introduction

It's been a few years since Dragon released their 'German Medical Team' with Kubelwagen Ambulance Conversion kit, #6137. All you got for your money then was four figures, one of which curiously, you were instructed wasn't for use, a stretcher on a small sprue and a very small sprue of parts to convert a Kubelwagen into an ambulance version...........but you didn't get the Kubelwagen! You had to buy that separately. Some of the parts were from Dragon, and others were straight from Italeri, and even the decal sheet was Italeri, with their logo physically cut out! Not so with this new release..........it's all Dragon and it's all there!

the kit

In this release we get all that gone before plus the Kubelwagen! In the box there are five large sprues of grey styrene, three small ones, a transparent sprue, and a new set of decals.

Firstly the sprue that contains the main figures. This is the same sprue as in the old release, which itself was from an earlier release, kit #6074. However, it looks like a new tooling has been made up, since the moulding on this one is pin-sharp! I have the old release, and the difference is very marked indeed! Likewise with the sprue containing the surgeon and the nurse...........absolutely sharp moulding, as if it's been newly tooled. What we get then, with regards to figures at least, is two soldiers in uniform, one of them a medic with his arm around the other supporting him. The one injured wearing a head bandage. Another figure is supplied lying on the stretcher, obviously injured, and a surgeon wearing an apron, and a nurse in uniform.

It's the vehicle where Dragon have come up trumps though. Instead of just getting the conversion set as we did in the first release, we actually get the whole caboodle, and not just any old Kubelwagen, but probably the best one ever done in injected plastic, the Tasca Bego one! In addition we get a small photo etched fret and the original two Tasca figures as an added bonus!

The Kubelwagen builds in the normal way, and for anybody unfamiliar with Tasca kits, this will prove a treat, as they are extremely well engineered. The only difference in construction being the omission of the passengers seat, this space being taken up by the stretcher base. A full roof can be installed, but there are also parts to depict the roof stowed.

The decal sheet supplied is by Cartograf this time, unlike the original Italeri offering and as well as generic number plate details, includes various red crosses as would be appropriate to this vehicle, as well as those suitable for the Medics helmets.

conclusion

A beautiful model, and although I couldn't find out a price, it's likely to be priced at below that of the Tasca Kubelwagen on it's own. A bargain! Very highly recommended indeed!

availability

This kit is not available directly from CyberHobby. For those in the United States you should check with Dragon Models USA as they are they have information and ordering details for the kit.