Several kit manufacturers are currently represented in the museum only in regards to non-armored military vehicles. Because these manufacturers may also produce armored kits, I do not want to exclude them, so they are mentioned in this "Softskins Wing".
MarS 1/72 resin kits come from Poland, and they make several softskins and armored cars. Detail is really good and the casting is great. The number of parts rivals those of injection kits. These are certainly in the higher quality range of resin products.
This kit is a Polski Fiat 621L/III truck, a mobile field workshop version of this light 2.5 ton truck. Over 10,000 of these trucks, in various marks, were built from 1935 on.
This 1/72 plastic kit of the German "Einheitsdiesel" (unified version) truck is made by ZV MODELS from the Ukraine. The idea was to design a uniform truck that could be built by several of the major motor manufacturers.
This is a nice kit which was well molded and detailed, went together nicely, and has decals and different assembly options regarding the canvas. There were a few problems with the instructions (parts not numbered or sub-assemblies not shown) but nothing too bad.
NRC models makes resin kits. This is their Dodge Command truck. It is based on the ESCI Dodge Light Truck kit and shares similar parts. While the kit is more or less complete, I opted to use it as a conversion set for the ESCI kit, using as many parts from the plastic kit as possible (because the casting on the resin parts were not as nice as on the plastic, also, the plastic kits has parts not present in the resin kit). Ultimately I used just the chassis and seats from the NRC kit, and I'm pretty happy with the conversion results.
ACADEMY is
a kit manufacturer from Korea and a recent addition to 1/72 scale AFVs.
Currently they focus on Softskins; this particular kit (WWII Ground Vehicles
Set #4) was packaged with the ambulance shown and a small airfield towing
tractor with bomb trailer (not shown).
The kit comes with a small 12-page instruction booklet and is detailed and well-illustrated, but does not include historical infomation of the vehicles. A set of nicely printed thin decals and painting instructions are included. Overall fit of parts is good, but I did have a little trouble getting the axles on straight so that the wheels would be level. I did add a driver figure from my spares box. The kit provides an important vehicle that will be useful in both battlefield and airfield dioramas.
The ambulance is based on the Dodge T215 half-ton truck chassis. Top road speed was about 43 mph. Over 14,000 of the trucks were produced, with many going to the UK and Soviet Union as part of the US Lend-Lease program.
The Raupenschlepper Ost ("Eastern Tracked Tower") was a ubiquitous prime mover of the Wehrmacht on the East Front. It was also modified to serve as the basis of a 75mm Pak 40 SP gun. It was designed in 1942 to operate in muddy and snowy conditions. Over 28,000 were produced by several firms, and it served until the War's end.
This is a multimedia kit made by ACE MODELS. It is limited-run plastic with photo-etched brass tracks. This was my first experience with etched tracks, and to be honest, I prefer vinyl, resin, or even white metal. The brass tracks are very labor intensive, and while they may be more accurate in terms of thickness and more detailed, one really has to weigh the trade-off in terms of added labor, and I find them very difficult to properly allign. I urge manufacturers to include brass tracks only as an option, along with vinyl or plastic tracks.
This kit is assembled outtadabox; decals and paint schemes are provided for three vehicles. One option would be to add copper wires to represent canvas supports.
I occasionally add a non-AFV to this website to display model examples from new manufacturers that may not have many AFVs.
MAC DISTRIBUTION from the Czech Republic currently specializes in softskin WWII vehicles, mostly from the Wehrmacht. In the past they have distributed kits now available from Omega-K.
This model portrays the Horch 108 Type 1a, a heavy off-road vehicle produced from 1937 to 1940 (by Auto-Union Horch), which served on all major fronts with the German Army. It could carry up to 8 soldiers and the 90 hp engine had a top road speed of 90 kmh.
The kit goes together very well with no fit problems. Included are some photo-etch parts, and options for an open or closed canvas top (unfortunately in my kit the closed canvas top piece was missing). Instructions are complete and well illustrated (but the text translation into English is flawed). Paint instructions and decals are available for two schemes, one for Europe and the other for North Africa. The only addition I made was to use a piece of clear plastic as a windshield.
Modellers who are automobile enthusiasts might try one of these kits to make the transition into military vehicles!