Step 24 The cargo
body
Whilst pulling the cargo body parts off the sprues I remembered how exaggerated
the woodgrain detail is. It can be sanded back a little to improve its appearance.
Internally, there is also the issue of the rifle lower stowage brackets being placed on the body floor. As mentioned in the modifications chapter earlier, final versions of this vehicle had these placed on the lower planking of the equipment rack so as to leave a totally flat cargo floor. A much larger issue however, is the omission of an integral part of this vehicle; the wooden equipment rack! Instead, Trumpeter have offered some additional internal planking dividers which does follow the lower footprint of the real rack, only the planking layout is solid and not spaced like the real thing. The photo-etch rifle framework parts PE-WB15 & 16 is also pure fantasy, and the top rifle bracket detail (parts WC16 & WC17) should be attached in a higher position on the equipment rack, which the kit does not provide! If you want to display a full rack with rifle bracket detail you would have to scratch build one.
Detail doesn’t get any better as we proceed to step twenty-five & six where the crew bench seats are added. The actual benches sat back-to-back across the whole width of the body. See the Panzer Tracts scale drawings for full detail. The Trumpeter kit provide two benches which are positioned opposite each other. This mistake is also made in the Dragon Holzpritsche kit, so again, the bench seat would have to be scratch built.
The red rectangle in the drawing below is the location of the rear back to back crew benches.
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There is a saving grace to all these cargo body innacuracies though, as the kit provides a full cargo and cab tilt cover. In addition, they supply the open framework as well, although this looks nothing like the one fitted onto this vehicle!
Period images of the vehice's tilt cover
Thankfully, you can hide all the inaccuracies and omissions mentioned so far by simply adding the included tilt canvas mouldings. They don’t look particularly exciting in bare plastic, and they are a little too uniform and straight, especially around the bottom edges, but the good news is they fit well. Also, window flap detail is present as are some of the strap detail, but there is room for improvement.
Externally there are also some prominent accuracy issues with the wooden body detail. First up, Trumpeter have offered the front, rear, and side panels with four planks when there should be five. In addition, the crew bench end frame detail that was attached to the side panels is missing. Lastly, the tailgate moulding omits the internal metal steps and the option of the central cut out, which is seen in many period images and was to allow the tailgate to be lowered when towing. There were actually two triangular brackets and not just the one (kit part PE-WB22) as offered in the kit. These were ‘bump stops’ for a lowered tailgate.
In steps twenty seven & twenty eight it is nice to see that all wooden side body parts are free from sink marks on both sides, which is a commendable achievement. The floor panel part WC23 has a few shallow ones on the underside but most are hidden under the support framework. No bolt detail is added on the underside. In step twenty-seven the two main framework rails (parts WD26 & WD27 do benefit from reducing the size of their locating nubs, otherwise they won’t sit flush in the grooved recesses under the floor.
The brackets and photo-etch support rail detail added in steps twenty-seven & eight is accurate here, unlike the whole framework detail that the Dragon kit provides. Dragon sticks with an inaccurate heavy-duty chassis to cargo body framework which was only fitted to flak vehicle variants.
In step thirty-one you are instructed to snip off the top of all the upper hinge plate detail if you are fitting the cargo tilt cover. This is a simplified solution as the canvas moulding will still bulge out over them. The bottom edge of the tilt cover moulding is far too straight and uniform so thinning it from the inside, especially where it sits over raised detail on the lower planking will allow it to sit more naturally.
If you just want to build what is provided in the kit, whether it be an open frame or with the tilt covers added, it does all build up nicely. The inclusion of photo-etch to represent the reinforcing rails, clasps, licence plate, and locking bar detail being particularly nice touches.
I also carried out some additional work to the interior of the cab tilt cover. There is no window flap detail present on the kit moulding so I used some plastic card, VMS paper and paper shaper to bling things up a bit.
In step thirty-two we discover connecting the cargo body onto the chassis is not a simple slot and drop affair. Firstly, it looks like all Trumpeter 8-ton kits provide the same chassis leg mouldings which include all the differing locating tabs for all the different kit variants. This kit only utilises the front and rear locating tabs. The rest can be removed. The cargo body has three brackets and although the rear of the cargo body keys well onto the chassis, the front tabs require almost complete removal to allow the body frame brackets to sit flush over the chassis legs.
A front chassis to cargo body bracket
A middle chassis to cargo body bracket
I suggest removing the front locating tabs on the chassis rail entirely as the cargo body framework bracket detail effectively wraps around the chassis rails anyway.
The cargo body on this variant connects to the chassis with a third middle bracket. As already mentioned this happens to sit just behind the shackle pin location point. Frustratingly in exactly the spot where the instruction diagram illustrates you to orientate the shackles earlier in the build! Fortunately, the shackle pins rotate fore or aft on the location hole in the chassis but, I suspect many modellers would have already committed the glue. Add your own expletive!
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