Revell 1/35 Henschel Type 33 D1 cargo truck

[trekfanj]

My first SIG ever!!
I just hope my entry is eligible.

Anyways, here it is; the Revell reboxing of the 1/35 ICM "Henschel Type 33D1" 3-ton cargo truck. I was in my local Hobbytown a few months ago, browsing their (very) limited selection of model kits when this one caught my eye. It looked interesting, but I decided to pass it up. Days went by and I couldn't get the kit out of my head, like some poor puppy that nobody wanted. I made up my mind to get it, and once I had the funds I immediately raced back to Hobbytown and picked it up.

Thing was, though, I didn't really have any motivation at the time to build it. So up in the closet it went, till I saw this SIG was coming up, and decided, "why not?"

So, here's a little history of the vehicle, courtesy of the kit's instructions:

"In 1926, in the course of the first motorization program, the German Army required the development of cross-country six-wheeled trucks with a capacity weight of 3 tons. In addition to Henschel the firms Bussing and Krupp also participated in the development. Henschel supplied the first "Type 33 B 1" vehicles in 1928. Compared to the civil variants these vehicles for the German defense forces had three-spoke wheels with twin tires on the rear axles. By the following year the "Type 33 D 1" with a more powerful diesel engine (100hp) had been introduced. This type can be recognized by it's longer bonnet ("hood" to us Yanks! ) and extended wheel base between first and second axles. In the early versions of the "Type 33 D 1" the rear axles were driven by separate drive shafts. Later vehicles from 1934 onwards had only one drive shaft with drive-through to the second rear axle. Simplex wheel rims with six spokes were also used. By the time production ended in 1942 about 22,000 of all variants of the Type 33 had rolled off the Henschel line."

Some pics of the real thing:

[Daishi12]

Should look good in a diorama

[trekfanj]

Okay, so here's the requisite info:

Box art:



Sprue shots:













Sorry for the somewhat hazy pics; I think I was in a hurry because I took these just before work.

Instructions:































Markings options:







Out of all three, the third option has the most interesting color scheme, but I'm going with the first option in overall Panzer Grey.

This kit only has seven sprues (well, six actually, one is duplicated) but the instructions have 88 steps-89 if you count decaling!

I'm going to build this OOB; no PE, no resin, just what's in the box. The kit itself is very well detailed, and I'm hoping that I can show that off as I go along.

So let's start putting glue to sprue!

[UKguyInUSA]

Looks like a cool truck to model and good luck with that camo scheme if you decide to go with option 3!

[trekfanj]

Forgot to add a photo of the decals!

[Nev]

Looking good there! Will be following this. Will be interesting to see which way you go with the scheme. Go team Henschel

[trekfanj]

Looking good there! Will be following this interesting to see which way you go with the scheme. Go team Henschel

Thanks, Nev! I'm gonna be watching your build, too!

[trekfanj]

Construction commences!

I decided to start with the rear wheels:





Once the wheels were done I decided to just follow the instructions from that point on. First up is the truck's frame; no one-piece frames here, the frame sides and cross members all come separate. The plastic is extremely brittle; the starter crank broke when I was trimming the sprue gate off. Also, every piece has a mold seam on it, so I've had to clean those up, too.

But anyways, here's the frame nearly completed:



That's where I am at this point; I just wanted to share a quick update.

Till next time!

[Tiger131]

love the heavy look of these..and looking forward to your build

[Yevgeny]

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but this is another great kit in this SiG.
And you lot make it very difficult, because I want to join in, but can't yet!

[trekfanj]

Should look good in a diorama

Yeah, I'd been musing on that idea, too; probably later, though.

[trekfanj]

Looks like a cool truck to model and good luck with that camo scheme if you decide to go with option 3!

Thanks, Martin!
At the moment I'm planning on option 1; a truck stationed in Cologne, France in overall Panzer Grey.
But it's still pretty early in the SIG, so I could change my mind later on....

[Unit53]

Never seen this kit before but it looks like a good one, good luck with the build and I'll definitely be watching this one.


Martin

[fly1ngdutchm4n]

Awesome looking truck!
Watching it come together with interest!

[trekfanj]

Update time.

So I got the frame assembled according to step 13 in the instructions:

Muffler and exhaust pipe:



fuel tanks, towing hitch and towing hooks:




I temporarily lost a towing hook to the carpet monster; while I was looking for it thoughts came to my head like, "Why do these freaking kits have to have so many freaking tiny parts?" and "I wonder if that Zvezda BTR-70 is still at Hobby Depot? That's what I SHOULD have gotten!!" followed by "Why do I even do this hobby?" and lastly, "I just can't do anything right."

