¹⁄35

Building the Italeri 232 6-Rad

stage 2

The drive train and axles get assembled in this stage. Once the mould seams are all cleaned up with a nice new scalpel blade, these really look the part, although a bit simplified. The double leaf-spring suspension units on the rear proved difficult to clean up as the mould was ever so slightly mis-aligned. Part 51B, the main drive shaft, was also a little long, and wouldn’t go near until I had removed 2mm from it.

stages 3, 4 & 5

These three stages deal with completion of the suspension and wheels. There are 12 wheels in this kit. I have to say these wheels were a pleasure to assemble. They look good. Great tread pattern, make sure you align them properly, as there are no locating pins to help, and you will probably find that the two halves that make up the front wheels will not ‘sit’ properly until you remove two tiny ejector marks from inside each half. Don’t forget to hollow out the end of the exhaust which is assembled in stage 3.

stages 6, 7, 8 & 9

Here we assemble the fenders and all their stowage boxes, attach tools, width indicators and so on. There are a number of things I did here to try an improve the look of the finished kit. In stage 7 I left off the Notek light. It’s not a very good one, and I don’t think it’s correct for a vehicle this early. The spare wheel carried on a special bracket over the rear doors has a moulded cover, but I replaced this by wrapping it in fine Irish linen. The tools I swapped for slightly better ones I found in the spares box, without brackets. The brackets are photo etched ones from an Eduard set of early German tool clamps. The ‘rubber’ mud flaps do have a slight surface texture, but foil ones look even better and are easy to cut out from any spare aluminium foil you have lying around, the corners can be bent up and really give them a bit of ‘life’!