The first kit released under the Great Wall Hobby label - a rebranding of Shanghai LionRoar Model Art Co. - is the schwere Wehrmachtschlepper (sWS) "Uhu" (eagle owl), which carried a 60cm infrared searchlight.
Molded in tan plastic, the kit features individual-link tracks, one-piece frame, and all the major interior components for driver and crew compartments. A small decal sheet provides markings for two vehicles. Also included is a small fret of photoetched metal (not surprising with the LionRoar connection). While the parts in my kit are production pieces, the instructions and box were pre-release. My instruction sheets had neither text nor painting instructions; no doubt that will change in the final kit.
Take care assembling the torsion-rod covers in Step 1. Position them as shown on the diagrams or you will have problems later on. The lower half (Part A12) has a small notch on one end.
The one-piece frame ensures everything lines up properly. Front tires comprise several layered pieces, producing excellent tread depth. The fit of the road wheels to the axles is loose, though, and I found a couple of them interfered with one another.
I was impressed with the quality of the fit of the separate panels for the front and rear compartments. The hood may be posed open or closed, but no engine is supplied. I left off the tools and some of the other small parts until final assembly.
All the hatches and doors fit snugly. I snapped them in place while painting the camouflage, but then posed most of them open to display the interior. The small side-stowage bins have separate doors and can be posed open or closed. My instructions had no painting information, so I painted the interior off-white, following reference photos of a Maultier carrying a rocket launcher.
The infrared searchlight is a kit by itself. I could not find any color photographs of the real thing, but most paintings depict the lenses tinted blue or purple. I mixed Tamiya red and blue and sprayed the backside of all the clear pieces. I sprayed the inside of the light with Alclad chrome silver, but once the lenses were in place you could hardly tell.
The tracks are a real challenge. The links fit loosely, requiring glue. I had problems getting the links to fit the drive sprocket. I corrected this by removing the teeth from the inside of the sprocket (just where the tracks would go). I may have squeezed the sprocket parts together too much during assembly, causing the problem. I suggest gluing five or six track links together while building the drive sprockets so you can test fit the links.
While my dry run showed everything fitting perfectly, after the searchlight was added to the roof I wound up with a few small gaps at the front and on one side of the roof caused by the lower-light assembly. I filled the gaps with epoxy putty and touched up the camouflage.
I spent 26 hours on my sWS, not bad considering all the interior and exterior detail. The finished kit matched dimensions in the
Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two, by Peter Chamberlain and Hilary L. Doyle (Arco, ISBN 0-668045-65-5). The model is impressive, but I would recommend it only to experienced modelers. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Great Wall Hobby has in store.
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