cravat. The driver wears a service field cap, the junior officer a beret, the other officer the traditional officer’s peaked cap. The driver and older officer also get a pair of goggles though you will need to drill these out and replace the lenses with clear window maker.

All three get a covered Pattern 37 holster and ammunition pouch with none having any other equipment or weapons, though oddly the assembly instructions show a canteen on the driver. The officer in the back does however get a mapboard but you’ll need to add your own printed map.  All are well moulded with both officers having a nicely moulded moustache and a pistol lanyard.

Decals are included for two vehicle options, 1st Armoured Division, HQ Unit, North Africa 1942 and No.3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Libya 1941. There are also two decals for the dials on the dashboard. It would have been nice to have a few more options, but I guess that’s what aftermarket decal makers are for.

Conclusion. Getting past the need to clean up some parts ( and after all that’s part of modelling and we aren’t talking 1980s Esci level flash here ) this is an easy to build, nicely detailed wee kit that fills a unique niche, it’s a “Jeep” while not being a Willys MB. So especially for British troops in North Africa and the Med in the first couple of years of the war this is an invaluable piece to have available. Add to that it’s just an allround nice kit to build and you have to ask “why not” ?

For those wanting to detail this kit we have just been advised by Minor of a forthcoming Photo-etch set designed specifically for MiniArt’s Bantams. We’ll take a look at it once it’s released next month.

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Miniart 35071 – British Soldiers Tank Riders

It’s always seemed odd to me that for a few years now we’ve had kits of soviet troops riding on tanks, U.S. troops riding on tanks, and heaps of german troops riding on tanks, but till now no injection moulded sets of british troops riding on tanks. So MiniArt to the rescue with this set aimed at the Western Desert and a forthcoming set aimed at Western Europe.

This kit is one of MiniArt’s newest ( at time of writing ) and comes in a medium sized lightwieght open-ended box on two smallish light grey sprues. You get five figures together with their weapons and equipment. The sprues have no numbering, rather a small printout is provided with location numbers corresponding to the sprues and the assembly instructions provided on the reverse of the box. This works fine as assembly is pretty self-explanatory.

A painting guide is also provided on the reverse of the box with the numbers given for the correct paints from Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, and Mr. Colour. These little touches are often overlooked and I find this sort of thing much more useful than just giving a generic colour.

The sculpting is excellent with good folds to the uniforms, very nicely detailed faces and hands, extremely good uniform fittings, including moulded on pistol lanyards, and good poses. The mouldings are very good with minimal cleanup of a small amount of flash. The fit, as on most figures using seperate legs, requires a little filler and cleanup to completely eliminate the joins once assembled but nothing major.

The five figures represent a vehicle commander and four infantrymen in assorted reclined or seated poses. These have all been designed with MiniArt’s own Valentine series of tanks in mind but they do also work well with other kits, most importantly to my mind with the U.S. M4 Medium Tank ( Sherman ).

If you’re like me and you like flagellating yourself by hollowing out the ends of sleeves you’ll find that with these the rolled up sleeves eliminate that need, but in exchange you get the shorts to do it to. Other than that there isn’t much that can be done to improve these figures, they’re very good

The weapons incuded are three SMLE No.1 Mk.III rifles and a Mk.I Bren gun. There’s also a holstered pistol for the officer in a covered Mk.I Pattern 37 holster. All of these are very nicely moulded with the Bren just needing the muzzle hollowed out, and of course if you want slings you’ll need to make your own.

The equipment includes Mk.I helmets all round as well as gas mask cases, canteens in frame carriers, Mk.I/Mk.II ammunition pouches ( the artwork shows them sitting higher for a Mk.II but you could always sit them lower for a Mk.I ), entrenching head carriers with attached helves, haversacks, and the correct bayonets.

Conclusion. If you’re a fan of desert warfare themed kits then of late you’ll be feeling well served, and this kit just tops off some of the great pieces of armour now available. This is a very good kit with some great detailing, great poses and builds up straight from the box into a a very good set of figures that will compliment any tank.

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This book is the fourth in a series of books from Osprey that are being republished in hardcover and released as a fortnightly series that can be bought from your local bookshop with the first one costing $4.95 NZD, the second and third costing $19.95 NZD together and the fourth to sixth costing $19.95 each together with a DVD ( thereafter all $19.95 per book for a total of 75 books ). This series covers the major battles of World War Two and are also available in their original softcover format. I thought that as I go through this series I would do an accompanying brief review of each book in turn.

This fourth issue covers the German air assault on Britain in an attempt to gain air superiority in late 1940, generally known as the “Battle of Britain”. With only 96 pages, and only 87 of those the actual subject including photos, maps and drawings, this was never intended to be a completely in depth study of the battle, but rather intended as a good overview of the battle.

Unfortunately in that regard it fails rather badly unless you count the three pages which do actually offer an overview of the battles that comprised “The Battle Of Britain”. Rather this tends to focus overly on the Spitfire and how wonderful it was, followed by the pilots who flew them and how wonderful they were also. There is also lesser coverage of the Messerschmitt 109 and even lesser the Hawker Hurricane which actually made up the bulk of England’s air defence.

