Having recently returned to modelling after a few years off I have purchased a few (too many) truck kits that have come out in the past few years. Some of you know that I tended to build a lot of kitbash or scratchbuilt items in the past but to ease my way back in I have started a few OOB builds to get my skill level back up. I have 4 kits at paint stage, 2 OOB and 2 turned into a small diorama. While paint dries I decided to build the ICM Henschel 33 D1 a recent release from ICM. This kit along with a lot of other ICM and IBG kits were purchased from http://hobbyterra.com/product_info.php?products_id=3629 who advertise on Armorama. I have had 2 shipments from them and I recommend their service to anyone who wants kits from Eastern Europe. Delivery to Australia is about 18 days by standard airmail from the Ukraine where they are based.

The box art

On opening the box I thought "man what a fantastic kit this looks like". On closer inspection the level of detail seems amazing and the smallness of some styrene parts left me thinking that there was no way I could handle them without damage. I studied the instructions and they seemed reasonably straight forward but this kit is not for a beginner as I feel it needs at least a moderate level of skill to do a good job even as an OOB build which this one is going to be. There is no PE with this kit just a sheet of clear parts for the windows and a sheet of decals apart from the styrene sprues. A surprise to me was that some of the chassis parts make up the edge of one of the sprues and as such are liable to get damaged if the box is mistreated in transport.

First part on the instructions to build is the engine.I found that the stryene is a bit brittle and hard compared to the IBG kit I have just done so great care is needed to get the small parts off the sprue and cleaned up.

22 parts go to making the engine up



They make up to look like this







Care was needed to locate some parts correctly and like some other kits attachment of parts relies in most cases on butt joints which can be difficult with small parts.

More later when I complete the next step.

Looking good so far well done.

paul.

unfortunately I have had to call a temporary halt on this kit as part #A39 of which the kit has 4 of to go into the rear suspension setup has 1 missing off the sprue in my kit.

I have emailed Hobby Terra and asked for a replacement but I cannot assemble the rear suspension until I have the part.

This build will continue once I get the part.