Rubicon Models US armour reviews

In these reviews, I'm doing something slightly different, and rolling several reviews into one, as I built all the kits at the same time, and most of the comments are the same of each of them, though I'll cover each individually too. In the interests of integrity, Rubicon have been kind enough to provide me with review samples of each of the kits below, however these particular vehicles were part of a work commission.

Rubicon Models have quite an extensive line of mid to late war US armour in their catalogue now (I do keep harassing them to make an M4A1 too...), and whilst I've already looked at their M5 Stuart and M4A3 Shermans, this time I've been building the M3 halftrack, M8 Scott, M10 and M36 tank destroyers, and the  M20 armoured car. 

All of these kits come with Rubicons standard packaging of a letterbox type packaging with each sprue individually bagged to prevent loss of parts, as well as an extensive decal sheet, and well laid out instruction booklet. Each kit contains multiple variants, so it's worth taking a few minutes before cutting things to identify which variant you will build, and what parts you will be using.

All of the vehicles were painted the same way, using a black primer as a base, and then airbrushing Vallejo Brown Violet over most of the vehicle, leaving some black visible in the recesses. around the edges and raised areas I then airbrushed Vallejo Green Grey, before weathing them using some Burnt Umber oil paint used as a wash around the details and recesses. 

 

M3A1 Half Track

The M3A1 kit actually gives the option of assembling the vehicle as either an M3, or an M3A1, with a choice of winch or bumper at the front, deployed or stored stowage racks, open or closed radiator grill, and open or closed armoured wind shield, as well as pose able machine guns and a choice of interior radio fits, and also comes with 2 crew figures. 

 

Decals are also note worthy, as they contain some nice Free French markings,  as well as a good jumble of codes and stars too, so will be useful for future projects too.

I found the kit to be a fairly quick build, with some very nice detail and good fit to the parts. The only part of the kit that failed to impress me were the crew figures, although fortunately these are barely visible.

I still opted to use the driver and omit the other passenger. Some inevitable comparison will be asked with the Warlord Games plastic M3A1, and there's very little between the two, though Warlords is probably a marginally simpler to assemble kit, and comes with less decals and no choice of variants. I'll be adding Rubicons kit to my own DAK force as an M3 variant at some point in the none too distant future. 

M8 Scott

Another nice kit, the M8 Scott allows you to build either an M5A1 Stuart, or M8 Scott. 

There's little cross over here either, but with a bit of care and creativity you could build both and swap parts as each variant is required if that's your thing.

Between the Stuart and the Scott, I prefer the look of the finished M8, the spare track parts on the turret have slightly more impact and definition than on the Stuart parts, and the finished vehicle just has more impact. Turret interior is pretty good too for the M8, although it's lacking in crew and you'll have to convert some up if you want to fill their void. 

Assembly is straight forwards,  and rounded off by another well stocked transfer sheet with a good selction of markings, with options for several nationalities covered, including the USA, Britain and France. 

M10 Tank destroyer

This one comes with some fairly notable options, namely the choice of building an M10, an M10A, an M36 and finally an Achilles tank destroyer. 

Parts for these are all fairly specific,especially due to the way the turret rings are constructed, although you could potentially work out a way to make them interchangeable with a bit of work, the kits not really designed that way.

Interior detail for the M10 vehicles is good, though no interior is provided for the M36 turret apart from a gun breach.

Oddly, whilst ammunition racks are provided in for the hull, there is no floor, which is a fairly visible part of the fighting compartment. Sadly, no crew or stowage are provided, though once again the decal sheet is superb. 

M20 Scout Car

The final kit I'm looking at today, the M20 kit also includes parts to build the M8 armoured car as well. This was a bit of a surprise kit as it has some really superb detail.

 

It's not an easy kit to switch between versions however, so be mindful of that if you're intending making it as both. assembly is a breeze though and the finish model is superb to my eye. 

Of the 4 of these, I think my favourite is probably the M20/M8, although I really like the M3 kit too. the Scott is good value for money, though I have to admit to being disappointed in the M10, as I felt it a little lacking, though I'd struggle to put my finger on what precisely. 

