Thanks chaps
Next we have Rubicon's new plastic SdKfz10/4 half track - with the separate 2cm flak 30 kit assembled and mounted on the optional rear gunnery platform - and Rubicon's resin Cardon Loyd carrier.
I've adapted the Rubicon metal 88mm Afrika Korps crew to man the Flak 30, since the plastic crew provided are all in plonky jackboots and button up tunics, War Picture Library / Commando comic style, circa 1973
Also, as oft repeated, the Rubicon plastic crew figures just aren't very good for the most part - the detail is incredibly soft and sketchy in places. The Rubicon metal figures, on the other hand, are absolutely amazing - crisp as you like, and look more like real miniature humans than almost any wargames figures I've ever seen.
(Although I'm not convinced they've got the detail of the DAK soft caps right. The peaks look too big to me, and the crown sits up too much. But these are minor niggles).
The metal they're made from is incredibly soft though. I've drilled up into the legs so that I can pin and mount the figures in position on the gun deck once everything's painted. But the drill just chews up the lead because it's so soft, so I've had to go very carefully.
The kits themselves are supremely fiddly to assemble, especially the gun, although the end result is a brilliantly detailed and accurate model. The SdKfz10 kit gives you many different options to build. Another super product from Rubicon.
Not so super is the Cardon Loyd carrier. The resin model and parts are absolutely great, including the optional soft top.The detail is amazingly crisp and well executed, and the parts go together like a breeze. Until, that is, you come to the metal bits. Some of which don't fit very well at all. I don't understand why, when 90% of the parts in the kit are made from/cast in resin, they suddenly provide a spinkling of other bits in soft metal. Why not make it all in resin parts? Seems peculiar and not very successful. I know why some of the 'traditional' makers of resin vehicles supply all the bolt on bits and pieces in metal - because they're basically selling you one or two resin lumps cast in one piece, and all the bits and pieces are made and glued on in metal because the resin won't carry that fine detail on separate small components.
But this lightweight 'super-resin' that Rubicon use is more like plastic - and the kit already includes a plethora of small components cast in resin. So why suddenly use metal to cast some of the other small parts? Especially when they don't fit as well? Annoying. And inexplicable.
Anyway, here you are...
Next up, the Rubicon Valentine II tank, and the Perry Indian Pattern carrier...
01 June 2007, 05:20:20 PM