ICM Holding has put out a new model of their Horch vehicle. This rendition is a Kfz.70 with an MG 34 machine gun and mount for the rear area of the vehicle.

The box art for the kit is first rate and lends itself well to the actual Kfz.70 in the kit. The box is compact and will fit well in any stash until you decide to build it. Although the box is small, the material within the box was not smashed together and no damage was noted when breaking out the materials from the box.

An overview of the sprues once removed from their respective plastic covers reveals crisp moldings with no short fills, pin marks or flash. The plastic did seem to be a little softer than with previous ICM models I have built. The decals are in their own protective bag with cover sheet. There are two sets of markings available to build it as an Eastern Front vehicle, circa 1942 or as a vehicle in 1943. The rubber tires are nicely molded and do not have any fill marks of extra flash. The instructions for the model are well laid out, follow a logical path of progression and are not ambiguous in part placement or orientation. Sprue connections for the parts are smartly done and not placed in awkward spots on the parts. The connections are not overly large and do not lead to disfiguring the parts as they are removed from the trees.

For the construction, I followed the directions as detailed and did not have to do any workarounds to compensate for poor instructions. There are 79 steps to complete the model. The directions followed a logical progression for the construction of the vehicle. The vehicle is not a curbside kit and comes with full suspension and simplified engine under the hood. I do recommend painting the vehicle as you go to ensure you get paint coverage on all recessed or hard to get to areas. I built the frame, suspension and engine and then painted those with Tamiya German Gray, XF-63. I then moved onto the body and followed the same routine of buildup, paint, then affixing it to the frame. I did not cut the hole in the floorboard as depicted in step 29 as I found that to be an overly complicated way of making the hole to affix the machine gun mast. To place the machine gun assembly in the vehicle, I shaved the mounting post off the bottom of the mast and then used Tamiya Thick Cement to affix the mast to the vehicle in the approximate area that the hole would have been. This was an easier way of going about mounting the machine gun rather than measuring out where the hole should be and drilling out the hole. There were two very small parts (D25) that were to be affixed to the windscreen in steps 68 and 72 that I did not do. I found the parts much too small for me to manipulate into place. Aesthetically, I don’t think those two parts not being there detract from the vehicle in any way.

For painting, I used Tamiya paints across the entire kit. German Gray, XF-63 from the primary color. Tamiya Field Gray, XF-65 for the collapsed top of the vehicle and Tamiya Flat Brown XF-10 for the wood on the top rigging as well as the pioneer tools. Tamiya Red Brown, XF-64 was used for the leather seating. The metal portions of the weapons were painted with Tamiya Dark Iron, XF-84.

Overall, I found this kit to be a joy to build and this would lend itself to be as a stand-alone display or as part of diorama/vignette. The one thing I find lacking with this kit is that there are no figures included. A driver and machine gunner would add a lot if they were to be included. I spent about seven hours building this kit and highly recommend it. Thanks again to ICM Holding for providing this kit to review!