Review Tuesday: Rubicon M3 Half Track


Review number 3 for Rubicon is now hitting the blog. And this is more a transport than a tank I know, but I am just lumping them all together.

I really was looking forward to this one as I already have 2 of the Warlord plastic Half tracks, and they were not as easy to put together.


Within the box, there were a surprise to be had. The outer hull of the body is a single cast piece of plastic. HUZZAH! Considering how badly I botched up this section of the warlord version, and had to shave down sections to make them flush. I was already quite happy with this kit and I had not even stripped out the plastic bags on the sprues yet.

It is nice to see that there are only 2 sprues, the body shell, instructions, and transfers.


Single body frame.. so great!



Quite a lot of pieces here which is always nice to have, especially with the hull shell already being one piece!


I skipped the steps about the under chassis for photos unfortunately.. guess I was too excited with how fast it was getting built up!

To be fair, the parts I had put together at this point were the straight frame for the wheels and tracks. Both of which went together real well. The tracks were just 2 parts that went together simply.

The hull section required some work for the seating arrangement. Mostly just putting the dashboard and steering wheel together, then adding it to the under frame. The hull slips over on top of it, and then the front hood/cowl goes in easy.

And in the back, the benches were just a U-shaped piece that slipped right in.


Lots of gubbins to be added at this point. The gas cans on the front sides, the tow cable bumber, the front grill with lights attached ( great feature here as it made assembly easier ).

There are some instructions on how to make a glass windshield from clear plastic, but I opted for the armored covering instead. Made the attaching of the top cage for the HMG much easier.

The back of the seats along the inside of the transport were given a few choices. I went with ones that had some radio equipment inserted along with it. There were some antennas or what not associated to them, but I cut them down due to making life easier when it came to transporting them later on.

I will make a comment at this point though.. There is a bit of a gap behind the seats where it might attach to the inside walls. Not quite sure why this is though the warlord one has the same thing also, but much more narrow than Rubicon.

The greatest option here on this kit though is the pieces on the back of it. You can have either some extra storage boxes, or flip the racks up. Also the back door can be left open or closed.. which is a nice option.

There are a driver and passenger model to go with the kit, but I will state that they are not the best sculpted/cast pieces. I have left them off my transport, and I think I will be looking at some Warlord metals to fill them in, if I want to have any figures riding inside the transport anytime soon.




Seeing the comparisons between them both though, you can notice that they are pretty similar, with but a few exceptions.

On the Warlord it did come with more gubbins for on the side of the half track there. But the pieces for the Rubicon seems to be fitting better and make more sense of where they go. Which is nice.

Oh and the steering wheel on the Rubicon is more pronounced, and once I find a better fitting driver for it, I think it will work out nicely.


And that's 3 down, with only the Sherman left to go. Just have to figure out how I will be painting them all up, and if I can do a better job than previous tanks/transports. Hope you like it, and comment to let me know if you want to see more of such reviews in the future!

Comments

  1. A very useful review, thank you!
    I've had cast my eyes on Rubicon and the more I see there more interested I am.
    More please :-)

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    Replies
    1. Great to hear! I have the Sherman coming out tomorrow on the reviews, and you can see the Stuart and Crusader have been done already.

      If there is one in particular that your looking for ( Allies wise ) let me know and I will endeavour to make it happen. Thanks for the comment!

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