The first piece of good news is that Tamiya's 1/35 scale kit MM-224 shares nothing in common with their original Schwimmwagen from 1970.

The second item of good news is that this new Schwimmwagen is state-of-the-art Tamiya. The kit is cleverly designed, simple in parts breakdown, accurate and well detailed.

The bad news is... well, there is not much bad news!

What's In the Box

Tamiya's new Schwimmwagen consists of 90 parts on two separately bagged sprues of tan coloured styrene, one clear acetate sheet and one 6cm x 6cm sheet of vinyl mesh. A casual Wehrmacht driver figure is included. His tunic is unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up, and his pose is very relaxed.

Kit features include engine detail, positionable engine cover, movable propeller mount, a delicate lowering rod, canvas top in folded position, narrow wheels and authentically reproduced vinyl mesh bulkhead at the rear of the passenger cabin. Vinyl mesh is also used to represent the ventilation grilles on top of the engine compartment. 

What's Not In the Box

There is no kit option for the commonly seen wide tyres, nor for the hood in deployed position. Weapons are not supplied.

Kit Detail

Detail is everything that one expects from a new Tamiya kit. Both under-dash fuel tanks are present. The timber floor slats are subtly textured in a woodgrain finish although, curiously, this texture is not carried through to the angled footrests. The four individual leather seats are creased in a subdued and realistic fashion. The lower body includes moulded-on drain tubes which are hollowed out at the ends. The propeller is attached to its circular guard in a single moulding, and looks very good. The lifting handle for the engine hatch (part B42) is one of the finest detail parts I have seen in injection plastic (with the exception of Model Kasten's amazing Stug. IIIG Detail Set).

Visible engine detail has been designed with the minimum number of parts but with no compromise in detail. The cylinders and block of the flat-four engine are moulded as part of the engine bay, and the more visible fan assembly, fan belt, carburetor and general plumbing are separate parts. This should build into a convincing little replica yet the entire assembly, including engine bay and the forward bulkhead, comprises of only six parts.

Decals are provided for three Wehrmacht vehicles. Another nice touch is that decals are also supplied for a couple of placards in the engine bay and on the dashboard.

Suggested Improvements

The only areas needing improvement are the oversimplified machine gun mount on the front passenger side (part B1), the tool clamps, the rear of the taillight mounting bracket and the rear locking clamps for the engine cover. The determined detailer may also wish to add a few tiny missing details. These include wing nuts for the ends of the windscreen hinge, little tie-downs on the inside of the windscreen frame, canvas-tilt attachment points on the top of the windscreen, a loop for the lowering rod on the propeller assembly and stowage straps along the inside upper wall of the cabin. Finally, no restraint is provided for the stowed propeller assembly, so a strap and mount should be added.  However, the kit will look superb even without these extra details.

The engine vents will benefit from some slight modification. If the instructions are strictly followed, the mesh grilles will be recessed too far below the vent openings due to the thickness of the plastic. The upper body should be reduced to scale thickness around the vent openings before attaching the mesh to achieve a more realistic appearance. An alternative is to cut the mesh to the exact shape of the vent and fix it on the top inside edges of the vents.

Construction Tips

The suspension assembly shares a number of parts in common with Tamiya's recent Kubelwagen kit. Take care when fixing the wheels to the suspension arms. The original vehicle had a reputation for weak suspension, and Tamiya's careful duplication means that the link between the suspension arms and the wheels is quite delicate. I recommend using Cyano glue (Super Glue) to get a quick, strong bond between the suspension arms and the wheels. I will probably also use Super Glue to fix the rear suspension trailing arms (parts B46 and B47) to the lower body.

Care will also be required when separating the acetate windscreen from its surrounding sheet. As with the Kubelwagen kit, the acetate windscreen is commendable for its scale-thickness and clarity. Unlike the Kubelwagen, Tamiya have recessed the join so that the windscreen has one "tab" on each edge. This has eliminated the problem of stress marks that were present on the edges of the Kubelwagen windscreen. The instructions recommend using scissors to cut these tabs, but I will be using a brand new knife blade to avoid creasing or otherwise damaging the flexible acetate.

Conclusion

This little kit is another masterpiece by Tamiya. It will build into a lovely model right out of the box, and is by far the best Schwimmwagen model offered in any scale. It would have been nice to get the option of wide tyres, but the eager after-market resin industry will certainly address that minor shortcoming soon. With a small amount of extra effort a perfect Schwimmwagen replica is now within the reach of most modellers.

Highly Recommended.