Then I found the towing hook and all was right with the world.

I'm not sure what this is, some kind of winch?



In step 14 I started building the engine block. I had a short moment of terror and melodrama when I thought I had glued the cylinder block on backwards. I tried prying it off with my xacto knife, but all that did was snap pieces off the blade and embed them in the plastic. It took five minutes of careful examination of the instructions to realize that I had done it right in the first place.

But anyways, here is the engine so far with the exhaust manifold, air filters, and what I guess is a coolant line in place:



And I also jumped ahead and began building the rear axles:



That's where I'm at for now. Till next time!

[trekfanj]

Never seen this kit before but it looks like a good one, good luck with the build and I'll definitely be watching this one.


Martin

Thanks for the support, Martin!

[trekfanj]

Awesome looking truck!
Watching it come together with interest!

Thanks, Frans!

[Russ72]

Good start Trekfan, cool looking truck mate.

[trekfanj]

Good start Trekfan, cool looking truck mate.

Thanks, Russ!

[kiwigav]

Nice choice looks to be a fun build

[trekfanj]

Nice choice looks to be a fun build

Thanks, Gav!

[Deacon]

I like this model and have been tempted several times to buy it so i'll be watching with interest.

[wappynutter]

...and again another excellent ICM Truck.. Very cool build Trekfan, going to be watching this for sure..
Nicely detailed piece of kit this, and you are doing a superb job with it..Well done !
Continued success buddy..
All the best..
.. Just gonna hang and eat popcorn...

[trekfanj]

I like this model and have been tempted several times to buy it so i'll be watching with interest.

Thanks, Deacon! If you find it you should buy it!

[trekfanj]

...and again another excellent ICM Truck.. Very cool build Trekfan, going to be watching this for sure..
Nicely detailed piece of kit this, and you are doing a superb job with it..Well done !
Continued success buddy..
All the best..
.. Just gonna hang and eat popcorn...

Thanks, Andy! Enjoy the popcorn!

[trekfanj]

In the immortal words of Alice Cooper: "SCHOOOOOOLS...OUT...FOR...EVER!"
The class I was taking ate up a lot of my time, but now it's done, so I can focus on this build.
Some of my pics are out of sequence; my mind was teetering between, "I still need to finish that paper," and "I have time to get this glued together first," and, "Oh crap, I forgot to take a picture of that first!"

So, here's what I've been up to:

I went ahead and built up the remaining parts for the rear axles:
Leaf springs:







I then completed the rear axle assembly:





In some of the pics you can see the floorboards and engine firewall, but I only glued those so that I could install all of the control lines; there's not much to see there...yet.

Getting those leaf spring subassemblies into location was the biggest PITA I've ever had on a kit...EVER. It felt like I needed three hands just to get everything on and into position.

There are so many long thin connecting lines on the chassis; somehow, only one ended up broken. The little hoop things that go over the axle arms in the second picture, however, were a WHOLE other story. I think only one ended up in one piece; the rest broke into at least three parts each and I had to reassemble them. It got so frustrating that I actually considered leaving them off altogether. At least all of these broken parts are on the underside.

So up next was the front axle:





I also installed the engine and drivetrain:



That thing on the side of the frame that I thought was a winch is actually some part of the drivetrain.

The biggest problem of this kit is that every part's successful location is heavily dependent on another part's successful alignment. So, far I've been lucky, but I'm just waiting for something to go horribly wrong.

On the bright side, the chassis is practically completed, and it seems to be the most difficult part of the build, so if I can get through that, the rest should be a piece of cake!

Still plenty of time to get this done; and I'll have the next two weeks off for Christmas, so I'll really be able to crack down and work on this thing.

Till next time!

[Nev]

Keep at it dude!! I feel your pain My build is going the same

[trekfanj]

Keep at it dude!! I feel your pain My build is going the same

Thanks, Nev; I guess misery loves company, right?

[Deacon]

Keep at it dude!! I feel your pain My build is going the same

Thanks, Nev; I guess misery loves company, right?

You're not a Metallica fan by any chance?

A great start mate.

[trekfanj]

Keep at it dude!! I feel your pain My build is going the same

Thanks, Nev; I guess misery loves company, right?

You're not a Metallica fan by any chance?

A great start mate.

Thanks, Deacon!
I don't really consider myself a fan, but I haven't heard a Metallica song I didn't like.
"Fuel" and "Nothing Else Matters" are my favorites!