IPMS Kit Review: Master Box Ltd 1/35 German Motorcycle, WWII (BMW R75)

Master Box Ltd.

1/35 WWII German Motorcycle (BMW R75)

Kit Number: MB3528

Reviewed by Scott Hollingshead, IPMS# 34786

MSRP: $24.95
Distributed by Dragon Models USA: www.dragonmodelsusa.com

THE KIT

The old adage about not judging a book by its cover certainly applies to this kit when it first arrived. The painting used on the front of the box is certainly well done and sets over a WWII photograph showing a couple of Feldgendarmerie standing in a street. The back cover displays CAD drawings of some sub-assemblies, a series of four-color drawings showing the front and right side views of the bike in a tan paint scheme and the left and rear views in a gray paint scheme. This simple packaging belies the contents inside, which are absolutely beautiful.

Upon opening the box, I was first surprised to see the sprue was contained in a plastic bag sealed on one end similar to the way Eduard seals their photo-etch sets. The directions are printed on a single sheet of paper. One side shows front, back, left and right side, and top view drawings at the top and assembly directions beneath. The other side shows the part locations on the sprue on half the sheet, and four-view drawings for the markings on six different bikes. Although the box has no reference to it, the direction sheet makes mention that this is a BMW R75 motorcycle.

The single sprue is expertly-molded in a tan plastic with very fine detail. As an example of this detail, the wheels actually have valve stems molded into them. The only problem that I found on my sample was that two of the wheels have some flash that will require clean-up. I am a little nervous about the fragility of some of the parts, such as the grab handles, as some of the moldings are really intricate and appropriately thin for this scale. Included on the sprue are both an MG 34 and an MG 42 that rival any I have seen for detail. Although the assembly instructions show the mounting of either gun, the drawings for the markings all show the MG 34. The decals are printed on two small sheets; they appear to be very thin with minimal carrier film around the individual decals. Aside from the red crosses for one bike and blue BMW symbols, all of the decals are black-and-white (so there are no issues with them being out of register) and the letters and numbers are all well printed. As a bonus, there are five road sign decals included on the smaller sheet. The markings included in this kit are for the following vehicles:

A Wehrmacht ambulance bike (red crosses are provided).
12 SS Panzer (commanded by Kurt "Panzer" Meyer) at Normandy in 1944.
Ramcke Brigade of the German Fallschirmjager in Libya and Tunisia from 1942-43.
14 Fallschirmjager Division at Anzio in 1944.
24 Panzer Division at Stalingrad in 1942.
Bonus alternative for 24 Panzer Division at Stalingrad in 1942.

THE BUILD

Master Box did an outstanding job with their molding for this kit and the parts detail is on par with any of the other high quality kit manufacturers of today. The tan plastic used in the mold is a bit more brittle than I am accustomed to and this caused a few issues during the construction of the kit. I wound up replacing the handles on the storage boxes and the pivot shaft for the front forks with brass to make assembly easier for me. Overall, I would say that this is the best 1/35 scale BMW R75 kit on the market, and I would highly recommend it to others interested in building one of these bikes for their collection.

As you can see in the photographs of the finished model, I selected the 12 SS Panzer at Normandy in 1944 for my markings. Overall construction went well, with most parts fitting just as they should have, and the design of having separate wheels and tires made for easy painting and assembly of those items. The only fit issues that I encountered were an incorrect locating slot on one half of the gas tank and the two-piece sidecar body. The gas tank was easy to sand and touch-up as was the outside of the sidecar -- the inside of the sidecar did not go nearly as well.

The high points of this particular kit, in my opinion, are again the level of detail (such as the valve stems on the wheels), the optional machine guns and variety of decals. There are also parts included for the gas lines to the engine, the throttle linkage and a very intricate gun pivot for the sidecar. For most of the construction, I was able to pre-paint the items on the sprue prior to assembly (the gas tank and sidecar required a little clean-up and paint touch-up after assembly, as one would expect).

The areas for improvement started with the instructions. Many of the steps have vague guidance on where parts are actually to be joined. With very few locating pins and holes, I spent a fair amount of time using my reference books and the directions for the Dragon re-release of the old ESCI 1/9 scale version of this bike to help me out. When separating the wheels from the sprue, I damaged each one due to the frailty of the rim, and the sturdiness of the attachment point. I also cracked one of the wheels when pressing it into the tire. The tires are also a curiosity to me as the outer rim has a tread pattern on it, but the faces of the tires are completely smooth. When installing the decals, I was surprised to find out that the BMW symbols are printed in blue only, and the white portions are clear (the outer black ring is present though).

To finish the model I used Model Master Acryl paints for the German dark yellow, and I used aircraft interior black for the seats, tires and rubber covers on the front fork assembly shocks. I brush painted small areas where the decals were to be placed with Future, then used Micro Set and Micro Sol to install them. The decals settled just fine and I sealed them with Model Master Acryl clear flat. Finally, I used the Warpig raw umber filter that I picked up at the 2008 Nationals to add a slightly dirty sheen.

Thanks to the folks at Dragon Models USA, Master Box for providing this review copy of their very finely detailed kit and to the IPMS for allowing me to review this kit.

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