Contents Description

The resin/photo etch upgrade set comes packaged in the typical Aires blister pack fixed to a heavy stock paper backer, with industrial strength staples holding everything in place. The set includes the cockpit tub with side consoles and integral rear bulkheads for the pilot and back seater positions, two ejection seats, side walls for both positions, front combing with integral instrument panel, rear seat instrument panel, and separate pilot's control column and some smaller parts. Also included is a small PE fret with seat belts, instrument panel faces, rear view mirrors, rudder pedals and other small details. In addition, a small film is provided that includes the various instrument dial faces. This film is part of a sandwich requiring cutting to shape, with placement between the resin and PE panel faces. All of the individual resin parts require the removal from casting blocks before the parts can be fitted in the model.

ICM continues to crank out some lovely combo kits these days, especially around World War 1 subjects. This kit, which includes both their previously released Type B Cargo Truck, as well as US drivers, is an example of this.

The Standard Type B Liberty Truck was the first standardized vehicle ever produced by the U.S. armed forces and was essentially an attempt to reduce the enormous inventory parts problems then associated with logistical support as well as come up with something that had all the best features of trucks of the time. It was produced by some fifteen firms to rigid specifications and served overseas starting around fall of 1918, so they were in service for little over a month before the end of the war. A large number of these were sold off to private companies and some served with postwar armies around Europe. All told almost 10,000 were produced – a prodigious number of one vehicle for those times.

ICM has certainly put its Ford Model T molds to good use, making no less than four different variants of this ubiquitous little vehicle previously, all variants which served with distinction in World War One. Now a fifth variant has been added – a little-known armored version used by the Royal Naval Air Service along the Russian Front. Really more of a weapons carrier than an armored car, only nine of these were ever made. I rather suspect that it was seriously underpowered for the additional weight of the armor, which would have made this a strictly hard-surface weapon of war.

Like the vehicle itself, the kit is a relatively simple build. It also comes with a separate sprue containing the parts for their newly released Vickers Machine Gun, which is a fine little kit in and of itself. There are three moderately-sized sprues with lots of parts you won’t need, a clear sprue for the lamps, a small decal sheet, and that’s about it for complexity.