1:35 Bego (Tasca) Late War Kubelwagen

The Kit:

I'll be in Minnesota for a month (yes, it's unwise to vacation in Minnesota during January) and I just couldn't see trying a major project in a couple of weeks. But idle hands are the devil's device, so think of this as a stocking stuffer. A fun build – cries for a proper dio with a Panther or something else ugly. It also fit into a 1945 Group Build I've been in.

The pre-Tasca pedigree shows here. One can see why “made in Japan” meant a lot a few years back. The kit is twenty years old but the fit, by and large, was very good. But not up to contemporary standards in some ways – a lot of eye ball was required. And considering the very small size of the Kubelwagen (it reminded me of a 1/72) the part count was pretty high and a lot of detail present. No easy full hull here – everything is a separate part but they fit usually very nicely. Some surgery was involved but it got done. I've heard Tamiya has a good KW, and Bego's has been reboxed by Dragon. The kit had an engine so I decided to display it despite no note in the instructions concerning how and scratch built a gizmo to keep the cover open. (The doors were designed to be bent and appear open – worked just fine.)

A little more scratch building was needed when I lost the dashboard. It's a big part, but I was futzing with it, left the kit for 24 hours, and zip, gone. Went into my part stash and found a dashboard for tractor made for moving aircraft. The shape was actually quite close, although there's no big speedometer. The frame looks a little odd, but the real part is also quite irregular.

This kit was painted and weathered in acrylics – water based at that. May not be the best way, but I don't have a spray booth and I've grown to enjoy using paints that you could basically drink with no harm. (My wife thinks Tamiya smells bad – I don't but her opinion is not irrelevant. Can't see Alclad around anytime soon.) A very good Vallejo military color conversion chart done by a Brit ship fanatic has proven very reliable for some time. The call for Dunkelbelb was Model Color Middlestone – looked really good. (I have Vallejo DL primer and the AK DG weathering set – my color was spot on and the paint a lot better.) I mixed the stuff with Golden airbrush medium, Vallejo thinner and just a drop of glycerin. I recommend the glycerin for at least water based paints – it did lengthen dry time but laid down beautifully and was a snap to clean from the nozzle. (I think too much might soften the paint a bit, so try it on a medical experiment. Just a drop or two.) The green was a Golden High Flow mix I had used on an earlier plane: High Flow airbrushes very well I was able to freehand the green lines pretty well. Here's what it looked like after painting and chipping but prior to most weathering:

I tried to emulate a spring 1945 Kubelwagen – I think that allowed some serious weathering. I made a very nice wash with Vallejo wash acrylics (everyone should have at least black and sepia – really versatile). I did everything else with Com.Art – transparent black for panel lines and pin wash, transparent smoke and “fertile soil” to grime the thing up. The chipping was almost all done with AK “Worn Effects.” The base color was sprayed on Vallejo Dunkelgrau primer with Pledge between primer and Worn Effects. I used a tooth brush and an airbrush reamer to chip. I'm beginning to conclude that for this task – or creating boot wear – it works well to take something off rather than put something on. (Mike Rinaldi does something he calls “reverse dry brushing” where he uses a lighter base over a dark primer and removes some base with a brush dampened with thinner: works good.) Com.Art texture has to be seen in person to really appreciate. It's splendid paint but really made for paper or fabric. On plastic it has an odd grainy texture and transparent colors leave a light color (black is quite visible and perfect for panel lines) and can be removed after it has dried if dampened again. It also works nicely for streaking. I'm thinking a KW would have had a lot of mileage on them and would have picked up a lot of wear, and certainly would have been very dirty and dusty. Here's a detail:

The general grime effect from Com.Art did the job overall. I did use Tamiya weathering pigments to fade the top panels and fenders. It's a little subtle but very evident at my house. I didn't want heavy mud, but dry mud and lots of dirt was on the menu. I bought pigments from art house companies Sennelier and Gamblin – absolutely the best available (it's made art loonies that insist on making their own paints) and gives you a lifetime supply for $4-$10 a bottle. (Gamblin is preferable – their's are about $5 for 8 ounces: that will weather a lot of models.) I attached it with ISP and/or thinned matte varnish. Used a paint brush for everything. I like it:

I decided to stick the model on a simple base – gave my grandson an opportunity to cover something with brown paint. Flock and gravel is from Koch, Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express. Had ideas of sticking a lot of equipment in the back of the KW, but ran out of time. The kit comes with two bottles of wine – those are going onto a DML Priest – also going to try to scratch a carton of Lucky Strikes: the currency of choice in Europe in 1945.

A short note on the Kubelwagen. It was one of the most widely produced German weapons and served without change throughout the war. Something like it had been from Paris to Stalingrad. Germans were very keen on the cheap and simple creature (and unlike almost every German motorized vehicle it was very stingy on gasoline) and considered it a good off road recon vehicle two wheel drive or no – equal to the Jeep. (Americans and Brits scoffed at that claim. Many chances to compare on both sides. The KW, and Jeep, were the kind of things that were widely used by armies when captured. Why not? Nothing went wrong with either. And as my outdoors-geek brother would say: “the better the four-wheel drive vehicle, the farther you get into the woods before you get stuck.) And this kit is to emulate a Kubelwagen on May 1, 1945. Where? The Ruhr? Maybe a unit bypassed by Patton? Doesn't matter. It did it's job very nicely and was far more efficient than more famous weapons like the King Tiger. Pity those that built and used it were serving history's most wicked regime. But for once history worked as it should, and there's the KubelWagen, sitting on the side of the road, going nowhere and out of gas. Just like the Reich.

Eric

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