1/48 Kübelwagen - 4 Hour Build

Carlos Cisneros
Southern California AMPS has had a tradition of a yearly "4 Hour Build" at our monthly meetings for the past few years. It was normally done where we meet, where you bring a kit and all the supplies and materials needed to complete a kit in four hours. Kit choice is obviously critical. As is the color scheme. I had never done one previously because these were usually held on the meetings I could not attend due to work schedule. This year because of the COVID situation, it was done online via Zoom meeting, so we all had our own full benches with all of our materials. Gentlemen, start your engines...

So for my kit choice, I selected the Africa Luftwaffe boxing of Tamiya 1/48 Kübelwagen. Which turned out to be an almost ideal choice. Single color paint scheme, easy assembly, well engineered. The only drawback? A few teeny tiny parts, which thankfully did not get lost

So anyways, I did not do any in progress photos during the build. As it was, I completed this with basic painting and decals in about 3 hours and 40 minutes... no washes or weathering... I will actually add that this week, just because I want the model to have that. I also did not build or paint the two kit figures... yet... but I will!

So this is what I was able to do in four hours... actually 3:40...

I have not built, painted, and applied decals to a model in an afternoon in probably over 40 years. The sand yellow is Gunze, Khaki seats and headlight covers Vallejo, roof canvas Testors Acryl, and tires are Mission Models.
Not my best work, but hey, it was done in under the four hour timeline...

Stay tuned here for the final updates in a few days...

Carlos Cisneros
Two hours final weathering done. Total time spent on vehicle, approx. six hours.
Four hours for build and basic paint. Two hours spent on wash and pigments work in weathering session.

Patrick Hagelstein
Cool! I'm currently held up with some Hobby Boss Easy Assembly kits in between my 'real' projects and got mired in sanding and rescribing panel lines until I thought: 'Screw this! It's an Easy Assembly kit! Paint the darn thing!' So, I did! (Pictures will follow...) It is soooo rewarding to finish 'a' model! 🙂 A modeling friend mentioned that those are the first two models I would actually finish within a month. Not exactly four hours, but I get the feeling you might have. 🙂

Carlos Cisneros
Yes, it's great to finish something! Don't overthink it, don't get bogged down in corrections, details, etc. just build for the sake of finishing as best you can as it is. I look forward to seeing your easy assembly build Patrick