Italeri

1/35 Kfz.15 Horch

Kit Number 6215

Reviewed By Mark Aldrich, #39295

Sometimes traveling down memory lane can be a good thing.  Sometimes it isn’t so good.  Case in point:  Italeri’s  re-release of the Horch.  When the kit arrived, I rummaged through my old instructions.  I knew I had built this as a wee lad back in the 80’s.  Back then, it was released as a Testors Italeri affair and it was kit number 851.  The instructions were a 12 page stapled affair and written in English only.  They included a vehicle history, specifications, tips on building, painting, applying camouflage and decals, and enough decals to outfit six vehicles.

Now, jump to the future or at least the present and we examine this instruction booklet and part of the kit.  The instructions are a four page foldout affair in six different languages.  The decals included allow you to only build one of three machines and unlike kit  851; you can’t build two vehicles assigned to North Africa or a vehicle belonging to the Das Reich Division.  I couldn’t figure out why and then it hit me.  Yes, fellow armor modelers, we have now fallen into the same pitfalls as the aircraft modelers.  We are the pawns to the non-model building community and the model manufacturers that are afraid to give us the materials that allow us to build historically accurate model miniatures.  When is the world going to realize that the Swastika, the SS, and the Death Head are nothing more than symbols?  Building a Horch with a palm tree and a Swastika in the middle of it does not make me a German anymore than building a KV2 and putting a decal on the side stating “Onto Stalingrad” makes me a Russian?  I spent eight years in Germany dealing with censorship on model kits.  They were made to cover the box art with markers and sometimes even had to marker over the decals as well.  I am now in America and that same censorship is happening all over again.  Just in a different way.  Well, enough about past and present and the minorities that control the model building industry.

What we have here is another Italeri re-release of a really nice kit.  The kit comes packed in a sturdy box with an artists drawing of the vehicle, driver, commander, field table, and briefcase on the box.  Looking inside, you find two large sprues in very light gray plastic, a clear parts sprue, a sprue of vinyl/rubber tires, very small decal sheet, and the instructions.  The only parts that are bagged are the clear parts.  Neither of the gray sprues are bagged.  Both of the front seats, the floorboard, the Notek headlight and two tires were flopping around loose.

The 181 parts allow you to build a really nice kit.  The quality of this kit is par to some of the newer releases of today and this was released over 20 years ago.  There are a few of the stubborn ejector pin marks but almost all are either well hidden or are relatively easy to clean up.  Even though the newer instructions don’t spell this out, you can chose between the convertible top up or down or having the spare tire covers on or off.  You get a three fuel cans with separate handles that can be placed into the boot area.

With a price tag of $31.00 this kit would make a great addition to a larger diorama or with a couple other figures, make a small one quite easily.

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