Book Review: Mittlere Geländegängige Lastkraftwagen (o) - Holger Erdmann (Nuts & Bolts, 32)

I'm gradually discovering that I'm borderline obsessed with WWII German rear-echelon stuff. I especially love their trucks. So Nuts & Bolts #32, dedicated as it is to a group of German trucks, would seem made for me. Published by a German company, the title is rather verbose and unwieldy, as indeed the German language itself so often seems to be: Mittlere Geländegängige Lastkraftwagen (o), The medium cross-country lorries 3 ton (6x4) of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht. What a mouthful! I can imagine an American version being titled 3-ton Trucks of the Wehrmacht, or something equally pithy and to the point.

I'm illustrating my review with sample pages from the publisher's website

I bought this rather costly but very nicely produced tome - as well as being very well printed on good paper it's also satisfyingly thick and weighty - at a model show in Folkestone, several years ago now. Since buying it, I've enjoyed numerous episodes of slavering over the huge array of contemporary photos, ranging from the 1920s to wars' end. And as well as plenty of black and white archival imagery, there are scale line-diagrams, colour profiles, plentiful colour-photographs of surviving vehicles in great detail, and several model builds. A real treasure trove!

Some of the photographic material is stunning.

The bilingual body text and captions are in English and German. I found the textual content pretty heavy going. It's incredibly detailed, and not always couched in prose of the finest clarity (this might in part be due to translation issues). Indeed, the body text is so arduous I've only dipped into it thus far.  

If the main text can be challenging, the photographic captions are where, for me, things occasionally become note-worthily poor. It's rare that the year or exact location of a photo is given, and sometimes the associated captions comment on some tiny detail whilst ignoring other more fundamental or interesting aspects of the image. Personally I think that all the archival images in such a book should give both date and location info (or a best guess), as a matter of course. 

Scale diagrams are useful. 

As are the excellent colour profiles.

And in a similar vein, the way the model builds appear (one is thrown straight in on the inside cover, for example, part way through and with no contextualising info at all), combined with the lack of clear signposting re the scale or the name of the manufacturer of the core kit, seems remarkable. And, until now, I haven't even mentioned the total lack of either a glossary or index. These publications exist in a hinterland between books, where such things are more normal, and magazines, where they aren't. But as this is clearly a reference work, they would make it a far better one, if included. So, for me there are a few issues that, if addressed, could markedly improve this book. 

Surviving examples are sumptuously illustrated.

Several models of these vehicles are built and illustrated.

Nevertheless, this is still a terrific resource, and a very welcome reference work for the wargamer, modeller or WWII materiel buff. I hope they do more publications on similar subjects. I'd certainly like to acquire their titles on Maultiers and RSOs. But, as great as this is, there's certainly still room for improvement. 

Misc: The Postman Sometimes Rings Twice...

Oooh... exciting!

I'd wanted to title this post 'The Postman Always Sometimes Rings Twice', but I couldn't find a way to get the crossed out text in the title of my post. Hey-ho, never mind. Sooo...

Phwoarrr!!!

A couple of days ago I ordered a few models from Hannants, all German WWII, all 1/72, and all of which, I guess, come under the soft-skin/rear-echelon banner: three trucks and a car. These arrived, very well-packaged, this morning.

Chester enjoys the empty box... bless him!

Chester, our new* and still very young kitten, was almost as excited about this as me. Only, rather like Eeyore, in that touching Winnie the Pooh tale, where he gets a burst ballon and an empty honey pot, Chester was more interested in the empty honey pot than the contents!

* Tigger, our super-fluffy moggins, and occasional star of a post or two online, perhaps even on here, alas, passed away earlier this year.

I'm looking for'ard to building these babies.

Whilst I won't be starting in on any of these new arrivals today, I will be continuing to work in detailing my 88s. I refined some of the parts today, sanding, filing, paring back, shaping, etc. I've also constructed a form for my first resin-casting silicone mould. Today I'm planning to pour the first half of said mould. 

Yesterday I used a hot glue gun for the first time, which was interesting. I think the big bag of glue-sticks I have are poss' meant for a different glue gun, as they seem too thin, and don't feed through the gun properly when I pull the trigger... which is annoying!

I bought some foam card from a shop in Peterborough.

And mixed some plasticene, to set the parts into.

The good, the bad and the ugly...

