The Raupenschlepper Ost, German for “Tractor East” and most easily referred to as RSO, was developed by Germany during World War II to deal with the difficult terrain conditions encountered in Russia. The RSO saw many variants, including an antitank version, and has been kitted numerous times by model manufacturers. Popular among armor builders, the latest entry is the Tamiya 1/35 scale RSO/01 German tractor plastic model kit, which replicates the RSO’s initial production line.

Assembly starts with the vehicle frame, including parts for the engine, fuel tank, drive shaft, and some frame components. Mostly hidden on the finished model, the parts provide enough detail for what will be seen under the cab and bed of the vehicle.

The raised ejector-pin marks on the suspension arms (Part B7) should be sanded off. I had to fill the seams where suspension parts were molded separately with putty and sand them smooth. For example, the leaf springs and tubular parts are single pieces the on real vehicle and should have no seams. This might not be very noticeable on the finished model, but I spent some time filing and sanding to get a better representation of the real thing.

The kit features uniquely shaped locator pins and recesses to ensure proper part alignment. Just great engineering by Tamiya that ensures parts assemble correctly and align without guesswork or time spent studying the instructions for proper placement.

I build in subassemblies to make painting easier, so I skipped installation of the tracks until later and moved on to cab assembly. I consructed the cab interior and shell separately to make painting easier.

The lower part of the door windows will be visible through holes in the interior door panel. The glass was easy to install, and the parts held the clear plastic firmly in place. However, it did not seem to me that glass would be visible like this, especially with the window up. So I painted the lower part of the door glass flat black to help hide it. With the doors closed, it’s hardly noticeable.

While it might first appear that Tamiya included cab window masks for both the interior and exterior, this is not the case.  The first set of masks fit the glass inside the gaskets molded into the clear parts. The second masks cover the entire window, including the gaskets, while painting the exterior. I only used the first set of masks to paint the gaskets. I fitted the cab parts (minus the windows) without gluing them for painting and installed the windows afterward. The masks did fit well and are a nice addition to the kit.

The Tamiya RSO/01 provides different options for the front engine cover: with or without cover plates. I chose the version without cover plates because I intended to display my model with the snow tracks stowed, indicating warmer weather when the cover plates would not be needed.

For the bed, Tamiya’s molded wood-grain texture looked fantastic and is some of the best I’ve seen. It assembled quickly and easily and provides an option to represent the vehicle with just a cover frame or with a canvas cover. You can also model the RSO/01 with the snow tracks stowed on the bedside. If you leave off the snow tracks, you will need to modify the holders to remove the pins for fitting the snow tracks.  I thought it would be more interesting to fit the snow tracks and fill the bed with supplies, but the canvas bed cover was also nicely molded, so I built it too. The snow tracks can be fitted with the bed cover in place, so I wanted to have both options available and make up my mind later about cover or no cover. The frame and canvas covers fit nicely without glue, so if you’re like me, you can finalize your decision later.

A nice addition, I would have liked the snow tracks to have been individual parts rather than molded all together. I spent some time trying to deepen the lines between each track with files, a razor saw, and a hobby knife, but they would have looked better as individual pieces.

The link-and-length tracks have slight ejector-pin marks. I removed these with files and a hobby knife. If you intend to display your build in heavy mud (and why wouldn’t you?), this may not be necessary.

As is the case with recent Tamiya armor kits, the driver figure looks good. I  built the figure to test fit and checked to be sure it fits into the cab after it is assembled — good on both fronts.

There were many decals in the kit. No placards or instruments on the dash, and little in the way of unit markings. The few decals there were seemed to grab quickly when I put them down, making positioning tricky. They settled well with Micro Set solution.

I finished my build in the three color camo scheme. The RSO is a vehicle that begs to be displayed in extreme conditions. I intend to do more weathering at some point in the future, so I kept the weathering minimal at this point.

The new Tamiya 1/35 scale RSO/01 German tractor plastic model kit was easy to assemble with plenty of detail, making it satisfying for experienced builders and appropriate for novices, too. The few areas of simplification for ease of assembly that need attention or could have been done differently to enhance realism were balanced by great detail and terrific engineering. And a kit for this price point (around $30) makes it an affordable for just about every modeler’s budget.