Introduction

ICM has added a great deal of soft skinned vehicles to their range recently, specifically World War Two soft skinned vehicles covering both trucks and cars. In this review I get to take a look at the Daimler Benz designed G4 in 1/24th scale. This vehicle was initially designed for the German Army; however it proved to be too expensive and overly complicated for mass production. The result of this was that only 72 G4’s were built with production being halted in 1939. The vehicles that were built were primarily used by members of the ruling elite and the highest ranking military officers.

Contents

This kit is packaged in a very sturdy and well designed box with a flapped lid. The contents fit very well inside the box preventing the movement of parts and so preventing damage to the parts. The contents of the box are;

• A 12 page instruction booklet
• A single sheet of painting instructions
• A black plastic chassis
• A clear sprue
• Four medium grey sprues
• Two chrome sprues
• 8 vinyl rubber tyres
• A decal sheet

Review

Starting with the black moulded chassis which unlike the 1/35th scale offering from ICM; this chassis is moulded as a single piece with the running boards and mudguards attached. There are a few ejection pin marks on the underside of the chassis but otherwise it looks good. The clear sprue is well moulded with the light lenses being especially clear.

The grey sprues look well moulded with the only issues present being ejector pin marks that I believe are all in areas that cannot be seen on the finished model, the other issue is again flow marks in the plastic; but again these do seem to represent any issues. The two small chrome sprues look good with no obvious issues to contend with. Some advice for those who have not used chromed plastic parts before; in order to cement them you will need to scrape away the chrome coating for the glue to work as it should. The lights for the car have been moulded on these chrome sprues and so should look good with the lenses attached.

The 8 vinyl rubber tyres have good tread detail and despite being vinyl there are no issues to contend with that I can see. Detail wise the lack of any makers mark on the tyres side walls is a little disappointing. The decals supplied with the kit look good and offers four finishing options, however no details on what the vehicles represent or where is supplied with the kit. One other issue is that the swastika for the flags supplied on the decal sheet are not included with the product.

The instructions supplied with the kit start with a short introduction in two languages, one of which is English. You are then provided with a paint guide listing ‘Model Master’ paints, the guide also provides the paint colours name in two languages.. the first page finishes with some warnings and the correct method for applying decals. The next two pictures provide a parts breakdown, and according to this all of the included parts are used. The instructions then move onto the construction of the model using the line drawing method.

Stages 1 through 3 cover the construction of the engine for the car, detail is fair but can be improved with some scratch work such as adding some wiring detail. Construction of the engine looks to be straight forward with no obvious issues to contend with.

Stages 4 through 6 covers the assembly of all of the wheels for the car.

Stages 7 through 16 covers assembly of axles and suspension components; the detail in this area of the car is very good with the only possible addition being break pipes. You will also attach these sub-assemblies to the chassis during these stages. The underside of the chassis as indicated earlier in the review has a small number of ejector pin marks that can be seen if the model in inverted, and so you may wish to fill these pin marks before advancing with the construction.

Stages 17 and 18 covers the addition of the engine and exhaust to the chassis. The exhaust uses chromed parts so remember to scrape the chrome away from areas where glue is to be applied.

Stages 19 through 25 covers construction of the bodywork and interior of the cab area. The bodywork and interior trim detail are separate parts which means there is no need to worry about ejector pin marks. The detail included within the kit is good and should meet the expectations of most if not better them. There will be some seams to fill but that is to be expected and they are also small due to some thought during the moulding of the body panels.

Stages 26 through 29 covers assembly of the bonnet and lights, detail is again good with very clear lenses. The bonnet can be depicted opened or closed; if you wish to depict the bonnet open some minor cutting is involved, and there are again some minor ejector pin marks to fill and sand.

Stages 30 and 31 brings the bodywork, bonnet, and chassis together. You also attach the front grill and lights and this is one area that disappoints, the front grill has no rear detail and so if the bonnet is open this omission will be clearly seen.

Stages 32 through 38 covers the final additions to the model with no obvious problems evident. The inclusion here of items such as the fuel tank, spare wheels, and canvas roof concludes the build.

Stage 39 does not involve any building as it just provides a top and bottom view of what the model should look like.

Conclusion

This 1/24th scale model of the Daimler Benz G4 will build into an impressive sized model with some very nice detail. The engine bay with its engine and gearbox is a very good area of the model but ICM has not included the rear face of the radiator which is disappointing and will require some good scratch work to remedy well. There are a few ejector pin marks that will need to be remedied but other than these points and in the belief that no fit issues will be encountered this should make a great looking addition to the 1/24th scale fans collection.