35218 1/35 US 2.5 Ton 6x6 Cargo Truck Plastic Model Kit

I've been meaning to build one of these for a long time and finally got around to it. I didn't try to rush it, so it took about a week to complete. I was very satisfied with the fit of all the parts and the entire assembly went well. The only problem was the rear view mirror which is very delicate and broke off during construction. I replaced it with the mirror attached to a piece of steel wire The paint job I put on it was pretty straight forward; so no weathering or any attempt to make it look more realistic. I'd would recommend this kit to anyone who has some amount of model building but I would not say it is for beginners.

This was a very fun kit. The pieces fit together great and the instructions are clear. Tamiya quality never disappoints.

I wanted this model for a European theatre diorama, and I'd say it worked out very well. Although, I do have a few points with it where I don't quite enjoy it, and some I do. This kit was tooled in 1997, and has an open cabin, and open bed. There is an option to have the cover supports up, but there is no cover for the back of the truck included. In fact, there isn't much to go with it. Tamiya has made a countless accessory kits for this model. I first found this on Tamiya's website, and it showed it with a machine gun on top and a bed full of supplies. It was strange to find out that the only accessories this kit comes with by default are two small bags and some jerry cans. The Allied Accessory kit has some oil drums and tons of jerry and blitz cans , along with bags to cement to the sides of your truck, while there is another kit to add machine a machine gun over the cabin. I'm sure there are more, like a gas truck, but some like mobile workshops or DUKW's would be pretty difficult to make from scratch. There is an option to have a winch on the front. The cable is a small white string, so you need to somehow color it. You'll either have to tie to the reel and slowly wind it up, or somehow glue it and wind it up from there. The driver is very happy to drive the deuce and a half, so he adds a lot of charm. The wheels all have polycaps in the drums so that the wheels can turn, and the door of the cargo bed can swing so its open or closed. There is also an option to include covers over the engine housing, and if you are actually going to detail the engine, I'd say leave them off. Overall, this was a nice kit, as Tamiya is known for, and worth a purchase in my book.

Tamiya quality. Looks very nice when completed. Not very hard but you'll probably want an accessory kit for something in the back.

To be honest, this was one of the first non-armor vehicles that I've built so I can't speak to the accuracy of detail. What I can say is that the model had typical Tamiya quality, crisp molding, minimal seams, no flash at all. Paired with some 'cargo' taken from other sources, I think it turned out very well. It was an easy and fun build. For the price I don't know if you could find a better kit.

Working on this now. My favorite brand. Great engineering and details.

It's a truck. It's easy to build. There are a multitude of reviews on sites like scalemates, if you wanna see an actual review. I've built about 250 armored vehicle kits in the last ten years, from all major manufacturers. About 50 of them were Tamiya. What grinds my gears here is Tamiya's decline in quality control. One one hand their moldings are getting increasingly better. The kits look better than Tamiya kits of yore. However, this is the second consecutive Tamiya kit I've purchased that included an insufficient number of polycaps to attach the wheels. This kit needed (and the instructions call for) six, but only four were included. I had two options: contact Tamiya ( in Japan, no less) and hope to get the replacement parts, or source them myself. I cannibalized an old kit for the wheels and got the poly caps out. Shouldn't have had to do this building a new,out of the box kit. A novice modeller wouldn't have had this option. So I'm sort of inclined to say Shame, Tamiya. In the future I'll likely stick to higher end manufacturers. I only bought this because I needed this particular truck for a diorama, and pretty much no one else makes a WW II deuce and a half, which is strange in itself.

Just received it today! I went through it and checked it out, I counted 193 parts. I really wish they would put this number right out front because it's very important to most modelers...it helps you decide the quality of the kit. Since I haven't started it yet I can't say a whole lot but it is clean like most Tamiya model kits. IMO, Tamiya ranks right up there with Hasegawa as far as neat clean molds. I think this is going to be a lot of fun to build. It was fun to build, I think it's a little overpriced but still a good quality model with great detail.