Dragon Models, Ltd

1/6 Kubelwagen Type 82

Kit Number: 75003

Reviewed by  Joe Staudt, IPMS# 39453

MSRP: $109.95 Web Site: www.dragonmodelsusa.com During World War II, America had the Jeep, and Germany had the Kubelwagen. Like the Jeep, it was (arguably) ugly, but it was versatile, reliable, and it got the job done. Dragon has recently released a 1:6 scale kit of this vehicle, and I had the opportunity to try it out. The first thing one notices about this kit is that it is big. Really, really big. The box itself is two feet long, almost a foot wide, and 9 inches high; the finished product is somewhat larger than that in all dimensions. To put it into perspective, Barbie dolls…er, I mean, G.I. Joe action figures…will fit in this thing. Some of the larger pieces would only fit in my deep sink (for washing) on the diagonal, and I had to take the body and chassis out to the garage for painting because they wouldn't fit in my paint booth. I had to use my workbench to do most of the building because my model table was too small. I used every last drop of 2 cans of Gunship Gray spray paint on this kit, and could have used a third. Once you get past the sheer size and start looking at the contents of the box, you find a kit consisting of over 160 pieces, including soft vinyl tires, metal axle, tie rod, and steering gear, and a cloth top. All the plastic is molded in a light gray, except for the windshield and headlight lenses, which are clear. A sheet of Mylar stickers for the mirror and a sheet of decals round out the parts list. Another nice addition is a pair of already-finished canteens, which look quite realistic. The large instruction sheet consists of numerous black-and-white photos of the model in various stages of assembly, with numbers, letters, blue highlighting, and arrows identifying the parts, their placement, and a rough assembly order. While the pictures are sharp and clear, the fact that the model being photographed was unpainted left all the pictures a uniform gray, making details difficult to pick out. Some well-done line drawings might have made things a bit clearer. Also, there is very little text on the sheet beyond the basic warnings and decal application instructions. I realize that identifying parts in six different languages is asking a bit much, but given the uniqueness of the subject, it would be nice to know what some of these pieces are supposed to be. Speaking of the decals, I tried following the directions, soaking them in water for 20 seconds and then waiting for them to release. No luck, so I soaked them for another 20 seconds. Then 30 seconds. Then a minute. After about 5 minutes I took a closer look at the decals and realized that they were actually stickers. Fortunately, the decal I was working on had a duplicate, so I was not out of luck. Once I figured this out, the stickers went on quite nicely, although they are a bit thick. Aside from the decals, assembly is pretty straightforward. Most of the pieces went together without a hitch. Pegs fit nicely into holes (most of the time), and everything fits where it belongs. There was almost no flash, but there were plenty of mold parting lines, many in rather obvious places. Also, the points where the parts attached to the sprues were often quite large. I realize this has at least a little to do with the amount of plastic that has to be injected through the molds, but it does make parts cleanup a bit of a chore. At this point, I should probably mention that I am a car modeler, and this is only about the second military kit I've ever built. As a car modeler, I've come to expect certain levels of detail and working features in kits of various sizes. At this large scale, those expectations are quite high, and were not always met. Maybe military modelers have different expectations, but here are my impressions. First of all, I liked the working features: steerable front wheels connected to the steering wheel, a pivoting windshield, and opening doors with working door latches. These things rate high on the coolness scale. The folded cloth top is also a nice touch, and pretty much required at this large scale. It would have been even cooler if the top mechanism had been designed to be operable, but that may be pushing it. The detailing was a mixed bag. On the one hand, everything is molded cleanly and crisply, with plenty of details. On the other hand, there are also places where a little more realism was expected and not found. For example, although the hood is molded as a separate panel and the walls of the engine compartment are provided, there is no engine; in fact, there is also no provision for hinging the hood, although that would probably not be difficult for a scratch builder to overcome. But to my mind, kits of this size should have an engine. The floorboard grids (think wooden pallets) are molded into the floor pan, and seem a bit too thin. Although they were easy to detail paint, the floorboards would have looked more realistic at this large scale if they had been cast as separate pieces. The front seats have nice texture, and the seatbacks do a good job representing the metal frames, but the backs