If this had been entitled “Spitfire versus Me109″ it probably would have been quite a good book, and if your primary interest in the battle of Britain is these two fighters then it’s a worthy read. There is brief mention of various aspects that made up the battle but for a book intended to be coverage of it as a whole there is no real cohesive layout, more a collection of aircraft histories interspersed with pilot histories and aspects of the battle.

Additionally when the subject gets into the various pilots ( there’s a heavy emphasis on those denoted as aces despite the book’s own admittance that claims of kills were greatly overclaimed ) there is an annoying tendency to add in brackets the pilots tally every time a name is mentioned. I’d much rather see all that sort of information in a table rather than trying to read “Johnny Tophat ( 5 confirmed, 4 damaged, 3 probable ) and Taffy Puller ( 3 confirmed, 6 damaged, 2 pretty scared ) went out for a cuppa”.

So if you want a good concise read with accurate and complete coverage of the Battle of Britain then this isn’t it. If you want a brief look at the history and development of the Spitfire and to a lesser degree the Me109 then it’s worth it and there are a lot of good photos. But don’t expect any significant mention of the bombers that were there other than in anecdotes of someone shooting one down.

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Dragon Models 6655 – Panzer-Regiment 7 10.Panzer Division

Let’s face it, there is no shortage kits out there providing various crew figures for your Panzer so a set needs to have more than just good detail, it needs to appeal enough that you want to buy that particular set to adorn your latest masterpiece. In this set Dragon have taken the unusual step of making this set stand out from the crown by adding in a Gen 2 figure of General Heinz Guderian.

This kit comes in the usual small open-ended DML figure box, on two sprues moulded in light grey, one large one holding the three panzer crew figures and a slightly smaller one holding the Gen 2 Guderian figure. There is also a small photo etched fret for making headphones ( though you only use one set ) and for the two jerry cans that are also included. The instructions as usual are printed on the rear of the box using CAD images to show what goes where.

The moulding is the usual Dragon Models quality of finish, no flash, minimal mould seams, and clear sharp mouldings with very nicely done faces and hands. The Gen 2 Guderian figure is of course excellent and even though DML chose to stop making Gen 2 figure sets they continue to set the benchmark in injection moulded figures.

The three panzer crewmen are posed to have one in a turret side hatch, one in a cupola, and the third just standing, either atop the tank or beside it. The boxart would indicate that these three crew figures are intended for use with a Pz.Kpfw.III but they whould work equally well with a Pz.Kpfw.IV. Two are wearing the black woollen panzer wrap tunic with the third just in a cotton drill shirt with rolled up sleeves. All three wear the black panzer feldmutze ( field cap ). A pair of binoculars and a set of headphones is provided for the figure intended for placement in the cupola and a single holstered P08 Luger is provided for the standing figure.

One small problem that may or may not matter depending on your bent, is that the two figures wearing panzer wraps are wearing the 1942+ issue S.S. cut wrap, not the Heer Panzer Wrap that you would find with the 10th Panzer Division, a Heer unit. The Heer wrap has pointed collar and lapel corners and a joint seam down the middle of that back, as well as a slight angle to the front closure. In a somewhat ironic twist it was Guderian who adopted this jacket for the Panzer crews from the Alpine original ( likewise the pants ).

The figure of Guderian is beautifully done, in fact he’s a small kit in himself having 23 parts. Whether or not he looks like Guderian is in the eye of the beholder ( personally he works for me ) and will most likely in the end come down to the paint job he is given. But either way even as a generic German general it’s a very nice figure with the greatcoat being especially well done.

Conclusion. Overlooking the error in the cut of the Panzer Wraps which is easily fixed this is a great little kit. Personally I’d look beyond the 7.Pz.Reg.10.Pz.Div. designation and use them in a slightly later setting on an S.S. vehicle as is. The Guderian figure is great used as intended or just as a generic high raking German officer. Recommended.

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Italeri 375 – Demag With Nb.Wfr.42 Rocket Launcher

I’m an unashamed fan of the German Half-tracks, with a particular fondness for the Sd.Kfz.250 series and their lesser known cousin the Sd.Kfz.10. Until DML’s recent release of their own Sd.Kfz.10 variants if you wanted one there was only the very old Esci kit, or the almost as old Italeri and Revell ( same kit, different box ) versions. This version took the base vehicle ( generically refered to by Italeri as a DEMAG, the name of one of the manufacturers ) and mates it up with their old Nebelwerfer Rocket launcher kit.

The kit comes in a large tray and lid style box on two large and three medium sized sprues moulded in dark grey, a small clear sprue, a small sheet of decals and the instructions. Two of the medium sized sprues are for the Nebelwerfer, the rest for the Sd.Kfz.10. Unlike some of the other Italeri Sd.Kfz.10 kits this one has no figures, but that’s probably a blessing ( they don’t do good figures ).

