Zvezda kit # 3596
The Mercedes-Benz L 4500 was built by Daimler-Benz from 1939 –1944 in the Mercedes-Benz plant Gaggenau,[1] and from 1944 – 1945 by Saurer. The vehicle is a long-bonnet truck and was offered as a rear-wheel-drive truck (L 4500 S) and as an all-wheel-drive truck (L 4500 A). The German Wehrmacht used the L 4500 with armoured cabins as Flaks during World War II. Due to the lack of production material, the cabin was replaced with the simplified standardised Wehrmacht cabin and the mudwings with simplified wings in 1943.[2] Also, the L 4500 chassis was used for the Sonderkraftfahrzeug 4.
The L 4500 is a truck with a long bonnet, U-shape ladder frame and two beam axles. Both axles are leaf sprung. The front axle has single wheels whereas the rear axle has twin wheels. The tyres have the size 10.5—20". A pneumo-hydraulic brake-system is used, each wheel has a drum brake, the parking brake locks the rear wheels only. For steering, a ZF Type 721 steering system is used. From the engine, the torque is transmitted to a manual five-speed gearbox with a single disc dry clutch. The gearbox has a reduction gear. Only the rear wheels are driven on the L 4500 S but the L 4500 A has an off-road gear, which automatically switches on the front-wheel-drive and disables even torque distribution. The Mercedes-Benz OM 67/4 Diesel engine was installed in the L 4500. It is a six-cylinder, straight, four-stroke, water cooled diesel engine with OHV-Valvetrain.
Zvezda released this kit back in 2007 and have since produced a Maultier and a late war Einheitsfahrerhaus version.
What's in the box
All the sprues are loosely packed in two clear plastic bags. A couple of the smaller items had been knocked off the sprues in mine. The contents are not at all packed tight in the bag so it would be worthwhile checking the bag for loose items before tossing it away. There is a tiny amount of flash on a few parts, but what there is looks to be mainly on the sprue gates and not on the actual parts. The detail is good; if not a little soft and there are a few knock out marks in visible locations. The biggest issue I can see is there are plenty of seam lines to clean up. The wooden cargo parts are thankfully completely devoid of any knockout marks so thumbs up in that department Zvezda.
I won’t post any sprue pics as this is a relatively old kit and I’m sure there are plenty of pics to be found online. In the bag are 256 plastic parts on 6 sprues of a light tan coloured plastic, 1 clear plastic sprue with windows and headlight lenses, instructions, and a small sheet of water slide decals. Painting instructions are for two examples. A 1942 Kharkov early war Grey example and Tri camo one from the Western Front in 1944.
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