Universal Carrier
WASP Mk.II conversion
Gaso.Line Kit #48034K
1:48 Scale
Review by Terry Ashley
Gaso.line has released this conversion of the WASP Mk.II for
the Tamiya Universal
Carrier Mk.II (kit #35216) which consists of 15 parts in light grey resin and
a couple of short lengths of wire for the plumbing.
The standard of casting is good overall with fairly small casting blocks to be removed and some fine resin film on a few parts such as the one piece suspension. There are a couple of air holes present but these are easily dealt with as they are not really visible after assembly.
Included in the set are new suspension components designed in single large pieces similar to the Tamiya parts but the tracks have been reworked with the correct number of links and track link design. There is a fair bit of excess resin film and casting runners on the suspension parts that will need a bit of care to remove as well as resin film to be cleaned from the track holes between each link but the overall look is an improvement on the disastrous Tamiya tracks.
The suspension is cast with the inner bogie arms included and you use the outside bogie arms from the Tamiya kit to complete the suspension units. The fit of the Tamiya parts to the resin parts was very good not requiring any trimming but the overall length of the suspension units was very slightly less than the Tamiya parts requiring some minimal flexing to get them onto the drive and idlers stub axles. This was very minor and once glued in place with thick cyanoacrylate for a stronger bond shouldn’t be a problem.
The full engine compartment and radiator is a single casting which includes the air cylinders and apart from two small casting gates on the rear no other clean-up is required except for some minor resin film around the tank gauges with the wire supplied in the set added to the gauges. The engine unit is a perfect fit inside the rear hull compartment and again no trimming was required during assembly.
Thin wire is provided for the fuel lines but this only provides a short section from each gauge and I replaced this with longer lengths so the lines could go right down to the bottom of the hull compartment for a better look. If you wished to run the lines all the way to the flame nozzle on the front plate you will have to cut out a small square from the lower left side of the compartment bulkhead (kit part #C5) to run the lines through.
The two large fuel tanks are nicely formed and include the main features seen
on the real tanks with just a small casting point to be cleaned up. There were
a couple of air holes on one end of one of the tanks but these are hidden when
the tanks are fitted inside the hull and so is not a problem.
The wire supplied is used for the lifting handles added to each end of the
fuel tanks and I drilled locating holes in the tanks to make fitting these
easier.
The tanks are joined at the rear but the fuel transfer pipe which includes nicely detailed connector brackets and at the front by a support brace. To make a more robust assembly I added two thick wire pins to each end of the transfer pipe which were then fitted into holes drilled in the tanks pipe attachments and when glued together with thick cyanoacrylate made a very strong unit supplemented by the front support bracket just like the real tanks.
This assembled unit can then be easily fitted into the rear hull with the fit again being very good and there is really no need to glue these in place allowing for easier painting. But just note that Tamiya part A15 fits over the front tank support bracket so leave this off until the tanks have been positioned inside the hull.
At the front are nicely detailed firing handles and outer flame nozzle that fit together from either side of the front hull plate with additional finely cast fuel lines that run from under the trigger unit back to the bulkhead.
The two front fender mounted oil cans are provided as well as two on the left rear fender for some final touches to the kit.
Fitting the parts to the Tamiya Universal Carrier didn’t require any alterations to the kit parts apart from the cut-out in the bulkhead if you wished to run the fuel lines fully and the fit of the parts was very good with virtually no trimming needed anywhere.
The instructions are in the form of small double sided sheet with a photo of the parts layout and the parts numbered and listed in French as well as eight photos of the assembled kit showing the parts in place again called out by number. One thing missing from the instructions is that you have to use the outer bogie units from the Tamiya kit but this is pretty obvious so probably doesn’t really need showing. There are no real traps during the assembly and the photos are quite clear in the placement of the parts so there shouldn’t be any problems.
Conclusion:
As mentioned this is a quick and easy conversion well within the capabilities
of most modellers with the fit of the parts both resin to resin and resin
to plastic being very good making for a quick and easy conversion.
Added to this is the new suspension that while requiring a fair bit of clean-up is a marked improvement over the Tamiya kit tracks which really would have to rate as some of the worst tracks to be included in any kit this century.
The Wasp Mk.II is a neat little vehicle and this conversion does it justice in this smaller scale but of course there is scope for additional plumbing and detailed to make it even better with any of the available etched sets able to be used on this kit also.
Highly recommended.
References:
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Universal Carrier 1936-48 Good overall coverage of the Universal Carrier. |
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Universal Carrier Mk.I/II Includes many images from the technical and workshop manuals to privide excellent external and interior details. |
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Ground Power Magazine No.90 11/2001 GALILEO Publishing Co.,Ltd |
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Ground Power Magazine |
Gaso.Line kits are available from www.quarter-kit.com
Thanks to Olivier of www.quarter-kit.com for
the review set.
Page created March 28, 2006