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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.
A selection of resto vehicle images cleariy showing the rear bench seat layout. Note how the lower rifle rack brackets are attached to the bottom plank on the equipment rack and not on the floor.
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 in period images!
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 internally 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 to allow the tailgate to be lowered when
towing. As for the ‘bump stops’ for a lowered
tailgate, there was actually one triangular bracket either side and not just the one (kit part PE-WB22) offered in the kit.
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 supporting 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 cargo floor.
The brackets
and photo-etch support rail detail added in steps twenty-seven & eight is
accurate here, unlike the Flak gun variant reinforced type that Dragon kits provide.
In step thirty-one
you are instructed to snip off the top of all the upper hinge plate detail if
you are to fit 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 hinge 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.
Progress so far
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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