 

Rubicon Models can be obtained through Plastic Soldier Company in the UK, and from their US distributor for those in America, and as ever you can see more examples of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Rubicon Models 1/56 Jagdpanzer 38t Hetzer review

This kit has been out for a little while, so much so that I won one at the (Cam)Bridge to Far event in March of last year... 


The Jagdpanzer 38t is one of those late war vehicles that is so iconic, and such a good modelling opportunity that it's likely to appear in most late war gamers collections, and this kit from Rubicon Models is certainly a very welcome addition to their line up of plastic vehicle kits. 






Rubicons Jagdpanzer comes nicely presented in their typical box, with each sprue individually bagged, with a very good decal sheet that comes with the standard range of German markings, as well as vehicles used by the Russian Liberation Army and what I believe are Czech Partisan forces.




 
The kit provides numerous options as is the norm for Rubicon, offering the builder the choice of creating early, mid and late production vehicles, as well as a Flammpanzer 38t. No stowage or crew figures are provided however.

I opted to build the late production vehicle,  and found assembly to be quick and straight forwards, though I do recommend taking the time to read through the instructions and ensure you are familiar with the variant you are going to build. 




The Jagdpanzer was painted first with black primer, then airbrushed with Vallejo Middlestone, this was modulated with increasing amounts of Pale Sand, before a disruptive pattern of Vallejo Mahogany was added.

Some pin washing of Burnt Umber oil paint, and the Jagdpanzer 38t was complete. Personally, I rate this as Rubicons best kit, and thoroughly recommend it. This particular vehicle was a clients, for a commission, however I have one of my own in the stash for when I eventually get to expanding my late war German collection.



Rubicon Models can be obtained through Plastic Soldier Company in the UK, and through their own distributor in the United States.
As ever, I can be contacted through Volley Fire Painting Service on Facebook, and you can even see more painted examples of my work there too. 

Rubicon Models Sdkfz 305 Review

 Rubicon have recently released their new Opel Blitz kit, labelled as the Sdkfz 305 for copyright reasons, and supplied one to me to review. (The painted vehicles being ones I have assembled for work, with my own one being the unassembled one).

The kit comes in the familiar dark grey plastic on 2 sprues, and is scaled to 1/56. Of note is the fantastic decal sheet, and the slide moulded cab. Also included are 2 crew figures.

 No windows are provided for the cab, however a template is supplied on the instruction sheet for you to make your own. also included are a choice of canvas tilts for the cargo area. 

Rubicons Opel assembles very quickly and simply, taking around 30 minutes to put together, and fitting very well. One nice feature is that you can leave the cab and cargo tilt off the model until painting is complete, and then they just snap into place. 

One feature I especially liked was the pose able nature of the cargo bed, allowing you to model the tailgate dropped, or even convert the kit to mount a 20mm anti-aircaft gun, something I may well do with mine. 

Only a few negatives presented them selves with this were the crew, who were very soft in detail and are probably best off replaced, however they are also hard to see so it's not too much of an issue. 

One thing that did confuse me though was the instructions suggest you can fit the benches along the sides of the truck bed as well as rowed up along the centre, however if this is the case there's either one missing or you have to cut one of the benches in half. 


 


Again, a minor complaint. The final issue to present itself was the pioneer tools are quite brittle and several snapped in removable from the sprue, although this was easy to over come due to the way they fit to the rest of the truck. 

I painted the trucks with a base coat of Vallejo middlestone, before mixing increasing amounts of Pale Sand in and airbrushing on a series highlights and areas of fading. Weathering was carried out with washes of artists oils, notably Daley Rowney Burnt Umber.   

More information can be found at the Rubicon Models website, and the kits can be obtained in the UK through Plastic Soldier Company. As ever you can find more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service.

Rubicon Models SDKFZ 251/D Review

I love Hanomags. When I first started second world war reenacting the first vehicle I ever rode around in was an Sdkfz-251/D, and it was an amazing experience. The vehicle is surprisingly small and when you jump out the hatch you learn very quickly not to have your entrenching too hanging off your belt, as it tangles very easily...!

Rubicon were kind enough to send me a test shot of their recently released Sdkfz 251D 3 in 1 kit, and my apologies to them that it has taken so long to get around to reviewing it.

