Introduction

One of the biggest misses from Bronco in the release of their LWS is the fact that the rope bumpers are not in the kit. Every period picture of the LWS shows them running around with these bumpers, so it is a bit of a riddle why they left them out. However LionRoar comes to the modeller's rescue by bringing a perfect set of resin rope bumpers to really finish your Landwasserschlepper.

Review

Kit# LE 35087 comes in a black box measuring 3 cm high, 20.5cm wide and 12 cm deep and has quite a fancy design on it. When opening the box you are greeted by 6 cream-white colored resin parts that together form the rope bumpers and an instruction sheet showing how the parts are assembled onto the LWS.

Each part has a number which not surprisingly is numbered from 1 to 6 with 1 being the front part as the logical start point and the other parts forming the bumper around the vehicle. The number is molded on the casting block that each part has and when you cut it off you might think you cannot identify them however LionRoar added some clever markings on the other end to make sure you still can identify the part when you have cut of the casting block. On the opposite side of the casting block a little letter is carved by the master-maker. This letter is either an L or an R (left or right). Another way of keeping track which part goes where is to look at the wire loops that the bumpers have. The parts are so designed that the end either has a wire loop or not but the part that connects to that side either starts with a wire loop or does not because then it fits on the wire loop of the other part. The casting of the resin pieces is very good and the detail of the woven texture of the bumpers is well made and absolutely no air bubbles are to be found on this set.

Assembly is pretty straightforward and not many problems can be found here really. As with all resin sets, you need to cut or saw off the casting block and sand that end flush to be able to glue it on to the matching end on the next piece. This is quite important because the pieces on the side are not the same. Each wire loop is in such a position that it lines up with one of the blocks on the edge of the top deck of the LWS. For strengthening reasons, I drilled holes in each part and added a little metal rod in it with CA glue and this rod is not included in the kit. The rope bumpers are designed in such a way that it hangs just under the lip of the top deck and under the little blocks that are molded onto that. If you want the wire loops to sit on top of the blocks and more towards the top section of the top deck edge, then you carefully need to sand the red edges as indicated in the pictures. My advice is to sand a bit then test-fit and repeat until it fits right.

Conclusion

A really good set from LionRoar which is a welcome addition since the bumpers are missing in the Bronco kit, especially since a LWS is not really a LWS when it doesn’t have a bumper! The set says it is designed for the Bronco kit and I cannot really say if it will fit the HobbyBoss kit as well but that's doubtful without major adjustment since the HobbyBoss LWS is 7 mm shorter then the Bronco LWS and the nose of the HobbyBoss LWS is not as pointy as the Bronco kit. I found the parts in this set to be well cast and they fit good onto each other before adding the pins for strength. This set is a very nice way of completing your LWS and is a recommendation for every LWS owner looking to finish it off with this common, but missing from the kit, detail.