Part's 1/72 Ursus A Truck

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

It's a truck, and it's Polish. I've done a fair amount of searching, both online and in books, and I've turned up surprisingly little on this vehicle. What it seems to be most famous for is providing the chassis for the Polish wz.29 armored car. It was also used to carry the Polish TK and TKS tankettes, although the kit does not have the parts for that version.

The Kit

Wow.  Let me repeat.  Wow.  This is some kit!  You got two media in this kit: brass and resin.  And the brass really outnumbers the resin.  The resin parts provide you with wheels, the main chassis, cab roof, and any other part that has compound curves.  The truck bed is also made up of resin.  Etched brass makes up the rest of this truck.  Be prepared to do a lot of bending, rolling and folding in building this kit.  The resin parts are crisply molded and are all on wafers.  No large plugs to deal with means that there will only be a little cleanup needed.

The brass is what's really makes this kit a wonder, though.  Starting at the front of the truck, this kit gives you a complete engine, with wiring harness and radiator.  This is covered by a brass hood that can be bent into the open position, if you so desire.  The cab is bent out of brass, with a resin roof and firewall.  Fenders are bent from brass as well, and the cab doors are separate. 

Moving behind the cab, the bed is made up of resin, with resin supports mounting it to the chassis.  Etched brass frames are included for the canvas cover, which isn't included but could easily be made from tissue paper.  Etched brass make up the majority of the external detailing, with resin parts taking care of anything that is round.  No painting instructions are given and there is no decals.  Some extra research will be needed to determine how to finish this off.

Conclusion

While this kit looks to be quite complicated, it will likely be a fun build as well.  It's definitely not going to be a weekend project, but with some time it will really look nice.  Make sure you have experience with both photoetch and resin before starting it, and have fun!

This kit is available from Roll Models for only $30.00.