Introduction

Mercedes Benz began production of the 170 V Cabriolet in 1935 and produced it all through the war and early post-war period, not ceasing production until 1950. Later versions of the car continued to be produced until 1955, with a total of something in the neighborhood of 85,000 eventually rolling off the assembly line. MB Models of Ukraine has recently released a second type of 170 V and is probably hoping for the same popularity over the next several years. The subject of this review is the police version of the 170 V, following their summer release of the touring wagon roadster, kit number 35100. As in the first release MasterBox has very carefully avoided the use of the Mercedes name. However, the prominent hood ornament is included!

Review

This kit is very similar to the first 170 V with just a few small changes. If you would like to take a look at the review from Jim Rae here on Armorama you can check it out here. Rather than rehash Jim’s excellent work I will simply try and give you a bit of an understanding of the differences between the two kits and as well as my overall take on the one I have in front of me. The kit comes on four gray sprues and one clear sprue, with five vinyl tires and one small decal sheet. The only sprues that are different are sprue B with the different interior pieces and sprue D with the small difference in the body.

First, it would seem that this version was a dedicated police vehicle rather than simply a requisitioned car, and as such it has a somewhat simpler design. The most noticeable difference between the two is the rear end - the earlier version has an enclosed trunk whereas this one has a simple open area with a small flat bed, the spare tire and a couple of storage boxes. The difference necessitates a slightly different body on the rear of the vehicle. The storage boxes are well done, with nice detail provided in the form of a couple of molded-on hasps and padlocks. You could sand them off and replace them with PE examples but I don’t think it is an imperative as they really are well done.

You’ll also want to hold on tight going around any corners as this version has no doors, providing instead wraparound seats that hold you in. It does provide the rolled up canvas doors, but if you want them deployed you will need to scratch out your own using two part epoxy or paper and glue. Even if you opt for the stowed style you might want to make your own as the kit examples are not really very well done, lacking in almost all detail. The first version also had fully upholstered seats both front and back, while this version eliminates the cushy seats and provides instead what appear to be fairly flat leather style pads. (Not something it looks like you would want underneath of you for a long road trip!)

With the difference in the doors a new configuration for the canvas tilt is provided. You do have the option of a stowed canvas top as well; this is a four-part assembly and has much better detail than the stowed door parts. Be aware if you build it with the canvas tilt deployed, do not attach parts B3 and B4, the folded-up supports, in step 22. Also, this version eliminates the rifle racks in the rear seats. (I’m guessing that police still think it’s a bad idea to stow a weapon in the same space that they might seat a suspect, just sayin’…)

The other difference that I could see was in the instruction sheet. It still is large, about the size of Connecticut or maybe Delaware, just a shade under 24’’ x 17” (for our European friends and others who use the metric scale that’s about 24” by 17”, there, hope that cleared it up!) , okay, okay, 60cm x 43cm. A2 size. The difference is that where the first kit left some attachment points rather vague, MB has corrected those omissions and now provides a better idea of where parts go. As you can see it is still essentially a CAD drawing but with a better set of placement arrows. Thanks to MB for paying attention to modelers’ earlier critiques and fixing this problem.

The last difference between the two kits is the decal sheet. This being a police vehicle there are two sets of markings provided, one for the secret field police and the other for the civil police. This is a bit of a unsettling issue with the kit, the markings provided are not for the general military field police but are indeed for the Geheime Feldpolizei, which was tasked with counter insurgency and counter espionage missions.

Those are the only real differences that I can see between the two versions. This kit also provides a very nicely detailed engine that would lend itself easily to a bit of extra detailing. You can open the hood if you wish, or you can close up the whole thing. The kit provides an extra hood in the closed position although this is not noted on the instruction sheet. The tires in my copy of the kit are molded cleaner than the ones in Jim’s review sample, hopefully that is indicative of the molding of all the tires now. They still have the pesky seam in the tread area but the sidewalls seem much cleaner now. The seams on the X frame are still present, but they really don’t look that bad to me, a few minutes of dedicated work with a knife and a file should do the trick.

Conclusion

This really looks like it will be a fun build. I love all the new soft skins that are coming out and this one is no exception. There’s some really nice detail; take your time on the smaller fiddly parts and it should turn out to be something to be proud of. The kit has a few detail issues with the canvas doors but nothing that should be insurmountable for most modelers.