IPMS/USA Kit Review: Tamiya 1/48 German 3-Ton 4x2 Cargo Truck Kfz. 305

Tamiya

1/48 German 3-Ton 4x2 Cargo Truck Kfz. 305

Kit Number: 89782

Reviewed by Andrew Birkbeck, IPMS# 27087

MSRP: $33.95
Website: www.tamiyausa.com

Once again, in the interests of complete disclosure, this is not a Tamiya-tooled kit, but one produced by Italeri and re-boxed by Tamiya. The kit also represents an Opel Blitz, but no doubt for licensing issues has been given the generic title "3-ton truck" by Tamiya!

The kit consists of two sprues of tan colored plastic, along with a small sprue of clear parts for the cab window parts and the headlight lenses. Add in a cast metal chassis frame and seven vinyl/rubber tires, and that’s the main parts of this kit. Rounding out the kit are a nice set of Tamiya instructions and a small sheet of decals -- printed in Italy.

The main plastic parts have heavier-than-expected mold lines that need scraping off. Sink marks are absent, but there are some unfortunate ejection pin marks. Note that, on part B7 (cab rear section), in Section 7 of the instructions, you only need remove the top two ejection pin marks since the ones on the bottom of the part will be hidden by Part B1, the seat. Other nasty ones to look out for are parts E29, 30, 31 and 33 (the truck bed sides, in Section 10 of the instructions). These are multiple pin marks in very prominent positions that will need filling.

In Section 3 of the instructions, part B58 (muffler and exhaust pipe) is very thin and has a big seam line running down the length of the exhause pipe. Removing evidence of the seam without damaging this part will prove a challenge. You will also need to carefully drill out the end of this pipe for a more realistic appearance.

The tire/wheel hubs have some problems. The tires are jet black, and poorly detailed. To me, they simply look "toy-like," and are, in my opinion, the worst feature of this kit. PLEASE, Italeri/Tamiya, use tire parts made out of the same injected plastic as the rest of the kit. Sure, the modeler can find an aftermarket resin replacement, but that just adds unnecessary expense to the project. Also note that the wheel hubs have six opening slots, which make them pre-war according to my references, rather than the more common wartime production variant, which has eight slots.

The cab: this is where you’ll find the noticeable error in this kit. On part B24, (the cab hood/bonnet, front window frame, and roof) you’ll find the window opening is too large, and the roof should come down more. Find a good head-on photograph of the cab and you will see what I mean. (A solution for this is to add some thin plastic strip to the top of the window opening, and file to shape. For a good and relatively inexpensive reference for this project, see my footnote at the end of this review.) I left the error as is on this review build.

I went about assembling the driver’s cab by gluing the rear of the cab, the door/cab side sections and the radiator all to the seat/floor section. I then attached the dashboard/steering wheel section to this. I followed this by gluing the windows into their appropriate places and, once the white glue had set, I glued the cab top onto this large subassembly. This proved tricky for two reasons. First, the cab roof section was a very tight squeeze down onto the main subassembly. This in turn risked the possibility that something would "flex", and the windows would pop out and I would be doomed. When I build a second one of these kits (and I have firm plans to do so), I will see about gluing the cab roof to the door/cab side parts, and in turn to the radiator section. Once this firmly sets up, I’ll paint the exterior and interior of this subassembly, and glue in the windows, then slip the whole assembly onto the floor/seat. I think this would pose less of a hazard regarding the windows potentially popping out than the way I assembled everything for this review kit. Just a thought, check out both assembly sequences and see which one suits you best.

The headlamps don’t fit accurately, according to my references. The tools on this kit are another very weak point. The tool clamps on the fenders, parts D22 and B11, are quite over scale. They need careful scraping with a hobby knife to thin them down. The pioneer tools, part B12 (shovel), and part B23 (pick axe), are very poor by modern kit standards and are best discarded and replaced by something from the spares box. The jack, part B21, is very poorly represented and, again, should be replaced for greater accuracy and fidelity of detail. In fact, it was so bad I left it off the review kit, and you can see the two holes underneath one of the doors in the photos. I will replace it with an appropriate Tamiya jack from my spares box.

Finally, I had a choice between building an open rear truck bed, or a model with a canvas cover. I chose the former, as I have never been happy with plastic attempts to represent canvas, and Italeri/Tamiya’s rendition didn’t tempt me to change that opinion.

On to the painting and markings section, and we have four options: scheme "A" is an all-gray Luftwaffe truck in action near Kharkov, Soviet Union 1942. Scheme "B" is an interesting three-tone scheme from Bologna, Italy 1945. Scheme "C", a two-tone scheme from the 21st Panzer Division, North Africa 1942 and finally scheme "D," a two-tone gray and green scheme from the Kursk front, Soviet Union 1943. The decals are very well printed by a firm I have not heard of before, Zanchetti Buccinasco, of Italy. These are commendably thin and very reminiscent of Cartograf. They went onto the model without any issues. They did, however, have one huge problem: the Afrika Korps symbol for the 21st Panzer Division scheme (the one I chose to depict on my model) had the swastika depicted as an "X" rather than as a true swastika. This was, no doubt, to conform to European law but, since the USA isn’t Europe, I was disappointed at the omission. Thankfully, I had some appropriate replacements in my spares box.

All-in-all, this is an average kit of a very important WW2 German truck. There is one major accuracy flaw, the opening for the windshield is incorrectly shaped. This can be ignored, or fixed via some "modeling skills". The toy-like parts, such as the rubber wheels and the poorly-detailed tools can either be replaced by aftermarket parts (the wheels) or replaced by superior parts from the spares box or aftermarket. There isn’t anything here that should prevent the average modeler from turning out a nice model using this kit, provided they are willing to invest a little time and effort fixing the problem areas. I therefore recommend this kit highly for anyone interested in WW2 German military vehicles in 1/48th scale.

My thanks to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review this kit, and to Tamiya USA for supplying the review sample.

Reference: Kagero, of Poland, produce a very nice and inexpensive monograph for the Opel Blitz truck, which consists of a very detailed "walk around" of a restored vehicle. Everything you need to up-detail this Tamiya/Italeri kit is included in its excellent photographic coverage. www.kagero.pl