Military Scales Captured Japanese steamroller in 1/72 |
Reviewed by Rato Marczak (2024)
Summary |
|
Description:
|
- 3D printed construction equipment. |
Scale:
|
- 1/72 (can be printed in other scales) |
Price:
|
- 16.00 USD |
Contents
& Media: |
- Resin parts |
Advantages: |
- Good printing resolution. |
Disadvantages |
- Soft details. Printing marks. Model printed in one single piece (see text).. |
Recommendation: |
- Recommended. |
This kit is of a captured steam roller once
belonging to a Japanese construction battalion on Guadalcanal. There is
a photo of it elsewhere after the Americans captured the airfield.
However, if you decide to paint it in the colors of your city's
construction corp or a Seebees unit, nobody will tell the difference.
This
particular model is printed in one single part. Apparently printed in
4k resolution, there are a lot of supports to remove, but once they are
gone, we can appreciate the model better. I broke one of the main
wheels' scrapping pads while removing the supports, so take your time.
Talking
about them, they are a bit too soft for my taste, and the panel lines
of the engine covers will probably disappear after painting, or at
least make the use of washes pointless. I rescribed most of them.
The
crude type of machinery is well captured by the printed model. A couple
of nuts could probably be replaced by more crispy items, but the model
is in general well done. The curved areas (wheels and cabin hood) look
faceted, and I had to spend some time sanding them off to look more
appropriately like curved steel plates.
This is one case. I cannot paint properly the area between the wheels and the chassis, and everything under the drive's hood will be impossible to detail paint. To make things worse, there are a couple of very strange 'crack-like' marks inside the driver's cabin that required puttying and sanding, and the only way to do it was to remove the hood and its supporting bars. The driver's wheel axle is also molded integrated to the chassis, while a metal rod replacement would do a much more realistic job there. But if I have to remove it, probably will also damage the surface details there.
I
would prefer to have the chassis, wheels, hood, and driver's wheel
printed as separate parts. I detached these parts in my sample, and it
is much easier now to prepare the parts for painting. I will even add a
couple of gauges inside the cabin.
But apart from this, it is still
a nice model of something that probably no mainstream manufacturer will
release in all main scales soon. I can't wait to paint mine.
Rato
Marczak
© 2024