slide into the fronts rather than mating up to them. This leaves a sharp, plastic-looking edge instead of something that looks like a padded seat. Where parts mount to the body, such as the headlights and side mirrors, the mounting pegs can easily be seen poking through inside or under the body. And finally, the windshield and frame are cast as a single piece of clear plastic, which makes masking and painting a real trick. I realize that on small-scale subjects this can be a necessity for the sake of realism, but at this scale I feel a separate frame would have been a better way to go. Despite these complaints, I have to admit that the kit built up well and was mostly fun to put together. I say mostly, because I ran into a few problems along the way due to mistakes or lack of clarity in the instructions. I'd like to go over some of these here, in the hopes that other modelers will be able to avoid making at least some of my mistakes. First, in step 4 of the instructions, parts KL2 and KR2 (parts of the exhaust system) are mislabeled. Mixing them up will cause difficulties later. Next, in step 7, the detail of the installed steering column shoes the steering gear on the wrong side of the rack attached to the tie rod. Assembling as shown (like I did) will result in the steering wheel NOT being able to turn the front tires. The steering wheel will also be too close to the windshield. Also in step 7, it shows the mounting tabs (part N10) attached to the hood (part G5). These should be attached to the body instead, as the hood cannot be installed with the tabs attached to it. Nowhere in the instructions are you told to install the inner body side panels or the separate front deck panel. They should probably be installed first thing in step 7, before the body is attached to the chassis. But don't install the side panels to firmly, because the doorposts must be inserted between the panels later, and you'll need some "wiggle" room to get them in properly. In fact, it might be smart to assemble and install the doors before attaching the inner side panels, instead of in step 10 as shown. In step 8, the pegs that attach the side mirror and turn signals to the sides of the car have a square section that goes through a square hole on the inner side panel, and a round section that fits into a round hole in the outer side panel. These were about the only pegs in the entire kit that did not fit perfectly into their holes. And since there were two different holes for each peg, it was impossible to tell which one was binding. I ended up cutting off the square part of the peg, and then found I needed to file down the round part to get it to fit in its hole. In step 10, the inner and outer door handles are mislabeled on the sprues. The inner handles have the long pieces that act as door catches to hold them shut, while the outer handles do not. In step 11, there is a nice close-up shot showing how the roof bows should be assembled. Then there is another shot showing the assembled bows, with the cloth top attached, being attached to the body. Nowhere does it tell you how to get the top onto the bows. I didn't realize I had a problem until long after the glue had dried. The top has a pocket sewn along its front edge, through which you are supposed to thread part O6, presumably before you attach O6 to the other roof bows. I ended up cutting part O6 in half after the fact and sliding the top onto one side of it and then the other. The top itself hides the cut. But after doing that, I don't believe you could install the top any other way. The pocket is very snug, and there are large brackets at both ends of part O6 that would have to go all the way through that snug pocket. I think my solution was by far easier. While we're talking about the cloth top, it has some straps on the back of it that fit through brackets attached to the back of the vehicle. But once the straps are through the brackets, what to you do with them? In all of the detail photos, they are completely covered by the folded top, so you can't tell. From photos on the Internet, it looks like the brackets actually fit through openings in the top, and the straps then go through the bracket twice, counting on friction to hold everything in place. That won't work here, so maybe it's best just to cover them up after all! And finally, the only other pegs that wouldn't fit in their assigned holes were the ones on the spare tire. I had to ream out the holes in the front deck to get them to fit in well enough to actually hold the tire in place. Despite the problems I had assembling this kit, it was still a lot of fun. The sheer size of the thing had me grinning from beginning to end, and it impressed the heck out of the guys at the club meetings. With a few improvements to the instruction sheet, most of my frustrations would be eliminated, making it that much more fun. I would recommend it to anyone who has the space to build it and a spare room to keep it in. My thanks to Dragon USA for providing the kit. Now if I can just convince my daughters that their Barbie dolls do NOT need a new car…

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