Home > Reviews > Axis > Italeri 1/35 Camionette AS 42 Sahariana (6452)

Camionetta AS 42 Sahariana

Italeri 1/35 Scale

Reviewed by Paul Chatfield

Summary

Stock Number and Description	Italeri No 6452 Camionette AS 42 "Sahariana"
Scale:	1/35
Media and Contents:	115 grey plastic parts on three sprues, decals for four vehicles, a 5 page, double sided, fold-out instruction sheet with history, parts plan, seven build diagrams and four pages of paint/decal drawings.
Price:	around £21.70
Review Type:	First Look
Advantages:	Interesting subject, highly detailed, low parts count for a quick build; includes reference book, photo-etched parts and resin figures; excellent decals.
Disadvantages:	Rubber tyres
Recommendation:	Highly Recommended

FirstLook

Here is a little look in the box of Italeri's new 1/35 scale Camionette AS 42 "Sahariana".

The first thing in the box is a nice little reference booklet. The AS42 is not one of the best known vehicles of WWII, and references can be hard to find so this book is a great help. It has several pages of photographs of the vehicle. Some in theatre and some factory fresh.

The pictures are mostly nice and clear and are a good guide to weathering and paint chipping, which is clear to see in the photographs.

Also included are colour profiles and pictures of a completed model.

All in all a nice touch and very useful to the modeller.

There are 5 sprues of styrene parts which, on first inspection, are crisply moulded and free of flash. The parts count is quite low compared to recent Dragon military subjects, such as their 88 or Sd.Kfz. 251 kits. This should help make for quite a quick and simple build up.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

As well as the styrene parts there are a small amount of multimedia parts. These comprise of 2 resin crew figures and some resin engine parts (other engine details are IM styrene moulded in a similar colour to the resin parts.), A small fret of PE parts for jerrycan straps and sand channels and 5 rubber tyres.

The resin figures are quite nice but will need a little clean up.

On first look I can find much to like about this kit, not least the fact that it is the first time I have seen this vehicle in kit form. The only part of the kit I am not so sure about are the rubber tyres which look a little soft on tread detail.

All things considered, it should build into a very nice and different looking subject and a welcome break from the long stream of new moulds of old subjects that has been the norm from Dragon of late. I hope Italeri and others will continue with the trend of new subjects in styrene. Look at how popular Tamiya's Chars B1 has been.

I paid £25.50 for this kit at Hannants.

I'm going to build this kit straight from the box with no additions at all.

Highly Recommended.

Purchased with reviewers' funds

Text and Images by Paul Chatfield
Page Created 11 August, 2006
Page Last Updated 10 August, 2006