ICM continues its tradition of releasing unusual subjects, and this one has never been kitted before – a U.S. Army kitchen truck. Unlike some of the other army logistical services, the U.S. Army in World War 2 did not have dedicated vehicles for delivering hot food to front line troops. Instead, portable equipment was loaded onto vehicles and transported to where they were needed, and normally unloaded on the spot.

This new kit by ICM includes a standard short-bed Chevrolet truck and a good amount of cooking equipment, which can either be displayed on the truck bed or unloaded for a quick diorama. Detail is excellent throughout.

Beginning with the truck itself, the first assembly step will have you remove a small portion of the front frame in order to install a separate winch assembly. An important note here – you are not actually REQUIRED to perform this step, as the alternate winchless bumper is also provided AND a later step specifically shows this piece being installed instead of the winch assembly. I didn’t note this possibility until much later in my assembly, by which I had already gone through the necessary steps to install the winch. However, the option apparently exists.

The highly detailed chassis and engine assembly takes approximately 44 steps to complete, but everything goes together smoothly for the most part. Be sure to check as you assemble to avoid twisting the frame. The engine is very nicely detailed and needs nothing more than sparkplug wires to make complete. As I was not intending to display the engine compartment open, I passed on tackling that additional detail. I chose to add the wheels immediately after this assembly to reassure myself that no twisting of the frame occurred during my build.

The cab is highly detailed with individual foot petals and excellent control panel detail. The cab roof is the only spot on this model that required some careful sanding to create a smooth cab roof. However, the fit was so good that no filler was required.

The truck bed offers some options, such as seats up or down, but obviously the seats need to be up if you plan on loading the ovens and other cooking paraphernalia. At this stage you’ll want to install the cab and truck bed to the frame, and this requires some patience, as the cab isn’t a “lock fit” and can potentially be installed too far forward or back. I actually made pencil marks on the frame to show where the main mounting pins were located, as these become hidden when trying to install the cab. The truck bed installs far more easily (assuming you got the cab right).

One last option on the truck bed is installing the canopy frames, which I elected to pass on so that I could more easily access the truck bed to install the cooking equipment. At this point, the truck itself is essentially complete, and attention can be turned to the cooking equipment, which is provided on three identical sprues.

Some words of warning here: despite my decades of modeling experience, I found the propane stoves to be extremely challenging. The entire propane mount is detailed out, which is nice, but no mention is made of the fact that the fan-like piece that sits atop the propane tanks is not, in fact, a fan at all but the burner unit. There is nothing provided to ensure correct alignment so that the exhaust pipe can connect correctly. Your best bet is to visually align the pipe fitting hole as closely as you can to the diagram.

The various doors on the cabinets are designed to hinge open and closed, but this only complicates an already challenging build. Perhaps it was me, but I had a hard time aligning everything as per the diagrams and finally simply glued most of the doors open or shut as required.

The second frustration had to do with various extremely thin grab handles, etc. These are all molded to a remarkable scale fidelity, but the plastic provided is so brittle that I literally could not remove a single item from the sprue without damage. I finally simply had to reproduce all of these pieces as best I could with some Evergreen rod suitably bent to shape.

A number of items on the sprues only require a single copy, but since they were on all three sprues I went ahead and assembled everything. The extra work tables, for instance, will be particularly useful in various workshop scenarios, so the extra effort definitely wasn’t wasted.

What you end up with is quite an assortment of cooking material, including ladles and knives and various pots. Although this is certainly enough for any reasonable diorama, there are also a number of aftermarket kits which include both food items and utensils which can be easily added to “spice up” the scene. In any case, you certainly have enough here to make a really interesting display as is.

With the above-mentioned caveats, I recommend this kit wholeheartedly. Again, my thanks to ICM for releasing this really interesting set and to IPMS/USA for a chance to add it to my collection. Safe modeling, everyone!