introduction

Value Gear continues to turn out superior stowage, now with sets tailored to particular kits. No German truck was more ubiquitous, both in life and as a model, than the Opel Blitz. In the past, modelers could load down their Blitzes with their own stowage solutions, but now Value Gear has created a set that basically drops in the load bed.

contents

Inside the usual Value Gear Ziploc baggie are 6 pieces of grey resin:

A large tarp-covered main load
A stack of rifle boxes and ammunition
Four misc. small wooden boxes

the review

Value Gear has been producing some of the best resin stowage sets in the hobby. Owner Steve Munsell has both an eye for detail and a roving curiosity that has translated into a growing line of stowage that ranges from tarps and tents that would work for almost any army in the field to now sets of stowage for particular vehicles.

The current set has an extremely imaginative load of at least seven 200 liter fuel drums and misc. cargo covered by a tarp. To hold down the tarp from blowing off, there are two random pieces of wood, along with some tarps tied together (one even has a shovel secured to the rolled-up fabric). As an added bonus are some individual items, including rifle crates and ammo boxes.

The casting is very crisp: the fabric of the large tarp covering the fuel drums looks like its folds would cut paper. There are some Jerry cans sticking out on one side of the load, hinting at a whole collection of goodies underneath. The details of the fuel drums stand out beneath the fabric, leaving the modeler little more to do than simply paint the grouping and drop into a kit's load bed.

Value Gear resin is extremely clean (Munsell says you don't need to soak the pieces in any solution since he doesn't use mold-release agent). This means that you can spend more time modeling and less time in prep.

My only qualification to the set is the price: twenty dollars is less than the stowage sets by the bigger companies like Legend, but the cost might dissuade some modelers from purchasing what is the best stowage option short of making your own.

conclusion

Value Gear is the current leader in my opinion in offering generic and lightly-targeted resin stowage sets. The name says it all.

Thanks to Value Gear for this review sample. Be sure to mention you saw it reviewed on Armorama when ordering one.