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In-Box Review
132
Luftwaffe Service Cart

by: Scott Lodder [ SLODDER ]

wingz

Wingz is a product line put out by VLS. Its focus is air craft oriented detail sets. For all our aircraft builders who want to enhance a ground scene Wingz is the line to use.
service cart

The kit under review is WG 0025 Luftwaffe Service Cart. This cart is a towed cart that is put to use by the Luftwaffe ground crew. My research came up with limited specifics. What I could find and discern from the structure of the kit this cart would be used for maintenance of an aircrafts fluids, hydraulic, oil, etc. It has pumps on the top and a large receptacle in the middle. The following site is rich with sample photos of ground crew in action. There are no specific examples of this particular cart in use. These photos do provide an overall idea of how the Germans used carts and where they would be positioned and what they would be used with. In looking through the photos it looks as if this is not a fuel cart. Fuel came straight from barrels or a truck.
WW2 In Color Web Site

the kit

The kit is typical good quality VLS. It comes in a 5”x4”x2” heavy stock box. The cover is well done and is your painting guide. The image will also help with the assembly. The patterns of this kit were done by Roger Graulty. Inside to box are three ziplock bags and packing peanuts to keep everything stable and safe.
The parts are standard pale yellow resin with a length of soft wire. There are 38 total parts (including the wire). There are two optional parts included. Wingz gives you the option of installing steel wheels and rubber tires. The parts are very well molded and poured. The detail is very crisp and nicely done. Almost all the parts have been poured and demolded very nicely. They all have the standard resin block. I found no bubbles, cracking, thinning, or shifted moldings. There is a decent amount of flash on a number of parts. Not more than would be expected. The only flaw I found on the parts is on the main body. One of the “L” brackettes that hold the body to the square frame is missing the bottom “_” part of the “L”.
This kit also comes with a very welcome instruction sheet. It is a straight forward sheet, with a parts list, and completed pictures with part locations indicated. This sheet along with the cover art are definite must haves for this kit. There are too many small parts for a hard to find kit not have these.
impression

Overall this is a very welcome kit. It is an amazingly detailed kit that will add a great deal to your diorama or vignette.
As mentioned there a lot of pieces, a lot of small pieces. A great deal of care will be required with this kit. I would also not recommend this as a “first resin” kit for anyone. You will need a fair amount of skill and confidence to tackle this kit. It will also help to have a nice set of very fine tweezers, a few extra brand new #11 hobby blades and a rotary tool. The tweezers are necessary to handle the very fine parts. The blades will help you remove the flash and trim the resin block areas. The rotary tool will help remove the resin blocks. I would recommend a cutting disk and a sanding drum.
The missing “L” part will be easy enough to fix for someone with previous resin kit experience. Just add a small square of styrene sheet and a dot of glue for the bolt heads and this flaw is fixed. You can see the area in question on the ¾ view image below - see the red circle.
The price is reasonable for what you get in a resin kit. I feel that it may deter some people from purchasing it because it is as much as the aircraft it will be supporting.


I’d like to thank VLS for providing this kit for review.
SUMMARY
Wingz (a product line of VLS) has a nice detail to any Luftwaffe tarmac/ground diorama. This service cart will bring life to any scene.
  INSTRUCTIONS:90%
  PRICE:75%
Percentage Rating
85%
  Scale: 1:32
  Mfg. ID: WG 0024
  Suggested Retail: $26.98
  PUBLISHED: Jan 14, 2006
  NATIONALITY: Germany
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 82.50%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 85.00%

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About Scott Lodder (slodder)
FROM: NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES

I modeled when I was a teenager. College, family and work stopped me for a while. Then I picked it back up after about 12 years off. My main focus is dioramas. I like the complete artistic method of story telling. Dioramas involve so many aspects of modeling and I enjoy getting involved in the ...

Copyright ©2021 text by Scott Lodder [ SLODDER ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.


   
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