Newest of the three models from MasterBox this month is the kit
number 3562 “West European Cart” – we thought - instead of just talking about
it lets do a construction – but then we thought – lets paint it and weather it!
– read on to see how we did it and what we thought…
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MasterBox kit 3562: 1/35th West
European Cart
Kit No: 3562
Kit type: Injection Moulded (1 sprue in tan)
Scale: 1/35
Available from: MasterBox Stockist
Worldwide
The latest of the sting of “soft skinned” vehicles from Central European
model makers has arrived – and this time it isn’t a Mercedes called something
else – it doesn’t even have an engine! It is the Western European Cart from a
countryside setting in 1/35 scale, this would look great on the side of a road
in a diorama. We will examine, construct and paint the kit for you to show you
what it is like – I mean there is only so much you can say about wood grain isn’t
there!??
Well yes and no – some peeps could really have you bored here but I won’t
do that to you. The kit comes on a single sprue in tan, inside a white box that
has the lovely cover art on the front and the made-up example on the back of
the box.
This is in fact your instruction sheet for building the kit, with all of
the part numbers there – the only place you really need them are on the bottom
of the cart where all of the black metal parts look a bit mixed in and you
cannot pick out which parts go which way up – luckily as we see later its
pretty easy to work out.
The sprue break out is printed next to the cart illustration. This is
helpful but to make it easier still I would ask for three things when it comes
to this set
- · 1/ Numbers on the sprues
- · 2/ Clearer pictures of the smaller underside assembly
- · 3/ Colour call outs? These have gone from recent offerings from MasterBox – some modellers may need them – I made up my own colours as to what I would see in the country somewhere in Europe.
The tan plastic is the usual type used by MasterBox – regular in stiffness and easy to work – there is some
sanding going on at the edges but nothing serious and the kits parts are all
quite well moulded and look realistic – just the one word on the wood.
Nice hinges and coach bolts make this a fun kit to weather
The wood grain really isn’t there except on the frame of the cart – so I
put my own wood grain type of finish in there with layering paint to give it a
little “rough” feel to it – more on this later – but I would have liked a
little wood grain in there to make the kit a bit quicker to paint and weather.
The cart itself goes together pretty easily – the parts really do not
need instructions except the bottom where the colour of the illustration of the
cart makes it hard to make out – an uncoloured instruction illustration would
be better next time. I suppose this pic. doubles up as a painting instruction to
so that is why it is painted there.
There are several bumps that fit into each other to make the kit adhere
a little easier – you don’t need them but they are there – I made the box of
the cart and shaved any excess of the rest of the parts and then laid down the
first coat of paint.
With this kit to make a textured feel I used the set of acrylics from
Vallejo. These are easy to apply and although they do dry up on the airbrush I used
my Harder and Steenbeck Infinity CR Plus with a larger tip and I didn’t have that many
problems. This brush helped me out a lot as it’s easy to clean without tools
and easy to change paints on the go. The black went down easily and that is my
dark base coat for the lighter shades to be applied to.
The next colour I used was the Vallejo “148 Burnt Umber” of the first
coat of dark brown – I shot this all over but not on the metal straps or the
bottom of the cart wheels – I did this freehand and the fine tip of my H&S
Infinity allowed this to happen without having to mask anything off. 10 minutes
later under warm lights it was OK to go again for the next mottle colour.
The next lighter shade of brown was mottled on even thinner and in the
centre of each plank - “312 Leather belt” was the next shade – then I fancied
some dry brushing, so I lightly applied “103 German camo beige” to the darker
shades even more sparingly of he centres in a downward action to make the wood
lighter on the top and darker on the bottom of the cart. The undersides I left
a fair bit darker than the sides and tray section – which I weathered up a fair
bit more than the rest of the cart.
It was too light now – so I applied some MIG Productions oil and grease stain to the areas around the cracks and the steel frames of the cart which may have anti-corrosion sump oil applied to them – this is the reason for the darker patches. We often did this in the bush to keep the metal rust free.
To weather the metal I applied some “177 Oily Steel” to the cart’s
wheels and metal axle areas – a dry brush to these areas – the leaf springs and
shackle holders included – made them look suitably worn and used. One or two
speckles of the light beige colour finished the cart off!
Everything together - the undersides for you..
And the completed cart - "A Kingdom for a horse!"
Here is the cart on the side of a country road where I envisaged it
sitting in my mind – some small logs inside – dead bodies on the side of the road etc – the diorama ideas
for this cart are endless.
All in all the lack of wood grain to all areas of this kit didn’t really
detract from the finished product – I found it fun to make and a great looking
kit in the final wash up –
Great work from the guys at MasterBox – keep it up!
Adam Norenberg
Thanks to MasterBox for the review
kit
