Kubelwagenand BMW Motorcycle with Sidecar

Manufacturer:Hasegawa (Kit #MT12)

These musthave been the quickest models I have ever built. It took all of15 minutes to build them, and maybe two hours to paint (and anhour and a half of THAT was waiting for the paint to dry).

Both ofthe kits are very simple and a composed of a minimum of parts.The Detail on the Kubelwagen was very good on the exterior, butthe inside was very plain. The doors are molded shut; it wouldhave been nice to have the option of opening the doors. Thewindscreen is molded in clear plastic, so care must be taken whenpainting the framework.

The MG 34was very poor. I replaced the one in my Kubelwagen with anexample from an ESCI halftrack. As I mentioned, the interior isvery sparse; only a couple of plain seats, a steering wheel,simple dashboard and a gear shift. The inside of the walls/doorshave no detail on them, including door detail, which isunfortunate, considering that they are very visible on thefinished model. The chassis is very plain too.

The detailon the BMW motorcycle was very good. The framework of themotorcycle body was solid, so I cut away large portions of it,and replaced it with brass and styrene rod to better representthe tubular framework of the vehicle. I also added fine wire tothe front and rear fenders for fender guards. The MG on thesidecar was better than the Kubelwagen's example. It was not asnice as the ESCI MG's, but it was good enough to use. I scratchbuilt a new MG mount using styrene and brass rod.

Again,these are very fine kits. For the most part, the detail is verygood, except for the insides of the vehicles. Three figures areincluded: a driver for the Kubelwagen, a driver for themotorcycle, and a standing officer with a map in his hand. Allthree are typical Hasegawa figures, i.e., not real impressive.The decals were typical Hasegawa quality; in register, wellprinted, but very thick carrier film. I had to use Solvaset toget them to flatten out to my satisfaction. I painted the modelsin Polly Scale panzer gray, with a light coat of road dust addedfor realism.