MiniArt Tempo A400 Lieferwagen 3-Wheel Delivery Van (35382) 1:35

[Mike]

Tempo A400 Lieferwagen 3-Wheel Delivery Van (35382)

1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

The A400 Lieferwagen was another of Hitler’s standard vehicles that is perhaps lesser known than the Beetle.  It was produced by company Tempowerk Vidal & Sohn from 1938, and was joined by an identical Standard E-1 that was manufactured in another factory.  It was one of the few factories that were permitted to carry on making civilian vehicles, although this permit was eventually withdrawn as the state of the war deteriorated for Germany.  The wagon was a little unstable in the corners due to its single front wheel, and it had a front-mounted engine that probably made matters worse, with a chain drive from the motor to the wheel.  The two-stroke 400cc engine in the A output 12 hp that gave it sluggish performance to say the least, which was probably just as well due to that front wheel.

 

The driver was situated behind the front wheel, with a pair of side doors for entry and exit, and a single-panel windscreen that overlooked the short, tapered bonnet/hood.  The load area was to the rear of the vehicle, with two doors at the back to keep the contents safe, and with a number of rear bodyshell designs available.  The covered van was common, although flatbeds and other designs were available.

 

 

The Kit

This is a brand-new kit from MiniArt, and will be joined by other variants, one of which we already have in for later review that is the post-war E400 with twin grilles and a flatbed rear.  This unusual little vehicle arrives in a small top-opening box, and inside are seven sprues of varying sizes in grey styrene, a sprue of clear parts, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) in a card envelope, a small decal sheet and the instruction booklet on glossy paper with colour profiles on the front and rear pages.  It’s a full-body model, so you’ll get to build all the internal parts and during the process possibly learn a little about how it works.  Detail is as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt, with a lot of it and what there is well-finessed.  Considered use of slide-moulding also improves the detail without increasing the part count, and makes parts like the forward cowling a feast for the eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

construction begins with the small cab floor, which has a planked texture engraved on its surface, and is fitted out with foot pedals, a hand-brake lever and narrow transmission tunnel, plus a battery attached to the floor on the left.  The front bulkhead has a clear rounded windscreen popped in, a short steering column and a droopy lever, with the windscreen wiper motor cover added to the top of the screen frame, and two bunny-ear indicators that are lopped off the sides of the screen as they relate to other models.  This is attached to the front of the floor with a pot for the washers and the conversion stub of the steering column, with a pair of PE wiper blades added in a boxed diagram later.  The padded bench seat for the crew is slotted into the floor, and the back is attached to the rear bulkhead for later joining to the floor, and you’ll need to find some 0.3mm wire 24.6mm long to represent the linkage to the floor-mounted brake lever and the back of the cockpit.  The steering wheel and rear bulkhead are glued in, then the twin rear doors with their opener linkage are made up with the two crew doors next, having clear side windows plus winders and handles that are quite delicate for realism. 

 

The sidewalls of the load compartment are fitted out with a set of external arches and the rear chassis is built around a cylindrical centreline part with the back axle and its triangular bearers slipping over it and having hubs with brake discs added at each end.  A sturdy V-shaped brace is added between the ends of the axle and the other end of the cylindrical chassis rail, with a large joint between them.  The rear wheels are made from a main part that includes the tyres and back of the hub, with a choice of two inserts slipped inside to represent two different hub cap styles, that are then fitted onto the axles on short pegs, with a brake-line made from some more of your own 0.3mm wire and suspended from the frame on PE brackets that are folded over the wire and are closed up then glued to the frame with an etched-in rivet giving the impression that it is attached firmly to the chassis.  The load bed is a single part with more planking engraved into the surface, with a rear bumper rail, clear lights and a PE numberplate frame added before it is glued to the back of the cab.  The sidewalls are mounted and joined by the roof, the rear doors are installed at whatever angle you like, then finally the crew doors, which hinge rearward in the manner sometimes referred to as suicide doors.

 

 

 

The little engine is one of the last assemblies, and is superbly detailed with a lot of parts representing the diminutive 400cc two-stroke motor and its ancillaries, including horizontally mounted radiator, fuel tank, exhaust with silencer and chain-drive cover that leads to the front axle.  The completed assembly comprises the motor, axle and the fork that attaches to the front of the cab and is wired in using three more lengths of 0.3mm wire from your own stocks, which the instructions advise you makes you an “experienced modeller”.  An easy way to earn that badge!  After the rear axle and chassis tube have been fitted under the load bed, the slide-moulded cowling for the engine is fitted-out with a choice of two fine PE radiator meshes, an internal deflector panel, PE numberplate, a pair of PE clasps on the lower rear edge of the bonnet, and a tiny hook on the top in between two rows of louvers.  The cowling can be fixed in the closed position, or depicted open, when the little hook latches onto a clip on the roof’s drip-rail, holding it up past vertical against the windscreen.  A couple of headlamps with clear lenses are fitted on the sides of the cowling and a solitary wing mirror on an angled arm is glued to a hole in the front of the bulkhead on the left side, with a PE bracket giving the appearance of that being what holds it in place.

 

 

Markings

There are five decal options from the sheet, all painted in a solid colour and decorated with the markings of the job it is tasked with.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• Deutsche Reichspost, Germany, 1938-45
• Ordnungspolizei, Germany, 1938-45
• Deutsche Reichsbahn, Germany, 1938-45
• Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Germany, 1943-45
• Deutes Rotes Kreuz, Germany 1943-45

 

 

 

Decals are by DecoGraph, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

It’s weird, so I already like it, but MiniArt have also done a great job with making an easy to build, well-detailed kit of this quirky little German grandfather to the Robin Reliant.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

[Pete in Lincs]

What's the German for-Get in the van, Rodney!

[Julien]

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

What's the German for-Get in the van, Rodney!

Steigen Sie in den Lieferwagen Rodney

[Mike]

4 hours ago, Julien said:

Steigen Sie in den Lieferwagen Rodney

Admit it. You used Google.  

[Pete in Lincs]

Plonker!

[Jochen Barett]

I'd go with "Steig' ins Auto Rodney!", and I still remember seeing the threewheelers on the street "in my early days" (the grocery man around the corner had one).

 

["Steigen Sie in den Lieferwagen, Rodney!" is a mash up of using "Sie" ("you" conected to Herr ... using the last name) but adressing Rodney informally "du" but the "du" ("you" connected to the first name) is omitted in the imperative. To make things funnier, in certain areas it is common to do this wrong, so an "uneducated cleaning lady" might call her co-worker "Du Frau Meier" and especially in the area where the Tempo was built, a "hanseatic" boss may upon call his younger employee "Rodney können Sie bitte ..." https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Sie ]

 

Anyway, this is a good opportunity to emphasize that wikipedia comes in more than one language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_(company) and sometimes it pays to check other language entries just for the pictures and maybe have a go with google translate

 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidal_%26_Sohn_Tempo-Werk

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Motors

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Skarbovskis

 

and it is time to elaborate on Vidal (not Sassoon and not Arturo!)

https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/germany-a4-v2-vidalwagen.html