Review
This offering from MiniArt arrives in a cardboard tray with a separate card lid showing the artwork. Inside the sprues are packages in 2 plastic bags, with the decals in the same bag as the clear parts. Access to parts for removal is good, the mouldings are clean. You do have to look for ejector pin marks, some of the parts are extremely fine and so could be damaged or lost during removal. The decals being packaged with the clear sprue is something that I really dislike, due to the risk of damage or distortion - in this case the decals do show signs of pressure, where puncturing has begun to occur. It is fortunate that on this occasion the puncture hole has started on the carrier sheet rather than a decal.
This particular model I would not prescribe as suitable for a modeller who has only recently started out in the hobby, due to some extremely fine parts. In some cases these parts are structural elements of the model. A plus for this release is the chassis is a single pre-moulded part, with the mounting brackets for the body being photo etch. So you have something that is accurately detailed but risks damage to those photo etched mounts. You are even provided with folding diagrams to replicate the brake lines in wire if so desired. A nicely detailed engine and gearbox is also present, but will require the addition of some wiring, if you want to make accuracy as high as possible. The rear axle has a lot of detail present on it, including well detailed suspension springs. However, at the front end, the detail is still very good but the front wheels cannot be shown turned in any way. Lastly here the exhaust is also nicely replicated.
The cab of the truck has very pleasing detail on the dashboard, including cleat plastic to replicate the bezels on the instrument cluster. You also have detail such as a photo etch rear view mirror, rather than the side mounted mirrors which were more common at this time. The seat detail is of course clean and so the modeller will ideally have some wear to add. Clear parts are of a good thinness, to prevent magnification. It is also worth mentioning that the interior of the body panels here is sterile and so will benefit from some personal touches by the modeller. The wheels and tyres are very nicely detailed with both tread and both side wall detail on the tyres, which has been replicated using the sliced wheel method, which does provide very nice looking tyres as long as the parts are cleaned up well and put together.
The bed of the truck is nicely detailed in all regards where the floor and side panels are concerned, and is also richly adorned with photo etch used to replicate items such as the support arms for the lights, the catches for the sides and rear of the truck bed and number plate. The canvas hood is made up of a number of pieces, with photo etch restraining straps that give the parts very nice detail. The doors can be shown open or closed, and have internal door cards with added detail and while not indicated in the instructions I believe if you cut the locator pins of the door windows you could show them raised or lowered if you so desired. The hood of the vehicle can also be accurately depicted open or closed as it is accurately replicated in terms of panels and the locking mechanisms are provided in photo etch.
MiniArt has provided the following finishing options:
American Occupation Zone, Bavaria, Late 1940s
British Occupation Zone, Late 1940s
Bavaria, Munich, Early 1950s
French Occupation Zone, Early 1950s
Conclusion
This release from MiniArt is another very highly detailed release of a Liefer Pritschenwagen, that will be hard to beat in terms of the detail provided in the box. There is a very high use of photo etched detail and it is these parts, plus the fact that some are structural that I recommend that it only be tackled by modellers with a good knowledge of working with photo etch. To give an idea of some of the details that make this model - the vents in the side panels of the hood are open, due to fine moulding and you even get clear bezels for the instruments. The only negative that I can come up with is the fact that the front wheels cannot be shown turned, but that is a personal gripe.