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The Volkswagen Beetle symbolised Hitler’s idea of progress, a compact car affordable to all. The truth was that very few if any Germans got their hands on one but the army did – in altered form.
The Kubelwagen, or Type 82 as it was also known, was in large part inspired by Ferdinand Porsche’s Volkswagen or “Peoples Car”. When the army came looking for a compact, cheap but sturdy all-terrain run-around for their soldiers, the VW seemed the obvious starting point. The chassis & running gear was uprated, & in 1938 the Kubel appeared in prototype form.
Full-scale production began in 1940 & the Kubel, despite being two-wheel drive, proved itself capable of good off-road performance. Its air-cooled engine worked well in most climates & the lightweight body shell & smooth under belly meant the “Bucket Car” as it was sometimes known was surprisingly adept in both sand & mud.
Tamiya added a 1:35th scale Kubelwagen to its catalogue in 1997 (Ref: 35213). At the time, it was a welcome addition to the market as the only vehicles in common circulation were the older Tamiya or Italeri models.
The kit is typically well made. Moulded in dark yellow plastic with some finely produced details, it flies together due to a limited parts-count & precise engineering. No major filler work was needed & like the majority of modellers, we built the kit using just what’s in the box. The downsides for the more picky are the “fudged” areas like the rifle brackets & the lack of steerable axles. On the plus side, you get a nicely moulded driver figure in a realistic pose & a good range of colour schemes & decals.
We opted for the box-supplied colour scheme & got painting using the recommended Tamiya acrylics colours applied with an airbrush. With any open model car, it’s fun to kit out the interior so we couldn’t resist adding some stereotypical German accessories including a rather large sausage! Guten Appetit!