Oh dear, I've let this project lie dormant for almost two years having been somewhat diverted by a return to ECW, WOTR etc.
But I've used the lull between Christmas and New Year to get back to bashing some of the mountain of Rubicon kits that I received LAST Christmas (and the Christmas before that!
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Figured I'd build the lot, then I can paint them at my leisure and gradually add them to the collection. So to start with, I've made a load of additional German vehicles, and over the next few days, I'll do a similar number of British vehicles. All being well. Hopefully. Maybe.
I've made a Panzer III (Ausf J v.2 - short barrelled 50mm gun), another Kubelwagen (this time with the stay-puft desert tyres), a VW Beetle, a Krupp Protze artillery tractor, and a Schwimmwagen (yes they did use them in North Africa, favoured for their four wheel drive ability apparently). Just the SdKfz10 with rear mounted flak canon left to make for the DAK!
These are all Rubicon kits which are, as ever, amazing - although the Tamiya-like level of detail means that some super-tiny components are almost impossible to handle, even for a fairly dexterous person like me.
One of the reasons Rubicon kits are so highly detailed and rather fiddly, of course, is that they include so many extra components allowing you to build so many different versions. In the Panzer III kit (Ausf H - N, there's another whole Ausf A - G kit!) you can build EIGHT different variants, and get almost (sadly not quite, for the absence of a second hull) two complete tanks out of it.
In fact, I wonder why Rubicon don't just include the extra couple of pieces and sell it as a 'twin' kit allowing you to produce two tanks, albeit in different variants. Anyway...
Obviously the thing I enjoy most is making the vehicle crews - as you can see, I generally stick Perry heads, hats, helmets and arms on the Rubicon bodies provided, because Rubicon's human figures are still nowhere near as good as their brilliant vehicles and AFVs. Although to be fair, they're getting better all the time, and I'm going to be interested to see how their first full-scale multipart plastic figure kits (for Vietnam) look. I suspect they're going to be brilliant. The panzer commander used here in the turret of the Pz.III was from the 'Great Wargaming Survey' freebie set from a couple of years ago. And he is a very nice figure indeed.
For students of such things, I already have a Kubelwagen (Perry) and Pz.III (Blitzkrieg). These resin models are obviously not quite as finely done as the Rubicon kits, but they stand comparison pretty well.
The Rubicon Kubel is fractionally longer and sits slightly taller than the Perry model, but they fit together pretty well from tabletop distance. I think the angles on the Rubicon kit are more accurate - the Perry version is a little square looking by comparison.
The Blitzkrieg Pz.III is a slightly different variant (Ausf J v3 rather than the Ausf J v2 that I made from the Rubicon kit) But again, from a distance, they're really a very close match in size, although the detail on the resin model is a bit chunkier. The Rubicon kit is a whisker longer, but once painted, I don't think it'll notice.
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June 01, 2007, 05:20:20 PM