Box Art / Packaging

The ICM Maultiers kits are presented in a rigid and glossy box with limited details of the contents offered on the side. The artwork is pleasant and depicts the three vehicles in muddy/snowy terrain. The kit indicates that the contents are half-track cars, Wehrmacht KHD S3000/SSM and Ford V3000S/SSM in cargo and sanitary versions.

Part counts are relatively high with 313 parts for V3000S ‘Einheitsfahrerhaus’, 290 parts for V3000S with Shelter, and 219 parts for KHD S3000. Each ‘kit’ is packaged separately and separate instruction sheets and decals are also provided. Instructions are clear and easy to follow with decals included in each booklet for their respective kit. The instructions also call out omitted parts for each build clearly and details the recommended paint schemes on the last pages of the instruction booklets. Also included in the box is a small advertising brochure depicting ICM’s new range of water based acrylic paints, primers, thinners, and varnishes. A color range chart is shown on the reverse of the brochure with an additional QR code for more information.

The Kits

The kits are not new molds but rather a re-boxing of previously released individual kits dating back from 2010 – 2014 with some new parts added. The re-boxing was done by Revell and Italeri. This current kit genealogy indicates that it contains some new parts that were not originally included in previous iterations.

Each kit is labeled with a sticker indicating its original manufacturing number designation: 35414, 35453 and 35410 respectively.

Kit 35414 contains five plastic sprues and two clear parts sprues. All parts are well molded with little flash and some injection marks on interior pieces. Some injection marks are quite pronounced but none should be visible on the completed model however. In some cases, the parts will require sanding. The tracks are link and length with no sag molded into the pieces. In this example, the tires are molded in plastic with good thread detail. However, no rubber tires are provided within the kit.

Kit 35410 contains five plastic sprues and one clear parts sprue. It appears to share many common parts with 35414. It has the same detail on the parts with some injection marks and flash, but all in all well-molded. It also comes with link and length tracks and plastic molded tires. Some smaller parts have large connection points to the sprue which may result in additional difficulty. For instance, if you aren’t careful, small parts can break when trying to remove them.

Kit 35453 contains five plastic sprues and one clear sprue. The link and length tracks are provided with no sag evident in the molding. This kit however does come with two rubber tires as opposed to the plastic variety provided in the previous kit

The Builds

Kit 36510

To start, I chose the kit 35410 (Einheitsfahrerhaus). The following color variants were offered in the manual: a plain dunkelgelbe (dark yellow 1944), a German tri color camouflage variant also from 1944, and finally a winter white wash over dunkelgelbe also from 1944. I will opt for the winter color version with white over dark yellow. For me, this would be my favorite scheme when it is completed.However, the choice is offered so the builder can choose the color scheme that they would like best.

Construction starts with the chassis and engine construction in steps 1-19. Steps 20-30 focus on assembly of the drive shaft, front and rear axles and tracks, as well as track links (link and length type). Steps 30 onwards focus on the assembly of the cab and trailer unit. The assembly is pretty straightforward though fit is somewhat of an issue. Some more delicate parts were difficult to construct and align correctly.

Once final assembly was completed, I painted the model in dark yellow (Tamiya XF-50). When dry, I added a coat of chipping medium (Vallejo 76.550) to facilitate some winter wash effect. Next, I added a coat of flat white (Tamiya XF-2). This was well diluted, using approximately 50/50 paint and thinner. I sprayed this with low pressure. Next, I applied some weathering effects, along with track wash (MIG 1002). To make it look used, I added some AK Interactive slimy grime enamel (AK 027).

Various pigments (Vallejo 73.104, 73.105, 73.101) were applied and fixed with Vallejo pigment binder (233) to add more layers of dirt and grime. Once complete, a final light coat of whitewash was applied to tone down the overall weathering, like in the area of the bed of the truck which was most heavily weathered.

My overall impression of the kit was that it was good. However, it was not a massively enjoyable build due to the fragile nature of many parts and the poor fit in some places.

