Introduction

The Volkswagen Type 1 was the answer to the Adolf Hitler’s requirement for a cheap, simple and mass production car affordable to the average German. Although the Project was developed by Ferdinand Porsche back in 1934, it was really based on the Bela Barenyi car designed in the 20s.
In 1938 the Volkswagen factory was built in Fallersleben in Lower Saxony to start mass producing the new car. After 210 units built the war caused production to turn to the military requirements. During the war only a bunch of the civilian version called Type 60 were produced for the Wehrmacht officers and the factory concentrated in producing the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen and the military version of the type 60, mating the Kubelwagen chassis and the Type 60 body. This special version was produced from 1941 and improved the off road capability increasing the ground clearance and traction but lowering the maximum Speedy to 80kph. Inside the car was Spartan with only the necessary equipment and even the Kubelwagen seats were generally used.

The Kit

RFM is providing some interesting kits lately. This previously unreleased Type 82E is a good example of their good quality standard with finely detailed plastic parts, a few photoetched elements and easy following instructions.

The soft card box includes an inner little box protecting the plastic body. The rest of the parts are sealed in a bag together with the small PE fret, the decals and the vinyl tires. The Light brown plastic parts show very nice retail and resemble those form other producers like Meng, Tamiya, etc. The Windows and lights lenses are obviously procured in transparent plastic and, as a bonus; the kit includes sand tires if you want to depict a DAK Vehicle.

Building the Kit

The model is made of few parts and the whole building processed can be fulfilled in an hour or so.
The instructions guides us through 13 steps clearly illustrated and with few parts evolved in each of them so this part of the job is very amusing and trouble less.
Step 1 to 3 – Build the lower part of the chassis and choose whether you want to use the standard off road pattern tires or the sand ones.
Step 4 – Build the Engine and place it at the car back.
Step 5 – Add the levers and seats, unfortunately the kit only includes the Type 60 seats and not the more common Kubelwagen ones.
Step 6 and 7 – When building the front trunk and the dashboard you will have to choose again if you want to depict a DAK Vehicle.
Step 8 – Add the Windows, maybe you want to save this step to the end.
Step 9 and 10 Add the exterior details to the body.
Step 11 – Close the car and add the fenders.
Step 12 and 13 – place the front and rear bonnet. The kit give us the option of leaving both bonnets open but the truth is that both plastic parts have very evident mould marks inside and the hinges are very summary so you will have to work them a little if you finally decide to show the engine and trunk inside.

The painting options are illustrated at the back of the box, three schemes provided by Ammo for which the decals are included, none of them is identified but the license plates belong to the Wehrmacht.

Conclusion

This is a lovely rendition of an iconic vehicle that can be a perfect weekend project. The nicely detailed parts make any aftermarket almost unnecessary and the few mould marks can be perfectly hidden if you leave the car closed. Checking some of the unused parts makes me think of other versions of the Volkswagen coming up soon.