German Kubelwagen by Company B

This is a resin and white metal model from Company B.  The first thing I noticed was how thin the doors are on this thing. Given that, I was impressed with how clean and detailed the casting was and the fact that it had no air bubbles, with the exception of a few on the bottom of the model that would not be visible while in use. There was also very little flash, one minor piece under the driver’s door, and that was easily removed.

Overhead shot.

The model comes with an insert that has a color picture of the vehicle, basic stats, a brief history, a parts list, and an illustration to aid in assembly. I thought this was a nice inclusion, as the other models that I ordered did not come any instructions or assembly illustrations. Not that any were really needed for the Kubelwagen as everything was pretty straight forward. 

I decided to start with the axles and then the tires and noticed that when I picked up the axles that one of the wheel bases had been miscast and was rather lopsided. I figured that that it was in good enough shape to work so I continued. This piece proved a little more problematic than I anticipated as it was difficult to balance the tire on half the normal surface, and after falling off several times it finally stuck.

The wonky axle.

All the other tires went stayed on after the first try without any trouble. Then I attached the mufflers and let them dry while I watched a little TV.

Waiting for the glue on the wheels to dry.

The interior of the car has two options. You can put in a steering wheel and an empty driver’s seat, along with the passenger seat, or the driver figure and a gunner, and an empty passenger seat. I decided to go with the driver and gunner combo. I suppose you could also just use the driver and find an officer figure, if you wanted a staff car. After I let the glue on the tires dry for a little bit I decided to put the driver and the passenger seat.  The driver wasn’t much trouble at all, whereas the passenger seat proved to be quite the little gremlin. I think this was due to a combination of factors, the gel super glue not curing fast enough and the metal seat back making the seat unbalanced. So after the one hundred and seventh time of falling over it finally stayed in place and I moved on to the gunner.

For this guy I had to cut the flash out from between his legs, but not high up enough to give him a vasectomy. I then had to pry them apart a little to get them to go over either side of the axle cover and sit flat on the back floorboard. Then I had to move the pintle-mount around a bit as it kept hitting on the drivers elbow, and I suspect that I may not have had the driver as far forward as it should have been. 

Waiting for the glue on the wheels to dry...again.

Done and waiting for a paint job.

Painting was pretty straight forward. Since I will be using the vehicle for late War scenarios and perhaps North Africa as well I decided to go with a base coat of Dunkelgelb. I then decided to leave off the green camo pattern that I applied to my SdKfz 251/1 and SdKfz 222, to make the vehicle more generic. Then I painted the wheels gray and washed them with black, then started painting the figures. At this point I decided that I probably should have primed and painted the figures separately, as I had already had trouble painting the interior of the vehicle, and was now have a hard time getting paint on some portions of the figures. So next time I know and will avoid this if possible.  Then I had to try and find some pictures on the internet that showed the color of the rag top, and decided to paint it Dunkelgelb as well but then highlight it with a slightly lighter yellow brown. Then I decided I didn't like that, so I painted it a Khaki Gray. The seats I went with a gray-green color just for the sake of variety. 

 I also added a windshield after I finished painting and dusted it with a bit of pigment to give it that dusty look. After that I took a few pictures, erased the pictures and painted the undercarriage a muddy brown and retook said pictures and they look a lot better.

I was also looking to see what type of markings was common on the Kubelwagen and found that mainly just the painted license plates. Not having these I have left them off, I am considering ordering some from Company B along with some other decal sheets, but for now I am leaving this off.

looking at this last shot, I just realized I also need to add the rank to the sleeve of the crew and a few other minor details.