Master Box Ltd.

1/35 Farmer’s Cart Europe, WWII Era

Kit Number: MB3537

Reviewed by  John Lester, IPMS# 36807

MSRP: $16.95 Distributor's website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com Master Box has carved out a niche for themselves with figures and vehicles explicitly intended for dioramas and vignettes. This kit represents a European farmer’s cart from WWII and before – though, lose the sides, and it could represent one I baled hay on in rural Michigan 30 years ago. It is marketed both as a stand-alone kit and as part of a set ("Somewhere in Europe ... 1944" [MB3538] with the cart, two draft horses, two riding farmers/civilians and two walking German soldiers). What You Get On the outside the box are photos of a finished model. Don’t lose the box – those photos help with assembly. Inside the box are one sprue tree containing 36 injection-molded styrene parts and a one-page set of instructions. The kit looks very nice in the box. The plastic parts are crisply molded with nice detail for the scale. Unfortunately, every single piece had a non-trivial mold seam that had to be scraped or sanded off. This got very tedious around the spokes for the four wheels. The assembly instructions consist of two exploded diagrams on either side of the instruction sheet, one for the ‘undercarriage’ and one for everything else. There’s also a diagram of the sprue tree with all the parts labeled with letters/numbers corresponding to the placement diagrams. In fine print is the URL for the Master Box website (which has no further instructions or background, but does have more images of the completed model). There are no painting references (not that any are really needed) other than pictures of a completed model on the outside of the box.

Assembly I built this in sub-assemblies in order to facilitate painting. After scraping off those mold seams, assembly was quickly accomplished. I found that all the mounting pegs were oversized – both too long and too wide. I enlarged the holes where they fit with a mini-drill. The wheels and axles required a similar treatment. I was confused by the assembly diagram as to how parts A15, A8, A9 and A18 fit (I don’t know what they’re called; if this were a powered vehicle they would be the driveshaft and the bits that keep it attached to the chassis). I managed to get A8 and A9 glued together upside down, which required some sawing and filing later on to get A15 (the "driveshaft") to fit without bowing. The pictures on the website show this assembly more clearly than the instructions. I’d suggest paying close attention to which way the little bolt heads face in order to get the correct alignment. There are some omissions in the assembly guide. Part A3 appears to be a bench seat of some kind but danged if I could figure out where it went (and it’s not shown on the box photos). I later discovered (by looking at the artwork for the "Somewhere in Europe..." kit’s boxart) that it should sit across the top of the side rails. Parts A1, A2, A4, A25, A26 and A27 are shown in the instructions but they attach to a horse – don’t use them if you don’t have horses. Finishing Before I lay down my first coat of paint I used sandpaper and the back of a hobby blade to scratch and ding the cart, especially around the ‘bed’. I then airbrushed a primer coat of dark grey-brown (a custom mix of Apple Barrel craft acrylics thinned with water). And then I found I had some more seams to scrape ... After another coat of primer, I brushed on a coat of Future clear acrylic floor finish. This made a hard, glossy ‘shell’ over the primer – the perfect base for a dark wash. I made the wash from a drop of India ink diluted with a couple drops of Future and then enough water to thin the mix to the consistency of, well, water. Then I brushed it on over all surfaces in order to accentuate all the scratches and dings I had made.

When that had dried it was time for the color coat. I distinctly remember painting the neighbor’s hay wagon one summer using red latex paint we’d also used on the barn – and something about a little red wagon appealed to me. So, I found a bottle of inexpensive brick-red craft acrylic paint at Wal-Mart, thinned some down and airbrushed it on the model. After it had dried to the touch I used a piece of blue painters tape to pull up random patches, exposing the weathered finish below (burnish the tape down with a finger and then pull up; the craft paint is fragile enough, especially over a base of Future, that it scratches and pulls up easily). I forgot to paint the ‘driveshaft’ at this point. Rather than break out the airbrush again I brush painted it a darkish wood color with some Reaper acrylic paint. I let this cure for a day or so and then picked out all the metal bits with a very fine brush and Testors Model Master Acryl Rust. Next, I sealed it with a coat of what I thought was Humbrol Matte Clear. Turns out it was Humbrol Gloss Clear, and I had to apply 2 more coats of the matte to kill the resulting shine. Grrrrrr..... I plan to include this model in a diorama at some point. I did not want to add any further weathering until the diorama comes together, so I can make sure whatever dust/mud/etc. matches the rest of the scene. I contented myself with some very fine Woodland Scenics turf scattered around the bed where you’d expect to see chaff, held in place with another airbrushed overcoat of matte clear. Finally, I used a No. 2 pencil to color the wheel rims where they roll along the ground. The pencil is easier to control (at least for me) than a fine brush and the graphite looks more metallic than most of the paints I use. Conclusions This was a simple little kit with a lot of possibilities. It was a good break from more involved projects and gave me some much-needed practice painting and weathering a non-aircraft subject. Many thanks to Dragon Models USA and Master Box for the review sample.