Forged in Battle (FiB) Kubelwagon

I bought these little fellas from Firestorm Games in Cardiff last month. I intended using one to form the centre piece on an HQ base for BKCII and another as an Artillery OP or FAC base. The other two would just be added to my growing German motor pool!

The models come cast in one piece (as do all FiB models) in cream resin. The casting is crisp but brittle (I only noticed after painting that every model had at least one headlight missing). In addition there are three sprues of 12 white metal figures to populate the vehicles.

The vehicles required no cleaning up and the figures only minimal clipping of sprue runs etc. Then undercoat with Army Painter matt white. The figures have been hot melt glued to a strip of wood to ease handling as they are not based.

Whilst not a fantastic shot, you can see the detail is good!

The models were mounted two to a strip, to ease handling, and sprayed Vallejo Dark Yellow

Once dry, camouflage is sprayed on with Vallejo Panzer Brown and Panzer Green

Next shadow is added by painting the underside, where the vehicle is moulded to the base, with matt black (The paint is still wet in the picture!) 

The tyres were picked out in Vallejo Dark Grey and then the hood and folded windscreen cover were painted mid green

The base was painted earth brown then the whole model sprayed with Vallejo Sepia wash and once dry a dry brush of Vallejo Buff paint. (Wash is still wet in this picture - dries to a matt finish)

While these dried I painted the twelve little crew figures (4 x drivers + 8 x passengers)

The figures are nicely sculpted and cast without feet or bases in the seated position ready to add to your open topped vehicles (they are the same ones that came with the FiB Steyr 1.5 Tonne Field Cars). This was where a problem arose. There just isn't room in the little Kubel for two figures to sit side-by-side without major filing/surgery!

Having gone to the trouble of painting and varnishing them as individuals, I wasn't going to do this, so my vehicles have at most two crew members.

The finished articles with spare crew figures, finished with some left over Dragon Cross decals and static grass.

So there you have them finished. I personally love them. They are good value for money at only £8.50 for four (£7.65 at Firestorm Games with their 10% off) that' s less than £2.13 each (or £1.91 ea. from Firestorm)!

I base all my vehicles so FiB's "Battle Ready System' of cast on bases is fine with me. Their range is now growing dramatically to include, at last, Allied vehicles as well. Well worth checking out as a high quality, reasonably priced alternative to Battlefront FoW.

Conclusions.

Pro's

• No assembly required
• Good detail &  quality of casting
• Ready based (good if you like bases!)
• Very good value for money.

Con's

• Can't utilise all the crew figures
• Ready based (bad if you don't like bases!)
• Shame about the damaged headlights* 

 *Andy (FiB's MD) tells me they will be looking into this matter as they take QC very seriously, so hopefully this issue will be eradicated in time.