Kit 35453

After completing build one, I moved to build two: kit 35453 (KHD S3000/SS M Maultier). I decided from the start to keep this one simple. I used the standard desert yellow paint scheme depicting the unit from Poland in Autumn of 1944. The options for kit 35453 were standard German Grey from Ukraine in 1942 or the aforementioned unit from Poland.

This was a far more enjoyable kit for many reasons. Firstly, the fit was good and the assembly was pretty straightforward. Secondly, since the kits are very similar, there are a lot of excess parts. I like this because I was left with many excess parts which I will save and may be useful in the future for building vehicles with differing variants.

There was one issue that I saw with this kit. It is important to note that unlike some manufacturers that provide link and length tracks, the ones provided for all three kits DO NOT contain any kind of built-in sag despite being depicted in this manner in the artwork. One recommendation that I would make is to provide a ‘sagged’ top length to achieve this look from out of the box.

Assembly was similar to that of the previous kit. Steps 1-40 focus on assembly of the engine, transmission, chassis, tracks and wheels. Steps 41- 57 guide the builder with the truck cab and peripherals. The final steps 58-68 concentrate on the truck bed and final assembly pieces, including headlights. The kit was airbrushed with a Badger Sotar 2020. I used an overall color from Tamiya’s collection: desert yellow (Tamiya XF-59). I decided to go with a flat aluminum chassis (Tamiya XF-16). Bogies and idler/drive wheel were painted separately with NATO black for track links (Tamiya XF-69). I generally cheat a little with the tires on the bogies and use a black Sharpie.Next, I dull it with some black panel liner. Inner wheels are also painted with Tamiya desert yellow. Main drive wheels are also done with black sharpie and dulled somewhat in places with panel liner. The inner hub is desert yellow. The yellow has not been toned down in this case; as I wanted to leave this one relatively clean and new. I just added some panel liner and applied it in places to make it look warn. The decals that I added were minimal. I wanted them to show some information on the driver’s door as to weight restrictions and the Wehrmacht plates/tags. Overall, this was the nicest of the kits to build.

Kit 35414

Finally, I put together the kit 35414 (V3000S SSM Maultier with Shelter). I tried to keep the ambulance similar to the model also depicted from Poland in Autumn of 1944. In this variant you can see the white shelter, decals for the red cross on both sides, and some Wehrmacht plates/tags. The kit also depicted a white engine hood with a red cross marking on it, that I dulled down to make it look a little more worn.

The kit was mostly the same as 35410 and was not as enjoyable to build as kit 35453. However, it did go together pretty easily with minimal cleanup. This kit was initially painted in exactly the same manner as the prior kit 35453. I used Tamiya desert yellow and flat aluminum for the chassis and Sharpie on the wheels to depict rubber tires. The ambulance was painted in flat white (Tamiya XF-2). The cab was slightly weathered with brown for a dark yellow filter from MIG (MIG-1511). Some panel liner (grey and black) was added to various spots of the body and ambulance. A small chain was added to the rear of the ambulance on the ladder, this was not part of the kit, I just added it as an extra. A spare wheel was included in this kit and added to the rack placed on the roof of the cab.

This kit was nice to build, a little easier than the first one but more challenging than the 2^nd kit.

Overall impressions are pretty good, the kits are a re-box of various older kits and can be somewhat challenging, they tested my skills and I also made some various mistakes during assembly which was not the kits fault but my own, my overall impression is that the MSRP is slightly high for these kits, I believe a price of $75-80 would be a more appropriate price here given the quality.

Pros

• Good subject matter, market is not saturated with such kits.
• Nice selection of kits which could fit nicely into dioramas.
• Well packaged and presented with clear instructions and good decals.

Cons

• Expensive for what is provided in box.
• Some fit issues, older molding techniques used, no slide molding.
• Link and length tracks could be better and provide sag.

Many thanks though to ICM for providing the kits and to IPMS for facilitating the review.