Dodge WC 203a

Reviewed by Jay Laverty
 

Summary

FirstLook

Montex is a name that will be very familiar with anyone who prefers to spray on markings as opposed to decals, through their high quality range of masks available for aircraft as well as 1/35 and 1/16 scale armoured vehicles.

What we have here is the first release of a 1/35 scale resin kit from the Polish based company and from initial impressions things are looking very good. The casting is of the highest quality, without air bubbles and very crisp and clean. There is a lot of intelligent thought process involved with this and there are several nice touches that will prove very welcome during the assembly stages.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that the grille has a small and very thin membrane to it, that is a logical compromise for caster and modeller. If they were cast hollow they would very quickly and very expensively knacker the rubber mould, however by adding a thin bit of membrane this can very easily be hollowed out using a scalpel blade.

The instructions are very well done and the step by step plans are clear and easy to follow, there are also two historical images on the back page, showing the vehicles offered as the decal options. Also included with the package is a nicely done CD-Rom full of images of the catalogue of Montex masks for 1/35 and 16th vehicles, which in my humble opinion is a nice touch in itself, but best of all is a folder containing some images of a build of the Dodge 203a, from beginning to end.

Of course this wouldn’t be a Montex kit if it didn’t have any masks in it, and there is a complete set of wheel masks included, along with a smaller set for the windows.

The realization of the finer details is just as good as the overall kit, and I was particularly impressed with the wood grain texture, and the smaller details such as the engine parts are equally well represented. Overall I would rate the quality of the parts very highly.

I am no expert on the Dodge 203a and in fact I was unaware of its existence until I had heard about this model, however it is a very worthy subject and an interesting one as well. Manufactured in the US and Canada over 3000 vehicles were produced for the civilian market, with hundreds of them reaching Commonwealth and Polish forces in the Middle East, and many more making their way into the Soviet Union via the Lend Lease programme, thus leaving open a lot of options for schemes and markings. I am sure that a thorough search would turn up some photographs of these in Afrika Korps or Wehrmacht service, knowing the flowing nature of the conflict in these two theatres of operations.

I think this model should be a source of great pride for the folks at Montex as a first release. A lot of care and effort have gone into the models execution and there are several nice touches that I have already mentioned, that show that pride and effort have gone into producing this. Only time and a build of the model will pass judgment on how the parts fit, and how the model will look when built, but at least the basis of a quality model is there already, and I am personally very confident in the kit.

I would give this model a very high recommendation to anyone interested in Soft-skin vehicles, Middle Eastern, Eastern Front, and even civilian subjects.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Montex for the review sample.

For a listing of Montex stockists near you:

http://www.montex-mask.com/html/news_en.htm

MONTEX Bednarska Str. 18/2, 54-134 Wroclaw, Poland
e-mail: pmcmontex@op.pl