 

This is a very nice kit, and allows construction of an ambulance version, a personnel carrier, a pioneer version, and an anti-tank gun variant that allows you to build the 37mm anti tank gun with either early or late gun shield. It's worth noting though that if you pick the Ambulance version you won't be able to swap the bits out and use it as a transport model, at least not easily.

I built mine as an Sdkfz 251/7 the Pioneer version with assault bridges. It may be possible to make the model and not glue the bridges down, but I think they would fall off fairly frequently and potentially get lost.To add a little interest to the model I turned the front wheels slightly, by gently (And nervously..) applying pressure to the wheels once they were fitted.

Detail is very nice and very delicate. Some drilling is required to open up slots on the mud guards and hull depending what version you decide to do, and it's really worth sitting and reading the instructions once or twice before building, and to go in with a plan on how you will make the model.  I'd recommend some dry fitting too before committing to glue.

As mine was a pre-release version of the model I found a few fit problems with the hull, however I suspect these have been resolved now. It's nothing a little filler can't fix too.

I painted mine using Vallejo Middlestone, Luftwaffe Camo Green and Red Leather, then used artists oils and Mig pigments for the weathering.

Assembley took me around 20-30 minutes once I had decided the version I wanted to build. Now that the kits done I have a nicely stocked bits box with stretchers and a 37mm anti tank gun too that I can see being worked into a conversion in the future too.

All in I'd recommend this kit, and the 251 family from Rubicon, and I'll probably do a comparative piece in the future with this and other 251 kits similar to my recently finished series of StuG articles.

Rubicon models website can be found at this link And as ever more of my work can be seen at Volley Fire Painting Service

28mm 1/56 StuG III Ausf G kit round up and comparison.

Day 4 of StuG week and here is the round up of all 4 kits reviewed. I'm not sure if Warlords resin kit is going to remain available, however I have included it in the comparisons as I'm sure many people will be familiar with this model. 



In the attached photos the vehicles are as follows, the plain sand vehicle is Blitzkriegs, the sand and green vehicle numbered 221 is Warlords new plastic. The sand with heavy over spray of brown, large number 13 and heave covering of foliage is Warlords old kit. The sand green and brown vehicle numbered 222 is Rubicons and finally the vehicle with the heavy brown over spray and missing Schurzen panels is Die Waffenkammers.

First of all I have prepared a brief table to compare what I feel to be the salient points of the various kits listed to allow you to see at a glance what appeals to you most in a model. 

I'll let the pictures do alot of the work here as the models can speak for their own quality, all are very good though, and you won't be disappointed with any of them. 

  From this we can see the plastic kits are much more time consuming to build, however they are easier to convert and add battle damage too if that's your thing, and personally I prefer working with plastic as well, it reminds me of building the old Airfix and Matchbox kids from the newsagent as a kid!

In terms of price all the models are around the same, Die Waffenkammer though wins out through sheer amount of stowage and extra parts. Warlord however are offering their kit in a boxed set of 3 with some figures from their forthcoming panzer grenadier set for £50, and if your looking to get several vehicles it's very hard to beat this offer. 

In terms of detail, for me Warlords new plastic kit is the best of the bunch, with Die Waffenkammers a close second. It was hard to pic between them however Warlord crispness and finesse won it for me. 

Rubicon and Blitzkriegs models are both very sturdy, and Rubicons has a lot of flexibility in that you can interchange weapons and Schruzen without gluing the parts in place. Warlord does allow the swapping of weapons as well however. Also impressive are the amount of variants possible with Rubicons kit, although these do need to be fixed in place.

Warlord and Die Waffenkammers kits both come with crew figures, with Die Waffenkammer's having more men than hatches! 

Individual reviews of each kit can be found at the links below
Blitzkrieg
Die Waffenkammer
Warlord
Rubicon 

I think overall my favourite is Warlords new plastic kit just for it's sheer finesse, however Die Waffenkammers kit is superb, however the plastic is my preferred medium to work with. Rubicons is an excellent model as well, and great if you want a lot of flexibility out of a kit, whilst Blitzkriegs is marvelously elegant and simple, so there is no real out right winner, but hopefully I'll be able to help you in picking a kit that appeals to you.  

As ever more of my work can be seen here at Volley Fire Painting Services. If you'd like to contact me either leave a message on the blog or through Volley Fire, and if there are any other series of kits you'd like me to treat in a similar to StuG week let me know!