CMK's 1/35
Volkswagen Typ 230
"Gas Generator"

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

As the Second World War dragged on, fuel was in short supply. To get around this, civilian vehicles used a different sort of fuel: wood. Wood gas generators were installed in a variety of different vehicles, including the VW Typ 230. While most vehicles with these gas generators had them mounted in the rear of the car, the VW placed it in the front. By running off of wood, regular fuel was saved for military usage, but keeping the wood gas generator functioning properly was difficult at best.

The Kit

The CMK kit of the VW Typ 230 is the same as the original Typ 87 kit (reviewed in the June 1999 issue), with the addition of a new etched fret and some resin parts. The etched fret provides the rooftop rack and after bending, folding, and gluing that all together, you're left with a nice little basket and a spot for a spare tire. Unfortunately, you'll have to supply your own wood for the rack, as there is none in the kit.

The resin parts are very cleanly molded and include parts for the hood as well as all the piping and parts for the underside of the car. The hood piece is very well done, as it has both the surface detailing on top and a recessed section on the bottom designed to fit onto the plastic part perfectly.

The final addition to this kit is a new decal sheet, complete with two different choices of civilian VWs and a set of blank license plates with no less than 6 of each letter and number, allowing you to make up your own plates. The decals are printed by Propagteam and are thin enough to warrant care when doing up custom plates.

Conclusion

While this is really little more than a reboxing of the original VW kit, the added parts for the gas generator and the decals make this a nice addition. After building this kit up, you'll have enough letters and numbers left over from the decal sheet to make several more license plates for other vehicles, and the gas generator VW will surely catch a few people with the question "what's wrong with the hood of that Beetle?"…