In the above photograph, the three items in the upper left are rejects: a malformed brass shell, ditto the crappy wobbly-holed erdpfahl, and an ammo box lid that melted into a near shapeless blob. The other bits have been improved, and, bar the wicker ammo box and lid - which need a little more detailing - are ready for moulding. 

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Ready for moulding? Hmmm... infamous last words. It's now several hours later, and I'm hardly much further on. I used a technique of mixing Milliput with water until it's so dilute you can paint with it. I then loaded the wire 'wicker' several times. The idea being that whereas before it was full of air, in the voids or interstices between wires, it should now still have the woven texture, but hopefully won't trap any silicone, when I pour the mould.

Re-shaped shell, detailed wicker ammo box and lid, etc.

I also decided, on referring to images of real 88mm ammo, that my live shell needed reworking. That was super-fiddly and took ages. I think I need a mini-lathe of some description, so I can make parts like this more easily. My original version took the Hasegawa ammo as it's starting point, which is much more 'stepped' than the real thing. A strap and buckle on the lid and wicker ammo box completes my pre-moulding prep.

I'm having a break now, and thinking about how on earth I'm going to embed and lay out these tiny ultra-delicate parts. Even though I'm getting next to nothing done, it's quite intense work! I feel drained... 

A bizarre looking little kit!?

And to finish this miscellany type post, the above image shows a strange looking little kit from a range of 1/72 kits I'm intrigued to try out. These kits are currently available very cheap at the Tank Museum's online shop (click here to have a look). It was whilst watching one of curator Davis Willey's back garden based Q&As that I was reminded of these oddities - I'd encountered them before online - as he had one on his table, amidst sundry stuff he's trying to help the museum shop flog. 

Kit Build/Review: Heller 1/72 Jeep (+ Academy Jeeps!)

After reading and reviewing the inaugural Land Craft book on the Jeep, I fancied making another, having already built one from the Allied & Axis light vehicles set by Academy, many moons ago. In an excess of zeal I bought the Academy set again anyway, so I can rebuild that one as well. You can't have too many Jeeps can you? I think in excess of 90,000 were built during WWII.

I had hoped to build both Jeeps today. Indeed, I almost set myself the challenge of building and painting them both in this one day. But what with a lazy Sunday lay in and the World Championship snooker as a distraction, that was a forlorn hope!

Prepping all the parts, laying them out ready to assemble.

Jeep assembled, trailer ready to go.

I decided to do the Heller Jeep sans hood, so it'll make a nice companion for the Academy ones. This meant fabricating the frame, from wire and plastic card, as the only supplied frame elements in the kit were for the hood up scenario.* The hardest part of doing that was keeping the frame components separate. A very fiddly process!

I also broke one of the hood attachments on the windscreen, whilst masking it. The masking is made trickier by the fact that aheller have included windscreen wiper detail in the windscreen part. I fabricated a new one from plastic card. It's a bit chunky. But I hope I'll be able to pare it down a bit. I also had to repair the MG-mounting post, in a very minor way. As it happens I think I'll leave that off the model anyway.

Heller Jeep alongside the already built Academy Jeep.

* This is a bit odd, 'cause if you build this with the MG deployed, then the hood needs to be down, yet they don't supply suitable parts for that iteration.

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Day 2...

Academy Jeep #2

I've already built one of these Jeeps, but fancied making another. It's a nice clean moulding, and goes together nicely, but lacks one or two of the nice details the Heller kit has, such as the clear plastic headlights, or the wrap-around handles on the rear corners of the bodywork.

Parts prepped for assembly.

I've opted to leave the machine out again, so that's two for the spares box now.

Chassis first...

Body pan next...

And before you know it, done.

Loading with stowage...

I think I'll load this Jeep to the gunnels: just added two tarps and a box so far. But a load of jerry cans, and perhaps some scratch-built bits... maybe a toolbox? Hmmm... time for a break. Keep tabs on Trump vs. Higgins, in the Snooker final.

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Yay, the Judd-ernaut won! I had hoped the final would be Gary Wilson vs. either Trump or Dave Gilbert. But as it was Trump vs. Higgins, I wanted Trump to get his first World Championship title. And what a game he played!

My next batch ready for undercoats and base-coats.

Anyway, back in Styrene-land, my two latest Jeeps are built, and a certain amount of clobber has been added. I thought I'd add some finishing touches and stowage to a couple of PSC Sherman's that had kind of stalled, so I could undercoat and base-coat a decent batch of models in one go tomorrow. 

