The Product

Packaged in an end-opening lightweight cardstock box, you will find one tan colored sprue, four light gray parts sprues, and one clear parts sprue, five vinyl tires, one decal sheet, and one large fold out instruction sheet. All the parts were well protected and packaged in clear poly-bags. The parts are well appointed, feature fine detailing and appropriate seat and boot canvas textures. I found only minor flashing. The clear parts are crystal clear and are not overly thick. The vinyl tires are beautify done and have only minor flashing. Some figures are custom-made for this car but could easily be adjusted to other models.

History Brief

German military car, type 170V, first appeared in military service in 1937. The car had advanced elements of construction for that time, such as the front and rear suspension system and an X-shaped oval tube frame. It was the excellent suspension system that made the 170V the most widely used civilian car in the Wehrmacht. By 1942, a total of 86,615 model 170V’s had been pressed into service, and it remained in production well after the war had ended. Featuring a 4-cylinder, 38 h.p. engine, the car had a top speed of 108 km/h and could seat four.

The Build

The build starts with building up the engine in the engine section, nine steps. I encountered no problems as the parts just fell together. Moving on to the frame section, I soon completed it in twenty-one steps that also included the front dual leaf spring suspension assembly and steering control linkages, the rear drive axle with coil spring suspension and anti-sway components, exhaust pipe and muffler, drive shaft, bumper, engine and radiator, plus all the little fiddly bits. I finally finished up with the rims and tires.

The auto body section is the final portion with no less than twenty-seven steps. This section is where you will need to decide how to pose your car, and with all the options you could wind up with several versions. Of course, I opted to leave the top down. I omitted the third headlight and used the slotted head light covers. I would like to note the molded canvas top is a work art.

The six figures, five men and one dog, were mostly made up of around 6-8 pieces each, except for the dog and the guard in the overcoat. The driver was the most difficult one and I broke the steering wheel while fitting him into the car. All in all, I had the crew finished in a couple of hours, noting the fit is great.

The Bottom Line

I highly recommend this kit to any skill level modeler. It is a very nice model car kit, complemented with the awesome figures sculpted by A. Gagarin.

Thanks

Thanks to IPMS, Dragon Models USA and Master Box LTD – it was a pleasure to build this wonderful model kit.