Kubelwagen and BMW Motorcycle with Sidecar

Manufacturer: Hasegawa (Kit #MT12)

These must have been the quickest models I have ever built. It took all of 15 minutes to build them, and maybe two hours to paint (and an hour and a half of THAT was waiting for the paint to dry).

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

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

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

Again, these are very fine kits. For the most part, the detail is very good, except for the insides of the vehicles. Three figures are included: a driver for the Kubelwagen, a driver for the motorcycle, and a standing officer with a map in his hand. All three are typical Hasegawa figures, i.e., not real impressive. The decals were typical Hasegawa quality; in register, well printed, but very thick carrier film. I had to use Solvaset to get them to flatten out to my satisfaction. I painted the models in Polly Scale panzer gray, with a light coat of road dust added for realism.