RetrokiT

1/72 Citroën Type 45 3.5 tonne Truck

Kit Number: 72040

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: £15.30(GB Pounds) €23.10(Euros) $31.03(US) www.retrokit.net Kit courtesy of RetrokiT, forwarded by Patrick Keenan of the Armored Car/Wheeled Fighting Vehicle SIG. The Vehicle Much has been made of France's "unpreparedness" in May of 1940. Actually, someone in the Armée Française realized in September 1939 that Mr. Hitler was not their friend, and that perhaps they should prepare for war. Just in case. This vehicle is one of the pieces of war machinery they bought. It's a "militarized" version of Citroën's standard commercial truck, with some added military features. It also provided a superior method for moving troops quickly from one area of France to another. Far more effective than the taxis of World War I. The first orders were placed at the end of September 1939, the first units were delivered in mid-October(!). Some will say they should have spent their Francs on more machine guns, more tanks, more training, but without the logistics tail, a modern army dies a rather ghastly death. No one pays attention to the supply sergeant until they start running low on ammunition, fuel, and food. The kit provides separate parts for four different versions of the Model 45, Civil (pre-WW2), Military (pre WW2), Military 1940-45, and Military/Civilian Post WW2. The last Model 45 came off the assembly line in 1953. The model 45 refers to the max gross weight of the vehicle. Knowing this is very important for determining if a bridge will support more than one truck at a time, or even one fully loaded truck. The Kit The parts are 100% resin. Molding is clean and bubble free (a real plus in a resin kit). There were a few touches of flash on some parts, particularly the small, fine parts like the leaf springs, the mirrors, the pintle hooks, and the front bumper. This was not thick, and a #11 blade took care of this quickly. The parts are contained in plastic bags to prevent loss of small parts. The support for the left side of the front bumper was broken and missing on the chassis assembly I received, but this was a minor problem. The side windows on the cab were not open, but I suspect this is to ensure complete fill of the mold.

The instructions are completely pictorial, with an historical narrative in both English and French. The instructions are clear enough for an experienced modeler to figure out with no problems. Assembly and Painting The color scheme I chose was a rather nondescript, overall, "sort of olive" green. I painted all the parts except the tires, which I painted black with green rims. I did the interior. I was taken with the bench seat. Yes, a wooden bench. They certainly were tougher in those days. The dashboard was Spartan, but I remember my grandfather's 1939 Chevy pickup had only a speedometer and switch to turn on the lights. I then attached the cab to the frame. I discovered that the frame had been laid on a hard, flat surface before it had completely hardened, and it was slightly bowed. Nevertheless, this also was fixable. More on that later. I assembled the under frame for the bed and attached it to the bed. The cargo bed is nicely detailed inside, but I wanted to do the "canvas covered" version. The canvas cover was painted another nondescript color, rather like undyed canvas. Sort of brown or tan. I picked out the ropes that mount the top to the bows and keep the back closed with the olive color. When I mounted the bed assembly on the frame, a combination of the CA and a little gentle force while the CA set up straightened the frame. Then came one of those disasters which leave you smacking your forehead and saying "How could I be so stupid!" The rear fenders are sent as flat pieces. You need to heat them in warm water and bend them around a resin form which is provided. I started with 1/2 cup of bottled water in a teacup, which I heated in the microwave for 1 minute. I dipped the first fender in the cup. It came out barely warm enough to bend at all. I put the water back in the microwave for another minute. I could tell it was hotter this time. OK, time to digress a bit. Remember that old e-mail from about 5 years ago, about being careful when you microwave a cup of water for coffee, and when you put the coffee in it, the water suddenly boils? Well, it's true if you use water that's pretty pure, like bottled water. When I put the part in the water to heat it, the water began to boil briskly. Not an explosion, just a little boiling around the part. But I was glad I was wearing glasses, just in case. But this is not where I really screwed up. I was having no luck dipping the first fender in the hot water and then folding it around the form. I couldn't get it hot enough long enough. So I came up with a really cool idea. Wrap the fender around the form, use a rubber band to hold it in place, heat the water, drop the whole assembly in the hot water, and then pull it out after a minute or so, to find a nicely formed fender. Yeah, right. The rubber band put enough pressure on the form to deform it. The fallback fix was to go to my metric socket set and get an 11 mm socket. The outer diameter was approximately the same as the ruined form, and it certainly wasn't going to be affected by a little hot water. I mounted the fenders, and decided to take a small liberty with the kit here. The instructions call for 4 braces on each rear fender, and you should cut these out of some resin bars provided. I decided to use some tag wire instead. It's a little finer than the resin, is a lot easier to work with, and is just as strong. After mounting both front and rear fenders and the front axle, I decided it was time to take care of that broken bumper mount. I cut the part number tag from a 1/48 aircraft kit sprue, cut it to length, shaved it to correct height, and glued it on. Then things went very fast. The wheels, the boxes under the left side of the bed, those little drums under the right side of the bed, the mirrors, the rear steps, the headlight, the bumper, and put Micro Krystal-Kleer in for the windshield. After slogging along for 2 weeks, I finished it in one day. Everything just worked!! There are no decals provided, and no marking information other than the photo on the box top. Since the license plate in the photo says WH 1251, I decided that a nondescript truck from the "Sitzkrieg" was more to my taste.

Overall Assessment This is a kit for the experienced modeler. I certainly gained some experience from those fenders! But there's nothing that was a "show stopper in the whole process. The wavy frame was eminently fixable. Sure glad I didn't try to straighten it with hot water! The same with the broken bumper mount. Like many resin kits, there are challenges, but this one presented fewer than most. The instructions are better than the previous RetrokiT I built, and far better than many I've seen from Eastern Europe or China. I enjoyed the process of building this kit. It wasn't simple, but it went together with some challenges, and it feels good that I was able to overcome them. And where else are you going to find a suitable vehicle to go with Heller's Somua in a convoy diorama? Thanks to Dominuque Jadoul of RetrokiT for providing this kit, and fellow Reviewers Corps member Patrick Keenan for forwarding it me, since it doesn't fit their "War Wheels" SIG.

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