introduction

In 1954/55 Daimler-Benz developed a special military version of their famous Unimog truck. The truck was named Unimog 404S and took part at the competition for the new 1.5 ton military off road truck which the German Bundeswehr wanted to introduce. Because of its extreme off-road capabilities, the Unimog 404s was selected and ordered in large quantities. It was named LKW 1,5t gl (4x4) by the the Bundeswehr. That means: Truck, one and a half ton off-road, all wheel drive. A total of around 25000 units of all versions were build for the Bundeswehr between 1955 and 1972. The most common was the cargo version with 14223 build vehicles.

The kit

The kit comes in a solid card box with colour photos of an assembled and painted kit as box art. The parts are well packaged in a couple of plastic bags and secured with foam chips. There were no broken parts in my kit. The risk of broken parts seems to be very low, cause the flexibility of the resin they use is comparable to polystyrene. Thin parts can be bent to acute angles.

The box contains 113 resin parts, moulded in light grey resin, one sprue with clear lenses for the headlights, one set of PE parts, a piece of clear plastic for the windscreens, and a decal sheet.. On top of all the you also get an outstanding printed instruction sheet. It nearly reaches the level of top plastic kit makers.

First, all parts are listed with name, quantity and drawings of the parts followed by some general building advice. The construction of the kit itself is shown very clearly on five pages. Different angles shown help you place the parts right. Although the part list is only in German, the rest of the instruction is bilingual German / English. Colour recommendations are given too.

The moulding and the detail on the parts is extremely good. The casting blocks are placed as helpfully as possible. There is nearly no warping. Only the side walls of the cargo compartment are bent a little bit, but because of their flexibility it will not be necessary to make them straight. Glue them to the body and that’s it. The side walls look like very difficult to cast parts. There are a few air bubbles you can find, and a little flash, at the mirrors and the mirror carriers. The PE set offers parts like radiator grill, windscreen wipers, brush guards for the head lights, the “ Mercedes star “ and some other small parts. Very well made too.

The kit offers some options to build. You can choose to show it with open or closed cab and cargo bed because the two good looking tarps as well as the seat bench for the cargo area are contained in the kit. No easy decision. In addition to that, the doors of the cab and the side walls of the cargo box can be shown in open or closed position, the windscreen can also be folded down. The front axle is not steerable, but to convert it will be no big deal.

Decals

The kit contains wet transfers. Decals for three German Bundeswehr units are provided:

Kompanie Panzergrenadierlehrbattallion 92 ( 5th Platoon, 92nd motorized training infantry battalion)
1. Kompanie Panzergrenadierbattalion 351 ( 1st Platoon, 351st motorized infantry battalion )
2. Kompanie Jaegerbattalion 113 (2nd Platoon, 113th light infantry battalion )

The sheet offers decals for dash board instruments and MLC too.

Conclusion

One of the best, if not the best, resin kit I ever got in my hands.
If you want to try your first full resin kit, I would suggest this one. Highly recommended.