The instructions are a single long length of large paper that is folded in five to create ten pages so a few map folding skills are handy to keep it open on just the page you want. The fourteen construction steps are done in the usual line diagram style and are clear and easy to understand. The instructions also include a very rudimentary painting and decal placement guide which could have been done a lot better.

The moulding on this kit does need a bit of cleaning up though the review sample is one of the original production versions and Italeri/Tamiya are slowly re-releasing their whole back catalogue with cleaned up moulds and better quality plastic so when they get to this one that may change. But for now, as I said, this is an older kit and it shows in the little bits of flashing and the heavier than normal mould seams ( compared to contemporary kits ). The plastic is also more brittle than most others so requires a bit more care with the removal of parts. The sprues in true Italeri fashion come loose in the box with no bags which probably keeps the price down but I do find this can result in loose and/or broken parts.

The chassis is a simple affair, the suspension arms are moulded as a single piece for each side to which the roadwheels, sprockets, idlers and tracks attach before they are all joined to the lower frame as a single part. This does make for easy painting. The tracks are link and length injection moulded parts which makes for a much better look than single length vinyl tracks. No engine is included but being an Sd.Kfz. 250 platform any engine suitable for the 250 will work with this.

The main body has the engine hood in separate parts though there is no internal detail, nor any engine, if you want to position them open. The radiator grill is see through too so if you don’t add an engine this would benefit from some sort of mesh added to the inside of it. The driver’s area is reasonably well represented with a decent enough dash, though oddly there are no foot pedals. Clear parts are included for the windscreens but not for the headlights which are moulded instead with the blackout covers.

The rear area is pretty rudimentary and basic with the box built up from separate sides and a nicely done floor with good tread plate detail. The seats atop the stowage lockers are also quite well done. Many of the parts are a bit on the thick and heavy side so could benefit from a little scale thinning but overall the finished result is still pretty good. There are two jerry cans with separate filler caps and three pronged handles which can be mounted either left or right, so if you want the full four ( two per side ) you’ll need to add two more and scratchbuild their frame as you also only get one frame.

The canvas roof comes as optional up or down parts. If you chose to go with it up it’s a seven piece assembly including two for the side supports. The edges need thinning down and the interior has knock out marks to fill as well as lacking the internal frame detail. If you go with the down option the moulded part doesn’t really pull it off convincingly so is best replaced with a tissue or milliput canvas. Likewise the folded frame lacks the full detail of the hinges etc.

The decals don’t provide you with any unit or organisational marking so you’ll need to find your own there. What they do provide is just blank licence plates with a series of separate numbers to make up your own. You also get prefixes for either a Heer ( WH ) or Luftwaffe ( WL ) vehicle. I would have liked to get at least some simple organisational markings.

The Nebelwerfer that comes with this is a kit that Italeri also sells as a stand alone piece. In this kit it’s referred to as a Nebelwerfer 42 which is the larger 21cm version with five tubes, whereas what you actually get here is the Nebelwerfer 41 15cm version with six tubes. It’s also a rather old kit and a little simple and under detailed, but surprisingly if you want a 1/35 kit of a Nebelwerfer you either need to find yourself one of these or go for the much more detailed Lion Roar/Great Wall Hobby version which is around the $40-$50 USD mark as opposed to this one which can usually be found for 1/5 that.

The tubes are way too thick and a lot of the finer detail is missing but given a bit of time and effort to thin down some of the parts which are overly heavy ( notably the tubes ) and add a little extra detail this can however still present well. The tubes also aren’t hollow right through which is rather noticeable on tubes this big but again it isn’t too hard to remedy that.

For ammo you get six rockets for this which are pretty good and will actually fit the tubes with a small amount of sanding down of the heads. For some weird reason these are marked on the instructions as “not for use” as are the six packing tubes and their caps which to my thinking would look way better used in the vehicle than thrown in the spares bin.

Conclusion. Given that this is an old kit and by modern standards quite a basic one it does still have a great deal of potential. Out of the box it will more than suffice for most modellers and has the benefit that it can usually be found quite cheap. With a bit of skill and time this can be scrubbed up quite nicely too, though the more discerning modeller will most likely opt for the newer DML kit for the base vehicle ( at the time of this writing DML has not yet produced the standard Sd.Kfz.10 in kit form ) and the Lion Roar/GWH Nebelwerfer for the maximum in detail. Still a great, fun kit to build.

Things you can add : There are a few AM bits and pieces that will help you dress this kit up if you are so inclined. Lion Roar sell a set of rockets ( remember you actually want the 15cm Nb.42 ones, set number L3502 ), Eduard does a Photo-Etch set for this kit covering both the Sd.Kfz.10 and the Nebelwerfer ( Eduard set 35348 ) and Archer does a set of decals for the rockets. ( There’s also a Wings and Wheels publication “Sd.Kfz.10 in Detail”, Friulmodel metal tracks ( ATL 110 ), any Sd.Kfz.250 front wheels, the Great Wall Hobby Sd.Kfz.250 engine ( kit number L3517 ), and the Plus Model Nebelwerfer Ammo Trailer ( kit number 179 ) for those who want to go all out.

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