Italeri 1/72 Camionetta AS 42 Sahariana By Bill Powers

Introduction

There is only one sprue for this model, so not many pieces and not any real problems in assembly...well a few that take a little care.

Construction

First, the nose of the car. The two sides wrap around the bottom to form the rounded nose, simple but tedious. Where the two sides touch in the front is not a clean joint, some trimming is required and then care in gluing. This is a weak joint, so I reinforced by adding a strip of white plastic inside.

The rear “fenders” Parts 15A and 16A required some dry fitting and care in assembly to be parallel with each other and to match the engine cover Part 14A and the rear end Part 19A.

When the chassis is glued to the body, there are gaps around the suspension, which should be covered/filled with little pieces of plastic or the driver would have continuous dust in his face!

The next area of difficulty is the top of the rounded nose, Part 17, step 11. The edge of this nose piece overhangs the curved sides. This should be sanded “flush”. This is a weak joint because the side pieces are very thin. Mine came apart after painting! It was reglued with lots of CNA! Paint the inside and apply the instrument decal before gluing on the cover!

The 20mm gun and its mount is a beautiful piece of molding art. I had difficulty aligning the cannon Part 51A in its mount and the cannon is painted in two colors. So I cut off one of the mounting lugs on Part 49/48A which allowed for the painted cannon to be wiggled into position. Tweezers are probably a must for assembling the mount in Step 12, 13 and 14 ...tweezers, a steady hand and patience! Somehow, the “sight” on part 53 was lost/cutoff/missing!

The windscreen Part 32A will not fit into the mounting holes. Cut off one of the lugs and it will!

This would make a beautiful Out Of the Box model, but I wanted some more detail! The following was done:

• - The handles on all 24 fuel cans were sanded away and replaced with three parallel 10 thousand diameter rods from Plastistrut

• - The molded retainers on the fuel cans were sanded away and replaced with 5 thousand strips cut to match pictures of the real retainers

• - Photos show the back bulkhead, Part 22A has an open access panel covered with wire mesh which was duplicated with some photo etch mesh and a plastic strip frame

• - Detail was added to the engine compartment: engine, air filter, two bright aluminum tanks, clutch cover, etc. (you can see it with a flashlight!)

• - Molded straps on the front fender fuel cans were sanded off and replaced with plastic strips

• - The molded tarp was replaced with rolled tissue paper

• - The machine gun mounts on the back fender and in the front compartment were replaced with scratch built pieces.

Conclusion

I don’t know if this is a new mold or a reissue of an old ESCI. I vaguely remember the same problems years ago when I had less patience and no reverse grip tweezers! Anyway, thank you Italeri for another beautiful kit in the scale I like!