A while back I purchased this kit in Belgium because I like big scale and it was affordable, due to not building military I soon sold it again. Ever since I kept looking for a decent priced one and not that long ago, I was able to find one for a good price.
I got it by mail and soon came the ideas, I did searched online for some reference material, but there are basically no Kubel hotrods, there is one, but it basically a Kübel without it’s fenders. I wanted it a bit more radical, so I had to think something on my own.
I closely looked at the traditional American hotrods and discovered that my Kübel had is needing a major modification on the body, it needed to be shorter, lower and more pronounced.
I started with putting the body pieces together on a modelshow and when home, did some doodling to find a style I liked. Soon the idea’s popped in my head and it was time to get the multitool and saw it into pieces.
This is the box, it is released by Revell, but it is an older Esci kit
A few views of the original body, just to give an idea of what it should look originally
Note the tape on the sides, that will be my reference marks to cut it.
And everything went into pieces after cutting it up, it is a multipiece body and meant to put together throughout the whole build, but I needed it to be a complete assembled body
A little leap in time, in the meanwhile I got some wheels from Mspeanut (Thanks!) and got working on putting everything somewhat together. Because I shortened the body, it meant the wheelbase got shorter as well, which is not favourable for a hotrod. So I decided to keep the original floorpan and wheelbase and work my way from there. In this picture the body is as I put it together from the loose pieces and the I assembled quickly the front and rear axle for working on the body
A small hint of what it is going to be
I think I keep the original front wheel on the front, it is a important design feature of the Kübel and since there is no engine in the front, I need to keep it entertaining with something.
I drew some lines of the floorpan, that needs to be cut in order to fit the body to the floorpan
When the body fits, I made some new bodypanels with white styrene, and it starts to give shape to the body. It does look weird at the moment, but I hope it will work out.
Different view
Even tough I measure everything a couple times, for some reason it looks odd and warped.
Eventually the left doorpillar was 2mm longer than the other side and I must have messed up something somewhere.
I changed the ‘hood’ of the car and made it fit, it now gives a bit better look to the hotrod
At this stage, I lowered the left doorpillar and narrowed the top doorpillar frame, it gives a bit sleeker appearance.
One of the things I wanted to do, is to convert the Kübel from 5 to 3 doors. I placed them in the new hole, taped them together and cut them at the same line, that way, one can be sure they fit easily to eachother
For some reason, it still looks warped, but I think there is actually a warp in the floorpan. All the measurements are correct.
And finally a bit more detailled look of the Kubelrod, this gives quite a good impression of what the car may look like. I need to lower the doors and I think I need to give the car a wider rear axle, but other than that, I think I got the base covered.
I am able to work a little bit on the Kubelrod in the spare moments, progress is slow, but at least there is some progress.
Basically because of the warping of the body I decided to put a cross-brace in the rod, giving the body some strength, but also adds to the looks. I put the original seats together and I think I am going to stick with them, although I might going to lower them a little bit, or tweak them into a bench seat.
I also added the floorsills, giving the body some hard-needed strength at the mid-body joint. I will let the glue do it’s work overnight and work on it in the weekend again. Even though it doesn’t look a lot just yet, I think the modifications to the body are close to be done and soon will be able to start doing the prep work and getting the body ready for it’s (intricate) paintjob. I am still in doubt of whether of making all the panels smooth, but something tells me I should keep with the original panels.
And whilst I am waiting for parts to cure, I work on some small parts that needs to be glued together, gives me something to do.
A tiny update, I’ve been doing a lot of work to it, but it basically doesn’t show. Today I laid a coat of primer on the body, to see how bad the seemlines are and I keep having problems with it. I put back some bondo on it again and I guess I got my work cut out for the weekend.
Another tiny update; I started to work on the engine in between the glue and bondo drying times. When browsing through the manual and the parts, I discoverd the Kubel had one tiny carburettor and didn’t look all that beefy. Time to dig through the partsboxes and after some thinking and digging, I came up with a carburettor set up of a 1/12 Chevy Bel Air, luckily I have several of these kits, so 2 more carburettors were quite quickly cut out the other Chevy’s boxes.
I believe this set up doesn’t mismatch the engine and with a nice aircleaner on top, I guess it will fit right in the theme and it sure does will look a whole lot better than the stock part. I already did discover that the airbox on top of the engine needs to be seriously lowered, after the sectioning, it doesn’t fit no more
Some pictures to give a rough idea:
Finally! The part of modelbuilding that excites me most has come, painting! All those uniform colored parts come to life and when being put together, creation is starting
Again, it is only a small update, only a few pieces of the engine got put together, but it is a start.
i’ve not been posting so quickly new updates for a long time, I think I am back to building again after a long time of absence, finally recovery
The body work is I believe in it’s final stage, I need to work on the ribs on the side and then it should be ready for primer. After that, fixing the doors and I can start working on the paintjob.
And some work got done on the engine, still basic work, but when I am happy, I can work on the detailling of the engine.
I have been working on and off with the body, it is my main-focus and it is a lame job to do, but it has to be done. I got some templates coming in from the USA for the artwork (I am calling that, since it can not be called a paintjob when finished) and I am down to the last little details for finishing the body. When the body is finished, I need to do the doors and I can start with the artwork soon after.
This is how the body looks, shot in a good coat of primer:
And after some investigation, I found a couple of problem area’s, but was pleasantly suprised by the small amount of them.