Show Report: On Track, 2019

'Twas a gorgeous sunny day.

I went to Folkestone with my buddy Paul yesterday, to On Track, at The Leas hall on the seafront. I didn't take any pictures of the countless superbly made models. Indeed, I didn't even really spend the time admiring them that perhaps I should have. All the effort expended on them, and I just walked past!

I've been to Euro-Militaire a couple of times with Paul, and enjoyed it. But I thought I should try On Track, as it's more armour/vehicle focussed, whereas at Euro-Militaire it's more figures and all sorts, and a lot less armour, etc. And I'm very glad we went, as it really is much more up my street.

The Fujimi Kübelwagen plus mc/sidecar, my first purchase of the show.

The main reason for going was not to admire others' work, to buy more models, and - I hoped - a few related bits and bobs. And I wasn't disappointed. I had a list of things I was interested in, and was able to get a whole bunch of stuff I've been lusting after. I'd even gone to the trouble of raising some cash specifically as spending money.

The primary thing I was after was rear-echelon vehicles: trucks, cars, etc. I also wanted some vehicles of a similar ilk that could either be military or civilian. In addition to this there were some kits I'd seen browsing online that I was able to purchase. One, the Phanomenon Granit by Attack, was on my list. Another, the V2 and Hanomag SS100 transporter, by Takom, was something I'd only just noticed online, but really wanted. I didn't expect to be getting it at the show.

This looks like it'll be a lot of fun to build!

Two near identical staff cars, from Ace.

Most of my purchases were from Dutch dude Rob Tas of Tas Models, a thoroughly nice guy with an excellent selection of kits. Most of his kits at the show were 1/72, and there were a lot of German WWII models. And his prices were great. Paul bought a brand new Roden WWI truck and gun/limber kit off him for £10, which another stall at the show was selling secondhand for £27!!! This other stall also had a nice Vomag bus, and an Einheitsdiesel truck. I really wanted both, the latter being one of the vehicles on my wish list. But again, they were - in my view - overpriced. So I left them alone.

I also wanted some written and pictorial stuff, for reference. But I had to be careful: Avid Publications had £65 off me for just one book last time I was at the Leas (that was for To The Gates of Moscow, by Türk/Urbanke). I was primarily looking for stuff in the same area as I was re models, softskins, and suchlike. I'd seen online and was intrigued by a new book on German staff cars. Ironically they had copies on the overpriced secondhand kit stall. I had a look at it, but, along with a number of other titles on the Avid stall, it seemed too expensive for the amount of material.

Useful ref for truck building.

I did find a Nuts And Bolts title, pictured above, on German trucks, which, at £26.50, whilst far from cheap, seemed at least to be decent value, in terms of the quantity and variety of material. As well as beaucoup de contemporary photos, there are line diagrams, colour plates, and even model build examples, covering a wide and interesting range of German trucks. So I bought it, with a view to perhaps scratch-building some vehicles using it.

I would've liked to have bought a kit or two (their propaganda halftrack appeals, with the loud-hailers on the roof!), or at least some ancillary stuff (fuel cans, ammo boxes, etc.), from Model Trans Modelbau. But once again, high prices put me off. My most extravagant spending at the show was on two sets of resin Panzer crew, at £8.50 each, from Dan Taylor.

Einheitsdiesel with flak, and Phänomen Granit.

Fingerprint decals, inc. softskins markings, and Dan Taylor panzer crews.

One thing I was really hoping I'd find was a set or two of German WWII softskin decals. In particular the rectangular info markings that you see on the doors of trucks, RSO, and suchlike. Pictured above is a set I bought off a trader (who?) who otherwise specialised in Allied WWII materiel. Apparently Fingerprint, who made these decals, are now defunct. Dan Taylor said he's going to be bringing out a suitable set some time soon.

Anyway, Paul and I enjoyed the show. Paul only bought two kits, both WWI, and nowt else ('crept a couple of beers; cheers Paul!), whilst I bought quite a bit of stuff. Definitely a good show for those of us who like building mini-military stuff. They have a lot of 1/35 and other scales as well, and the various traders cover all sorts of eras.

But for me it was about having a big range of choice in 1/72 WWII, and German stuff mostly. And I was far from disappointed. Indeed, if I'd had more money I'd have splurged considerably more! Tas had the 1/72 Hobbyboss German super railgun, at £140... I'd love to buy/build that!