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Trakz has quickly established themselves as a prolific maker of resin canvas covers for 1/35 softskin models. One of their new releases is #0103, a Kubelwagen cover with two support ribs or braces.
The cover is cast in light cream colored resin, and is a one-piece deal. The mold bar runs across the top, rear angle of the cover, so some careful work is required during clean-up. The mold bar is not really thick and removing it with a knife and sanding sticks just took a few minutes
The casting has no visible flaws, but careful inspection shows a few very thin spots caused by trapped airbubbles inside. There are five of these but none presented any problem because I didn't poke them open. The molding is very sharp around the edge of the cover, especially the rear with its very fine molded fastner buttons. What makes this cover really neat is that it is so thin and scale-like that the inner support ribs/hoops and framework are included. While you would have to turn the model upside down to see it, the detail is there. Earlierr version Kubelwagens such many used in North Africa and Russia had the two ribs (later versions had 3).
No instructions are provided, but aside from any historical info about where/when this type of top was used, no instructions are needed. The box top photo shows the cover in place on a Tamiya Kubelwagen, but the piece should fit any of the modern Kubel kits. The Tamiya, DML/Bego/Hasegawa kit are very good, and even Italeri's older offering is worthwhile. I did not have a Kubel kit built without a top for test fitting, but was able to dry fit the top to some unassembled kit parts. I think it is a drop fit on both the Tamiya and DML kits. There is enough flexability in the thin resin to adjust to any minor width variations.
A very nice, simple, addition to any Kubel kit!
Review sample kindly provided by VLS
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