Ok, so yes, I am still alive, yes, I still am busy, yes, I still model some and yes, I can give you an update finally.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on the body, I think all the major bodywork is now done, all though I’ve seen a few areas that might need a little attention. But, since there is going to be a intricate paintjob, some flaws will be camouflaged and I can get away with it. Just don’t tell anybody!
Since 2 weeks, I shifted from the body to the doors, they have to be custom made and made them from the original doors, it took me some time to get the right sizes and now I am working on the mechanical bits before I can work on getting it paint ready.
I want to use an actual doorcrank, that is operatable. I think I have a setup and now working on getting it to work properly. It is more complicated than I thought, but I find it interesting. It is a new part of modelling for me.
This evening, I worked on hinging the doors. I had in mind to hinge them the regular way, with wire. But thought it would look so out of place in this scale and went browsing through my parts. Finally found some small boathinges that look awesome and are perfect for this model.
The door taped in place and the hinges layed out for final placement
The hinges placed onto the body and secured with screws for a hotrod look.
Go suicide!
Some rough work on the door latch
And in place with the door shut
Boy, do I make small tiny steps with this project. In the time I can build/finish a 1/24 engine, I can hardly make some modifications to the lock. I am seriously doubting whether I can even finish this project before the end of the year. I think I need a good month to finish up the doors and get it ready for paint.
In my quest to find a good way of making the doorhandles, I was browsing through the manual and found them: the original handles! But they were a bit too big and I shortened them a little bit. Using the kit handles, does require me to change the whole doorlock setup again, but I think it is worth it.
I made some doorpanels, not yet finished though
Added a bracket with adjustment holes for the spring, that will pull the handle back in position
From a different angle:
Because I had glued some parts that needed serious drying time in order to put strain on them, I started with the paintjob on the floorpan.
Be aware; this is a sneakpeak! the paintjob on the body will be different, but hint on this. The paintjob on this project will be very comprehensive, it will not be limited to just the outside of the body, but will go way further than that. Since most area’s are visible, the paintjob will continue throughout the whole car.
OK, so long time errr….. not a lot done,
But I bring you a new update, I have been able to do some work on the body and finally got it good enough for the paintjob, which will be a huge turnkey in this build.
First, I got the wheels done:
And the body in it’s second painting stage; after primer it is now Desert Sand Yellow
For the contrast, in this picture it is shown how different the Kubelrod is from the Kübelwagen
Step 3: Adding some brown skidmarks
Step 4: Adding some green ones
The sparewheel finished, I painted the letters blueish white, just like a brandnew tire
Step 5: putting on some masking tape
Step 6: Going back to black
Step 7: Adding some skulls
Today was the make or break day, I had to take the last steps towards the paintjob and it involved the trueflames artwork, that is always tricky and I think it came out ok.
This is the scariest moment; the tape comes of…Will I take paint with the tape, will the paint look ok, how did it work out?
I think it worked out ok, it does blend and it could’ve been better, but I like it for this build; nice and wild.
Thanks guys!
The body has now been clearcoated twice and needs to be polished. I hope to get that done next week, nice little job to do, glad it isn’t huge body (<—Sarcasm)
I think it came out ok, it is not the finish I wanted, but I think it is not irrepairable and will be decent after polishing. In the meanhwile, I got most parts finished and painted, so I could start working on assembly a bit more.
I tried to create a cloth-like upholstery for the seats, instead of giving it brand new seats, I kept it with the original seats and with upholstery, rather than the stated rubbery-like material from the kit.
The engine got some more parts, I wired the sparks and added the fanbelt. I need to Alclad a couple of parts, and then heading for a final assembly and wiring of the engine.
I clearcoated the floorpan, so I could also work on the suspension
I really like how this skull came to live with the frontsuspension on his head
The back suspension is a very weak link of this kit, very fragile and with a lot of tolerances, I seriously hope it will hold the car on it’s feet when ready.
The finished backseat in the body, I really like the look of it. It almost looks like some sort of Alcantara.
And two early mock-up pictures of how the car sits at the moment, it starts to look promising and it really comes together now.
After a week of polishing, 2 hours per evening, I finally got the body in a decent way. So, that means that it is on to final assembly and detailling at last.
I started with giving the doors a nice look to it with flocking.
What you didn’t knew, was a suprise inside the doors. before adding the doorpanels, I airbrushed the inside of the doors with some more skulls, but tucked away
And work on the engine continued;
I added chromed valvecovers
Replaced the molded in throttle bars and added throttle return springs
And finally some preview pictures, needless to say that it sits too high as it is.
Most likely the final update, I hope to get’r done tomorrow or friday, just in time for the Nationals on saturday.
Work has been mostly limited to detailling and fixing weak fitments, the car has some issues with a weak construction, which appeared after installing all the wheels. The car couldn’t sit on it’s own axles.
I added some air filters on the carbs.
Using mesh that I formed over a round object,
Giving it a realistic appearance.
The front end got a horizontal bar for installing the headlights on, to prevent the Kubelrod would have that typical volksrod appearance.
And while playing with some left over parts, I had a fun idea. In the spirit of the Moon gastanks on the front axle with some hotrods, I am using the jerrycan as a gastank for the Kübel
The decal for the speedometer is a bit weird, it is pointing to 100km/h, which is a bit unrealistic, giving it is on display.
I installed exhausts on the back end and taillights.
This will be the new pointer for the speedometer.
Which looks a whole lot better.
I installed the windshield
And the headlights.